How The Light Gets In is the sequel to Joyce Maynard's previous book Count The Ways, altough this book can be read as a standalone novel. Both books are about main character Eleanor, whose husband Cam recently passed away. Eleanor has a lot of care for her son Toby, who suffered from brain damage to to an accident in his youth. She moved back from Brookline to the farm in New Hampshire where she can fully take care of Toby, who takes care of the goats. Toby’s older brother, Al, is married and living in Seattle with his wife . Eleanor's daughter Ursula, lives in Vermont with her husband and two children. Ursula is acting distant to her mother, which is sad for Eleanor, because she doesn't know why. The story follow Eleanor during fifteen years between 2010 and 2024, the daily life struggles and the bigger ups and downs, for example when Toby is falsely accused of something in the local community and when he gets seriously ill and her new relationship with Guy and actual events that happen in America and the world, like the recent Covid Pandemic and the storming of te Capitol, the troubles with Ursula and her husband Jake who becomes and alcoholic, and a tragic event between Toby and neighbour Raine, which results in an incident involving Raine's son Spyder.

There is a lot happening in this book. So much that sometimes you wonder if there was a little less happening in it, it would be a faster and stronger story. Because this is quite a long read, and I questioned if some passages of the story truly added to the story. It doesn't have a real strong storyline, it is more character based and the things that happen on a daily basis, altough the characters, especially Toby, make some progress. It was very realistic, and I truly think Eleanor is a very likeable character, but the story was far too long to keep you interested as a reader, a long story is nice with a more thrilling and exciting plot, but if the story is so character based like this one, this doesn't work out very well. In the end there whas a bit more action in the story, but it misses that action in the rest of the book. I have read a few other books by Joyce Maynard in the past, but this not her strongest work and I truly wanted to like it more than I actually did.

Sequel to Count the Ways.
Continuing the life of Eleanor as she returns to her former home to care for her dying ex-husband.
Eleanor has continued to live on the farm. She cares for Toby, who was brain damaged as a child. He cares for his goats and makes friends with everyone, riding his bicycle to town. She is still writing, still involved with her children to the extent they will allow her to be involved. She and her daughter, Ursula, have a rocky relationship and the estrangement grows as the years go by. Ursula's husband is an interesting character and Maynard is able to tie current politics into the story in a skillful way. Her husband's child by his second wife, is just as much a part of her family as those she gave birth to. Eleanor meets an explorer who spends most of his time in Antarctica; they have a relationship over a number of years.

Maynard is able to paint a good picture of Eleanor as she realizes her days are slowly coming to an end. Sad at the realization that she leaves behind unresolved issues. Sad that she still has days when she feels like life shorted her. Days when she realizes her life could not have been fuller. This book was a lovely end to Count the Ways.

HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN
BY: JOYCE MAYNARD

About 3.5 stars!

I didn't read Joyce Maynard's prior novel Count the Ways, more than eight chapters of a sample prior to reading this one. Of the eight chapters that I read I did find it to be much more engaging than this one. This continuation just felt like an info dump and it fell flat. I thought this wasn't organic in the quality of the writing style that I would expect of a literary fiction novel. I feel terrible about not liking it more, but I would be lying if I said that I did. While I applaud Joyce Maynard
as an erudite writer of The Bird Hotel, which I loved and thought was more inspirational and hopeful. I loved her two memoirs. My favorite memoir of all time is written by Joyce Maynard called, At Home in the World, which I highly recommend and it is phenomenal. I also liked her later memoir which is raw and sad called, The Best of Us which tells about finding love again only to lose her new partner to pancreatic cancer. So it's not a question of my not liking this one because it is bleak, since it imparts the wisdom of a writer sharing universal truths about life experience grounded in reality and gained from maturity.

"We don't tell our children who they should be, Eleanor knows now. They tell us."

"Here's the thing about the day a baby is born---if you're lucky, and her health is good.
For that one moment in time---never again, probably---a parent can still believe that
everything is possible. Everything can be perfect. Just as well new parents don't know
all the hard things that await them. For this one brief moment anyway, everything
remains possible. Eleanor feels this now."

There are many pearls of wisdom that Joyce Maynard gifts the reader with. My disappointment lies in how this is written in a tell me instead showing me the way that I prefer. Here's an example after Eleanor the estranged mother of her daughter Ursula finds out about the birth of her transgender daughter Alison who now identifies as male named Al has just had a baby with his wife Teresa. The baby's name is Flora.

