The first ones to grab and read this book will be David Duchovny's fans. If it is your first encounter with his written work, all you need to know is that this is his forth novel and each is unique. You don't need to read his previous work as each book transports you in a different place and adventure to two are similar. You won’t regret reading this exciting book as it’s a brilliant original story you will want to read in one go.

The book starts with the lyrics of U2 well-chosen lyrics for the opening (expecting this song on next concert's set list) as the story is mostly set in the desert among Joshua trees.
In the first chapters, we get to know Bronson Powers, his past as a stuntman, troubled life and change of lifestyle. Nowadays a lot of people would like to escape the modern world and find refuge in nature and spirituality. Bronson’s motive to study Mormon religion was to inherit a plot of land that lead to conversion in believes and obsession. We also get to know the other main character Maya. A young ambitious woman trying to distinguish herself from the all-boys club and show her boss what she is capable of – a womacho. Followed by an introduction to the extended family of 3 wives and 10 children and their small farm in the desert.

The first tree chapters may seem slow with typical David’s name-dropping and extensive dive in the Mormon religion, culture and detailed introduction of characters. To quote Elsie Bovary »You getting frustrated with all the preamble? The mood lighting? That's the problem with you crazy kids and the video games – no patience.«

After the lengthy introduction the story picks up in pace and becomes a page turner you can't quit.
Maya in her pursuit of affirmation and success disrupts the secluded Power’s family life with a wager forcing 3 kids to move to the city that ignites a dilemma what lifestyle is better the family life based on tradition and religion or the modern school system and fast paced life focused consumerism, hate and greed. It is interesting how the three children cope with technology, peers and family. Maya although the instigator and at times with questionable behavior shows moral dilemmas in the business world that is losing core human values.
You might identify with some characters and ponder how your life would change, how you would cope or not. The author fills the pages with surprising twists and soon you are faced with a breathtaking ending.

I would recommend this book but keep an open mind on religion, sex and life choices not everything is just black and white. You have to open your mind see the grey area, the cracks where the light gets in and hear a different story.

I personally loved the book, my name, my country. I hope it makes its way to the screen. Can’t wait for the next one.

This is the first of David Duchovny's books I've read but it definitely will not be the last. Although better known as an intuitive, charismatic actor, his bio proves that he is a renaissance man with talents that range from his acting gigs to music and here he proves himself a writer of originality. He has always been known for intellectual curiosity and prowess, having garnered his degrees at both Princeton and Yale with honors. He credits inspiration for this lengthy but totally involving novel to Prof. Harold Bloom and his study of Joseph Smith.

So here we have a former stuntman turned Mormon leader who lives with his wives and children in the desert near San Bernardino, completely off the grid and living the laws of the faith. Enter the outside world via Maya Abbadessa, a young Turk employee of a predatory real estate company, who crashes literally into their compound, stoned but observant. What happens unfolds through the eyes of multiple characters, all accurately developed and completely involving. Highly recommended.

Maya Abbadessa is trying to hold her own at Praetorian Capital, the Santa Monica company run by self-made billionaire Robert Malouf. While Malouf has holdings in many ventures, real estate is the primary asset. The workplace has been tough for Maya, the only woman among a frat-like brotherhood of thirty-somethings. She knows she has to score a huge listing to earn the respect of Malouf and her co-workers. The opportunity comes on a weekend where the employees travel to Joshua Tree to trip acid and spitball some interesting business ideas.
High as a kite, Maya drives out into the desert in a car she’s never been in before and stumbles upon the Powers family where she’s promptly shot with an arrow.

Bronson Powers was once a celebrated Hollywood stuntman but for the past twenty years he has lived deep in Joshua Tree on land that he inherited with his three wives and ten children, following Mormon teachings. The family has been successful at remaining oblivious to the modern world but their way of life is threatened when Maya finds them.
Aware of the astronomical value of the land, Maya strikes a deal with the Powers family. If they enroll three of their children in public school and Maya can prove they’re better off there than in the desert, Bronson will sell a plot of his land to Maya.

The three oldest children, already exceptionally bright, assimilate to the modern world with ease but not without complication as their way of life is put under the microscope and their views on religion, family, sex, and race are challenged in dangerous ways.

Truly Like Lightning is a complicated read. The plot required more suspension of disbelief than I care for and the points of view jump around often which means I never got to know anyone very well. I found it hard to believe these kids who have been sheltered from the world their entire lives transitioned so quickly into the real world. Not enough time was spent developing the character of Bronson Powers. Readers have insight into his past but his actions at the end of the book left me scratching my head because the climax felt like it came out of left field. The wives are given backstory but they felt more like props.
Despite all of that, I still felt compelled to keep reading! Duchovny is a gifted storyteller and his quirky sense of humor made this worth the read. Several characters are well crafted with authentic flaws and my feelings about each of them fluctuated with the story arc.

Thanks to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Truly Like Lightning is scheduled for release on February 2, 2021.

A great actor proves he is also a great author. i raved about his Miss Subway for the Boston Globe years ago, and this new book is just as original and wild.

