Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024--San Antonio

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry was an exciting book to read.  It deals with so many topics--conservative religion vs. science, unrequited love, what makes a worthwhile life, the difficulties of women to be recognized for their accomplishments, righting wrongs from the past, being able to both hate and love the same person, researching to resolve a mystery, living two lives at one time, whether ghosts from the past are really ghosts or just tricks of the dwelling mind, etc.   It's the unrequited love stories that make this a heartbreaker.  It's the slow discovery of clues to a mystery from the past that make it hopeful.  It's the affects of conservative religion on people's lives that make it heartrending.  It's all of those together that make it exciting from beginning to end.  Longlisted for the Booker Prize, it is well written with a number of interesting characters including the following:  Nathan,  who is the son of a deceased pastor of the Baptist church, who continues to attend services although he questions the teachings, who writes a regular column for the local newspaper, and who escapes the village (and the church) for multiple days at a time in London to live more freely.  Grace, who has become essentially the voluntarily adopted god daughter of Thomas, who falls in love with a young man early in her life and can never get past the relationship not continuing, and who has rebellious tendencies against the teachings of the church while not being able to avoid condemning others for their religious transgressions.  The ghost from the 1800s, who was a  Bulgarian woman with a great scientific mind, who was in an unhappy marriage to the owner of the local manor house, and who hid various clues to in the house and on the grounds of the estate that reveal her story.  There were a few times I became confused and had to backtrack to determine who was "talking" or what was really happening, but overall I give the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.