We Are the Light
BY Matthew Quick
In We Are the Light, Mark and Tony invite Jill an Lucas over to their house for dinner. Since Jill is always taking care of people through her cooking, they surprise her by hiring a private chef for the evening. Jill eagerly chats with the chef all night as she prepares a dinner of watermelon gazpacho, a squash salad, and cornbread-crusted catfish. Enjoy the delicious main course by trying The Seasoned Mom’s southern cornmeal-crusted catfish recipe, found by clicking on this link.
“The best part of my soul loves the best part of your soul.”
Matthew Quick, We Are the Light
Unfortunately, the United States has faced many tragic mass shootings in recent history. Each time one of these incidents occurs, there is a predictable result: Newscasters rush to mine as much information as possible on the mass shooter, and the general public immediately retreats to their political sides to gear up for a fight. At the end of the day, there is rarely public policy that is passed, and we leave the victims’ families to suffer in silence.
Matthew Quick’s new book, We Are the Light, addresses the aftermath of a small town hit by a mass shooting. It not only explores the pain and healing that goes on in the community, but it also addresses the magnitude of the feelings that must occur within the mass shooter’s family. How do you mourn a family member whom you are not allowed to mourn? Is their death any less painful just because they took part in a detestable action? How should the community treat the family of the perpetrator, and do they have a responsibility toward that family as well? By tackling these uncomfortable aspects of mass shootings, Quick writes a beautiful book about the power of love and forgiveness.
The book is a series of letters from Lucas Goodgame to his psychoanalyst, Karl. Karl has cut off all contact with Lucas after a mass shooter killed 17 people at the Majestic Theater in town. Karl’s and Lucas’s wives both died in the shooting. In its aftermath, Lucas develops an obsession with Karl. He tries to see him face-to-face, and when that doesn’t work, he begins writing to Karl. In these letters, Lucas claims that he saw all 17 victims become angels. All of them flew up to Heaven except for his wife, Darcy, who comes to visit him each night. Darcy encourages Lucas to continue writing to Karl because she thinks it will help them both.
Meanwhile, Darcy’s best friend, Jill, moves in with Lucas after the attack. She runs a local cafe, and she was fiercely loyal to her best friend when she was alive. Jill comforts and cares for Lucas throughout the book, but she is also harboring unrequited feelings for him at the same time. Despite his rejections, Jill never once leaves Lucas’s side, echoing the loyalty that she once showed toward Darcy.
One night, Jill and Lucas look outside and find a tent erected in their backyard. Inside is a boy named Eli, whom Lucas was counseling at Majestic High before the attack. Eli is the brother of the mass shooter, Jacob. Both boys were abused by their mother during childhood, but Eli looked up to his big brother even as warning signs started to show. In the aftermath of the shooting, Eli’s world has been turned upside down. He lost the brother he deeply loved, and he’s not able to mourn for him because of the terrible thing Jacob did. Additionally, Eli can’t go anywhere in town without feeling judgment and scorn leveled against him. Eli may be innocent, but he is treated like he is guilty by association. As a result of this, Eli recently dropped out of high school. Without a place to go or anybody to turn to, this lost boy turns to Lucas, whom the town credits for stopping Jacob before he could hurt any more people.
Unlike the rest of the town, Lucas can see the unfair position in which Eli has been placed– he’s an innocent kid who misses his brother. Lucas decides he wants to help him. Lucas’ best friend and boss is a man by the name of Isaiah, who happens to be the principal of the high school. Isaiah agrees to let Eli graduate if he completes a senior project. Eli and Lucas decide they are going to make a monster movie that serves as an allegory about the shooting. They create a feathered beast and entitle their project, The Majestic Prince of Monsters. In it, no character is good or bad, and the monster has a father figure to guide him.
In addition to making the movie, Lucas and Eli want to help the town heal from the shooting. They convince all of the survivors except for one to act in the movie. Then, the owners of the Majestic Theater jump into the project, bringing real Hollywood experience and fundraising knowledge that will help them earn enough money to complete the project. As filming proceeds, Eli and the town begin healing and growing, but Lucas’s mental health starts deteriorating. Can the movie save Lucas, too?
This is a beautiful book about communal healing after a tragedy. While each character started off the book trying to deal with the Majestic Theater incident individually, they did not find true healing until they were able to come together and mourn their losses as one. They decided as a group to move forward, ultimately rejecting the pull to let hate drive their lives anymore. Hate might have taken away their loved ones, but the town of Majestic was not going to let it dictate their future.
Even more important, however, is Quick’s message about the lifesaving power of loyalty. Everyone goes through a time in their lives when they are drowning, and their circumstances might make it easier to abandon them than to help them. Maybe they are experiencing struggles with their mental health. Maybe they are in the throes of addiction. Maybe their surrounding community has decided they are unworthy of love and have thrown them to the side. Whatever their (or our) circumstances may be, we all need that one friend that is willing to stick by our side through thick or thin until we are ready to emerge out of the darkness. For Eli, this person was Lucas. For Lucas, it was Jill. We all need a Lucas or a Jill, and we all need to be a Lucas or a Jill. Without them, we abandon the person to the abyss, where they may reemerge full of anger like Jacob, or they never reemerge at all.
Regardless of who they are, let the best part of your soul love the best part of someone else’s soul. It’s time we lift each other out of our individual abysses.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Rating System Explained 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: This was an amazing book, and I can't stop thinking about it. It impacted me emotionally or changed my perspective. My thoughts keep flickering back to it at random times throughout the day. I will absolutely recommend it to my friends or to one of my book clubs. 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: This was a really good book. Parts of it stuck with me, and I might mention it in a conversation. There is a high likelihood that I will recommend it to my friends or to one of my book clubs. 3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️: I liked this book. It allowed me to escape from reality for a while. While I might tell somebody about it if I think it will interest them, I will probably not suggest it to one of my book clubs. 2 Stars ⭐️⭐️: There's something about this book that I didn't like. I wasn't willing to go all the way down to a one-star rating, but I'm definitely not digging it. I may recognize that this book is not for me, but it might be for other people. I will not recommend it to my friends or one of my book clubs. 1 Star ⭐️: My rarest rating. I really didn't like this book. Something in the story line upset me, and I probably "hate-read" the majority of the book. Not only will I not recommend it, but I will actively tell people that I did not like it.
Baking Through Book Club 