I could not finish this book. Throughout I was asking myself "WTF did I just read?". I was asked to review this book and I agreed because it sounded interesting and the author's name seemed familiar. I later realized he's the guy from X-files, of which I was not a fan but that has no bearing here other than I will not simply give this a good review because I am/was a fan.

From the first chapter I thought of putting this down as it starts with Bronson, an ex-stuntman who found religion in the Mormon church, with his own slant, in order to inherit a huge plot of land outside of Joshua Tree (I am a fan of the park and admit that piece kept me reading in itself). It felt like a diatribe on religion, not being religious it didn't bother me other than it's not my thing and I could not tell where it was going. The second chapter we meet Maya a money-hungry capitalist who wants to steal Bronson's land away from him to create a huge real estate development. It wasn't until almost a quarter of the way through the book that I had any idea what the point was.

Duchovny has strung together numerous complaints about society from the Liberal's handbook. I too consider myself liberal but it was too much and felt more like reading Twitter with a tenuous storyline to connect all the comments. If you are a Trump fan, which I certainly am not, you will really hate this book. There are several anti-Trump rants in just the first half (I didn't read much past that) and I've seen Trump supporters give scathing reviews for novels that include even one line against him. But even for me it was too much especially when a character who has been living in the desert for years with no outside contact is forced back into society and learns about Trump and he is now one of the things that keeps her up at night. She watches YouTube videos of Obama and wishes she had been aware of him when he was president. Two months before she didn't even know what a smart phone was. This book will not age well. Even now that the election is over and I'm just waiting until Inauguration Day I don't want to read all this. The final straw for me was pages of a side story about the ills of immigration in this country. As someone that used to work in immigration law, Duchovny's take was all too simplified and one-sided and all the blame laid at the feet of Trump when there's been issues long before him, he was just the first president since the Japanese concentration camps to treat immigrants as inhuman.

All in all I think there is a good story buried in there somewhere if you stripped away most of the unnecessary political rants and put the effort into character development. They all just felt flat and cartoonish in their role to further Duchovny's agenda.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and #Netgalley publishing for allowing me to review this book.

Full disclosure: I’m an X-Files fan. That’s where I discovered David Duchovny & I’ve been a fan since circa 1994. As a fan of his acting, I was a bit skeptical when I heard he was publishing his first book, Holy Cow, in 2015. My initial reaction was *oh no David, what are you doing? You’re an actor, stay in your lane!* But that’s not really fair is it? Creatively gifted, artistic people can crossover successfully, right? And it’s not like David Duchovny the author came out of nowhere. He was close to getting his PhD from in English Literature from Yale when he left to pursue “the business of show.” So put aside any derision or skepticism you might feel when an actor does something different, forget Mulder and Moody, and read his books with an open mind.

Ok, that was my preface, now onto his 4th & latest novel: Truly Like Lightning. It’s the story of a plural marriage family led into the wilderness by Bronson Powers. I think there’s something universally appealing & romantic about living off the grid & sheltered from much of the world. I live in Ohio, and whenever I see an Amish person I think *maybe I should give the middle finger to this rat race and become Amish? Seems hard, yet simple and pure. Plus, I’ve always liked horses.* But in reality I know it’s not that simple to drop out of the modern world & live happily ever after. The Powers family soon discovers this, too. After meeting the Powers family, we meet Maya; young, educated, struggling to find her place working for a millionaire who shares a lot of characteristics with a certain real estate developer turned politician. David does a great job of painting a mental picture of her boss, Malouf, and if you’re a fan of Trump’s style of “leadership” you might not enjoy this aspect of the book. Maya stumbles upon the Powers family one night in the desert, sees an opportunity to advance her career, and sets in motion a chain of events that don’t end well for everyone.

If you’re a member of the LDS church, which I’m not, will you be offended by this book? Maybe. Plural marriage is controversial. It’s not exclusively a fringe Mormon practice, but Bronson’s unlikely conversion to Mormonism is where he gets the notion to marry three women. Bronson inherits the land from an LDS aunt on the condition he converts. He does, but then he immediately breaks away from the church to practice his version of the faith on his isolated land. His wives are not forced into plural marriage. David never passes moral judgment on the practice or pretends to be an expert on early Mormon beliefs. I wasn’t reading this story & thinking *huh, so that’s what Mormonism is like?* It’s fiction, but parts of the book had me stopping to read up Mormon history. Every religion has fringe groups that take off on strange tangents. To me, it’s just a fascinating story about one person’s religious fervor that affects everyone around him. I’d love to find a review from a member of the LDS who has read this book to get the opinion of someone who knows more about Mormon history. Bronson having multiple wives isn’t even the most shocking part of the story to me. There’s a small incident early in the book that might offend some, I had to read the section twice to make sure I’d really read what I just read.

Without giving away too much of the plot (maybe I have already?) the last section was my favorite. Part one introduces us to the respective worlds of Bronson & Maya, and tells us how their worlds collide. Part two, we get to know some of his family better, and how they each deal with their unexpected situation in different ways was interesting. The last act, part three, is very fast paced. I could almost see how it was going to end, but not exactly. There isn’t really a happy ending for anyone, but life isn’t a fairy tale & I found the afterward hopeful in spite of everything that transpired to get the characters where they are in the end.

