Title: Seeing the Light: A Novel
Author: June Chen
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1440184267
Pages: 156, Paperback & Hardcover
Genre: Fiction
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
June Chen’s debut novel, Seeing the Light: A Novel takes you on a lifetime of events of a selfish and self-centered girl awakening to the meaning of life. The storyline unfolds similar to a soap opera, whereas a succession of events occurs to Rhea, the only daughter of a farming family with three brothers. Her dad nicknamed her Princess, a bit sarcastic because of her lack of feminine vanity. The family moved from the mid-west to the Central Coast of California to raise cattle just east of San Luis Obispo. The story begins in California when Rhea was a young girl, and follows her into maturity and eventually her Seeing the Light.June Chen writes in a way of conveying her story without overly embellishing descriptions, nor filling in details unrelated to the story. She is not pretentious with her choice of words, wanting the book to be easily understood for its meaning by everyone – mostly by young adults. It is a brisk read, and filled with many lessons learned affording the reader quality time and is an enjoyable book.
She tells a story of an ordinary family having some extraordinary experiences. Rhea is an observer to some bizarre behavior of local farm workers, wanders, and hitchhikers. She holds steadfast with her zero tolerance for alcohol and drug use while seeing others fail at the challenge. She finds love in the aftermath of an event by a person coincidently placed in her life that wouldn’t have been there if it weren’t for an unfortunate incident. Not to expose the plot, Rhea comes to her life changing reality with the sobering circumstances of a tragedy which is no doubt the worst kind imaginable.
June Chen takes Rhea’s tragedy and begins a journey into a dream sequence. Rhea’s dream recurs and the characters within the dream play out. In a montage of religious beliefs, spiritual encounters, demonic characters and self actualizations, she masterfully shows the reader just how Rhea’s thoughts had altered her personality so dramatically. In essence, June Chen explains how the core of her character changed thus bringing the superficial behavioral difference to the surface. From originally thinking that generosity and charity as shown by her parents were a form of weakness of character, she matured to having humility and kindness in a way which seemed disgusting to her in her youth. This is a significant accomplishment of June Chen’s writing technique, one that can be understood and assimilated by maturing adults.
What takes a lifetime and a horrific experience in Rhea’s life can be learned by others in a few hours by picking up and reading Seeing the Light.
