Genre: Book
Grade: A
Notable People: Louise Penny
Title: “How the Light
Gets In”
Review:
“Ring
the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect suffering.
There is a crack in
everything
That’s how the light gets
in.”
This, the ninth, in Penny’s fabled Gamache series, is based on the beautiful Leonard Cohen lyric, from “How the Light Gets In”, and follows it throughout this wonderful story. So, yes, Gamache is the Chief Inspector of the Surete Homicide Diviison of Quebec, and these are, on first glance, murder mysteries- but make no mistake, Penny is a brilliant writer, and these are fine works of literature. This one’s full of intensity in Penny’s mystical muse town of Three Pines and in Montreal, in which the proceeding 4-5 books come to a final conclusion, as Gamache and the forces of good, take on the highest powers of Quebec and their greed and powers attempt to annihilate much of the Provence and cause a final act of French separatism from Canada. As always, it’s a journey into all things Quebecois- culture, food, history and myth-as well as an insightful exploration of the mind and the heart. Part of the story is also based on the famous Dionne Quintuplets, born in 1934, who had, and still have, as much mystique for Canadians as The Queen. These books are just too good to be true.
