Review: The Light Years

The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An absorbing family saga. Howard's skill is to have numerous characters and make you care about all of them. Though, I could have done without a fourth set of cousins being introduced in the second part. While they were all individually interesting, they meant I started to lose track of who was who - I did have to keep flipping back to the family tree at the start of the book to remind myself who was a sibling, who was a cousin, and how old they they were.

However, there is a disturbing incident that happens early on in the secondary part. While Howard clearly indicates this incident is wrong, she doesn't mention it again. An underlying theme of the book is the sacrifices and compromises we make for our families. But this particular incident shouldn't be seen as something that someone has to put up with for the sake of familial harmony. Therefore, I was concerned that it wasn't addressed further. (In fairness to Howard, she may deal with it later in the series.)

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