First Light by Charles Baxter

Release date: 1987 / 286 pages

Synopsis (from front cover): “Dorsey Welsh, an astrophysicist, has traveled a far and troubled distance from her older brother, Hugh, a Buick salesman still living in their Michigan hometown. Coming back to Five Oaks for a Fourth of July family gathering, Dorsey arrives as a survivor, bringing with her the deaf son and antic husband who have made her happy. Hugh, with a long habit of worrying about his sister, is just realizing that it’s his own life he’s got to cure, not Dorsey’s.”

First line: On the Fourth of July, Hugh agrees to drive out to Mrs. LaMonte’s house to get “the explosives,” as he likes to call them.

Review:  This novel has been on my TBR list for months and I could not remember why or where I had heard about it!  So, I read the first page without any expectations and found myself quickly moving backward through time.  The story itself is unremarkable, mostly – the story of two siblings navigating their lives.  But the manner in which the story is told is anything but ordinary.

Baxter begins in the “present” – with a family 4^th of July get-together – and then with each section moves backward in time.  Most of the sections begin at a certain point in time – say, graduation from high school – and then move forward chronologically to the end of the section.  But the last third moves backward chapter-by-chapter to the birth of the younger sibling.  What was truly remarkable was that by the end (which is the beginning of their lives), the “present” time (which was the beginning of the novel) was completely believable and appropriate.  Not that any huge mystery or tragedy marks or defines the present.  Not in the least.  In fact, the present is quite unremarkable for the most part.  But watching the events unfold — to the present was interesting. 

Baxter has written numerous collections of short stories, which may be why his narrative invention works so well.  I can imagine each section – even each chapter – as a story contained within a greater narrative – and so the effect is never disorienting.  In addition, Baxter is excellent at building a character subtly and is able to deftly change between the perspective of the sister and the brother seamlessly.  I noticed his prose, too – the setting is palpable – Michigan mostly, with stints in California and Buffalo – and he recreated my home state very believably.  Regarding the characters – I didn’t LOVE either, but grew to care about them as I progressed through time – enough to want a sneak peek into the future, but was not left unsatisfied at the end. 

He tackles many subjects in the novel as well – sibling and family relationships, marriage, physics in all its glory and frightening political ramifications, place, time, mortality, disappointment, obsession, etc., but each was integrated into the course of their lives – as with our own lives.  All in all, a very satisfying read that is original in its execution.

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