A raw, unflinching literary debut for fans of Dennis Lehane and Tom Franklin examining the aftershocks of survival, and the price of salvation. In the blue-collar town of Chittenango, New York, two young boys are abducted from a local festival and taken to a cabin in the woods. One is kept; one is killed. When they are next seen, ten-year-old Dean has escaped by swimming across Oneida Lake … across Oneida Lake holding his brother’s dead body.
As the years pass, the people of Chittenango struggle to cope with the collateral damage of this unspeakable act of violence, reverberations that disrupt the community and echo far beyond. With nothing holding it together, Dean’s family disintegrates under the twin weights of guilt and grief, and the unspoken acknowledgment that the wrong child survived. At the center of it all, Dean himself must find a place in a future that never should have been his.
In a sweeping narrative spanning decades and told from alternating points of view, Where the Sun Shines Out tells the story of a town and the inevitable trauma we inflict upon each other when we’re trying our best. Exploring the bonds, and breakdowns, of families, Kevin Catalano’s fearless debut reminds us that although the path to redemption is pockmarked, twisted, and often hidden from view, somehow the sun makes it through.
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I have never read anything like this before.
And quite honestly, I’m torn between loving it and being disturbed by it. Which is what I think makes this book so incredible–it didn’t just merely exist, it’s ingrained in my brain now. This isn’t a story I’m going to soon forget, I’ll tell you that. And that’s the whole reason I read books, isn’t it? To have an emotional reaction?
The other reviews aren’t lying to you: this book is incredibly dark from start to finish. From the first chapter you have one child murdered, another sexually molested. You have the brother who survived carry his dead little brother’s body across a lake–and never come out the same ever again. In fact, the entire town doesn’t come up the same when little Dean comes out from the other side of the lake holding Jason’s body.
This book is about broken families, broken communities, and broken people. It’s the nitty gritty of life; it’s literally when the sun stops shining for some people. The author doesn’t shy away, doesn’t sugar coat anything, about the tragedy. You’re forced to see face-to-face what violence, suicide, drug addiction, and poor mental health looks like. Catalano does not let you turn away from the bad, he makes you face it head on.
And it’s disturbing. It’s disturbing to read about a little boy sexually abusing his mother to the point where she kills herself. It’s disturbing to see broken, lonely teenagers abusing and nearly killing an innocent dog. It’s disturbing to see drug addiction face to face.
But it does draw a reaction. And it does feel real. I have lived a fairly privileged life; nobody that I’ve been close to has ever died on me, I’ve never had to see drug addicts up close, I’ve never been dirt poor with nowhere to turn. And this book showed me another side of life. It’s easy with a life like mine to sit back and judge the addicts, the broken, the unsaveable, and a story like this slaps me in the face reminding me that the people suffering from these things are people, and they didn’t just turn like this for no reason.
This book is dark and twisted; but I think books like this are important. They’re important. Because life isn’t lollipops and gumdrops, and because we must learn to have empathy. We must understand that for some, the sun truly shines out.
The synopsis of this book reeled me in. Curious to know about the scenario of two abducted boys, but only one surviving the incident. After that was unveiled early in the book, the remainder of the book maintained a dark tone that went into the past and present lives of a multitude of characters. The entire book was dark and depressing, but the writing flowed and kept me absorbed.
Yep, a dark story indeed. Some of the storyline around the abduction seemed weird to me as well as how the victim would act out later on. But in fairness, I’m not educated on the effects of an abduction in the aftermath. Also sometimes the story would change in a direction that made me have to review previous parts of the book to pick up where the story was going. Overall I was drawn to read it and will check out future works by the author.
Not the kind of book I usually read, but the language is strong and the story quite compelling, however dark!
The author lost me at “She pulled her large, blue veined breast out”….
See my Amazon review.
I was extremely offended by much of the content in this book. Very disappointing since it did have a 5-star rating.
I thought I would really like this book when I first started. I cannot recommend this book. It is too twisted, disjointed, just plain weird! The writer went from one story line to another without reason.
This book will appeal to you if you enjoy reading about distinctional people, drug addiction, adolescent homosexuality, depression, suicide, alcoholism, sickness and despair, death, anger, hate, misfits, juvenile delinquency, depravity, kids who hate their parents and parents who hate their kids. It is a dark book. More appropriate title would be Where the Light Doesn’t Shine.
Fine if you like violence and dysfunctional people. I quit reading when the dog was killed.
Disturbing to read. Had to force myself to finish reading it. Characters were twisted and lived depressing lives. They seemed hopeless and trapped in miserable existences.
The storyline was all over the place which is fine but the ending was so open ended and I tend to not like books like that.