This wasn’t my favorite plot of David’s four books, I loved Miss Subways for it’s combination of magic & realism because I gravitate towards fantasy, science fiction and horror writing. But that’s just my taste in stories. It’s undeniable that he’s grown as a writer with each novel. All his writing does a wonderful job conveying the complexity of human nature. Even Holy Cow, where the main characters are animals but they’re still relatable. People are not “good or evil,” we just are. What matters in Truly Like Lightning is how we emerge after going through the refining fires of life.

Branson Powers is the patriarch of a Mormon family in the middle of the desert. He rules the family as a circus strongman type, like Putin or Trump. Like Trump, he has an eccentric collection of wives and children.
One day, civilization arrives on his land by accident. The stage is set for a culture clash novel. Will Bronson's exceptionalism prevail over the greedy developers? Read this entertaining and picaresque story to find out.

Truly Like Lightning will gain a following if potential purchasers observe its pros and cons to determine whether this is their cup of tea.

Pros: A true insider's view of Hollywood types including stuntmen and behind-the-scenes catalysts. (The view of mankind appears to be tempered by that insider knowledge. Not surprising.) A clearly inquisitive and knowledgeable mind has gone to great lengths to not only research the Mormon faith but demonstrate how belief systems are, ahem, reinterpreted to fit an individual's desired existential experience. Moments of cerebral absorption for the reader, as might be expected from the pen of an inquisitive and knowledgeable mind.

Cons: The view of mankind may appear to be singularly jaundiced. For some readers, the lack of appealing characters may be daunting. I was interested in Bronson until I came to the moment in the book when his choice with his daughter, and the seeming acquiescence of all involved including the daughter, simply lost my interest. Subsequent reflection made me realize that the female characters, though delivered in a modern (almost politically correct) form, still serve the interests of the male protagonist. I could not find a character to like and that was it for me.

I'm not sure what I expected from this, since I earnestly chose to read this because I didn't know David Duchovny wrote novels. This was great! I definitely want to read more of his work.

Dave Duchovny has written another novel that drew me right in.A book that is layered with characters that come alive that enveloped me in their world their lives.Highly recommend.#netgalley#fsg

I requested this book based on plot alone — a true unicorn of a story. What I didn’t expect was to be blown over by the breadth and complexity Duchovny delivered.

Truly Like Lightening is as much a meaty digestive as a ready-for-film thriller. Duchovny’s characters are equally lovable and flawed. I was completely gripped by this work of moral confrontation and internal contemplation.

Proving once more than he has literary chops, David Duchovny weaves an intriguing story of place and people.

Lest we forget that Duchovny is a student of storytelling, the authors demonstrates this mastery with another layered story, populated with believable characters and enough conflict to keep the pages turning.

In TRULY LIKE LIGHTNING, by David Duchovny, we meet Bronson Powers, a former talented stuntman who has adopted the Mormon way of life, but with his own special take on the Mormon lifestyle. He adopts many of the Joseph Smith edicts on how to live (even some since abandoned by the Mormon church) including polygamy and moves his three wives and 10 kids out to the a large plot of land in the area of Joshua Tree in California. When an outsider stumbles upon their hidden existence, she sees dollar signs and quickly hatches a plan to acquire Powers' land. In the end, that plan will change the Powers family forever in ways no one involved could have ever predicted.
Duchovny creates quite a character in Bronson Powers. Bronson is charismatic, strong-willed, and resourceful, and the reader sees in the beginning of the book that he became who he is by identifying his faults and finding a lifestyle the helps him cope with himself and the world around him and he believes makes him a better person. All the people that are important to the book are well crafted as well, from Bronson's kids, to a strange and powerful real estate developer that is attempting to take the Powers' land, to Bronson's wives, who are fascinating individuals that the reader can't help but attach to and have sympathy for as much as any other person in the book. Duchovny creates a problem for the Powers family, and how the results unfold are logical and realistic, while at the same time excitingly unpredictable.
TRULY LIKE LIGHTNING will stay with you long after you finish reading and forces the reader to consider how society perceives bigotry, acceptance, tolerance, and how tightly people hold to their own belief system.

I will start off by saying this is Duchovny's best work yet. You might think I'm exaggerating just because I have been a fan of his written words for a while now, but the truth is that this book brought me so many different views, so much knowledge, so many feelings, that it is really hard to translate it all into just a few sentences.
Not being an American myself, I was afraid that the cultural differences would weigh heavily on my reading, but that was not the case. If anything, it was like a huge history lesson on things I did not know and also a lesson on how judging others using our own view of the world can be harmful. Wouldn't things be a little bit better if we just knew how to listen?
Eloquently, Duchovny translates his unique sense of humor and political criticism into perfectly crafted dialogues that guide us through this equally unique story about a man who believes too much, a woman that wants the world without really caring about the world, and the people who get tangled up in their stories as a consequence.
Truly Like Lightning is a book that can make you laugh, cry, stay on the edge of your seat, reflect and, most importantly, give you hope that there are better days ahead, despite everything. In short, this book truly is like lightning – it hits us hard when we are least expecting it and it lightens our skies at the same time.