"Flora. Our little flower, Eleanor says. She thinks of Cam---then Flora's grandfather
whom she will never know. Like Toby, Cam loved babies. He would have loved being
a grandfather to this one. Locating the pure joy he took from spending time with young
children was something he was uniquely good at. Maybe because he didn't worry so much,
as Eleanor did, about all the practical details of taking care of things, he did better at that
probably, than she had.
Now, as Eleanor thinks about this new grandchild, and the two already born, she's ready
to do better, if her children will allow her to. Maybe Ursula's reluctance to let Eleanor
into her life, and that of her children, stems from this---her memory of how wound
up and occasionally out of control her mother could be on occasion, those times Eleanor
thinks of her visits to Crazyland. (sic) She understands now how much those times
must have scared her children---Ursula most of all, maybe. Eleanor wishes Ursula
could know that she doesn't pour wine over her head as she did on more than one occasion
when her children were young. But Ursula's spent so little time with her mother in the
last many years, she barely knows who Eleanor is anymore. Ursula does not know Eleanor,
as she is now.
Eleanor has never again done what she did that Christmas morning when the children
were small, and she was frustrated with Cam for watching a ball game while she worked,
and just plain exhausted from yet another attempt at creating, for her family, the appear-
ance of a happy Christmas: she picked up the Buche de Noel she'd just finished construct-
ing for their big holiday meal and smashed it into the garbage."

While I never did anything like that and I'm not judging, the narrative unfolds like the above throughout this novel. I certainly know how overwhelming it is to raise young children and I truly felt bad for the way Eleanor was treated by Ursula. Parent estrangement with adult children no doubt is painful and it's not the message that bothered me. It's just not written in a way that I enjoy feeling it unfold with the info dump style of writing as a storytelling technique. I didn't get absorbed into the plot and I couldn't connect to the characters as much as I would have liked. I did like what Joyce Maynard shares about the message, just not a fan of lack of character development for everybody except Eleanor and Toby. I loved both of them and could feel their close relationship on an intimate level. I just would have liked to see more development of Eleanor's other children and the other characters in the novel.

"Becoming a grandparent means getting a second chance to do it right."

A Five Star for the many relatable messages, because I don't know a parent that exists that is perfect. I'm sure we all can look back at things that if we could go back and do it again we would do something different. I didn't exactly relate to some of the questionable choices Eleanor did, but I could see that she tried to be better. We all do the best we can and this is a heartfelt story that is rich. Again, I love the concept just not the delivery. Another issue that didn't work for me were the heavy issues regarding politics. They are presented in a loud way so that they are impossible to overlook. It is very evident exactly where this author's personal viewpoints lean towards, which I thought got tedious, personally, and were a factor of my overall rating.

Publication Date: June 25, 2024

Thank you to Net Galley, Joyce Maynard and William Morrow for generously providing me with my eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#HowtheLightGetsIn #JoyceMaynard #WilliamMorrow #NetGalley

This is my third book by Joyce Maynard in just a few months. I have to say that I loved them all! She has such an easy writing style. Her characters are all so likeable. I will wait patiently for her next one!

For those of us who are Joyce Maynard devotees, the first quarter of the book was just a rehash of the book Count the Ways. I understand why the author wanted to make this a standalone book, but I found the first quarter boring. The rest of the book I enjoyed especially because I am around the same age as the author and I identify with a lot of the trials and tribulations of Eleanor, the main character. All of the characters are vivid on the page, and the descriptions of Eleanor’s emotional life are well written.

I loved reading this book.

I loved Count the Ways and was really looking forward to this continuation of the story. When Cam is diagnosed with cancer, Eleanor returns to the farm to care for him and Toby. This book goes deeper into all of the characters lives and motivations. The story takes place from 2010 to current day and current events are brought into the story (politics, COVID, Black Lives Matter, climate change and more). I really enjoyed the relationships between the adult children, especially with Toby. New characters are also added to the main characters in Count the Ways. Some parts of the story felt repetitive to me and there was too much political commentary. Also, Eleanor's main romantic interest in this book did not make sense to me for her character.
Thank you Netgalley and William Morrow Publishing for the advance reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was so happy to hear that there would be a sequel to Count the Ways which received a rare 5 star rating from me. I was so invested in the lives of Eleanor and her family, it was great to pick up where the first book left off and hear the rest of their story. Yes, there is some repetition as Maynard covers the main plot points from Count the Ways, but I understand it allows this book to be a stand alone if readers don't want to read both books. Many of the recaps also take a deeper dive into what took place in the first book.
How the Light Gets In follows Eleanor and her family right up until present day and into the future. I really loved this sequel. It touches upon many themes such as parenting adult children, the importance of family, accepting life's imperfections and celebrating the small moments in life. I love that music is also woven into the stories of each character. The storyline leaves not doubt as to Maynard's political leanings. While I don't have a problem with the political storylines, I hope it doesn't put off potential readers who don't agree with her politics. They will be missing out on a great story with many meaningful messages. A huge thanks to Netgalley and William Morrow for providing an ARC of this book.

The follow up to Count the Ways, this story follows Eleanor over fifteen years.
Eleanor is fifty-four and moves back to the farm to care for her ex-husband, Cam.

They have three children together, grown now, except for Toby. He is an adult but an accident in the pond left him different. Now he raises goats and makes cheese.

Al and his wife are living in California trying to have a baby. And Ursula is living with a man she doesn’t know anymore.

Everyone is dealing with a lot. And while the children are adults, they still harbor grudges and hurt feelings and a lot of secrets.

I loved this book. All of the characters are so well-done and I loved them all.

One of the best books I have ever read.

NetGalley/ William Morrow June 25,2024

Her best yet! I have been reading Joyce Maynard since her precocious debut in The New York Times. At each stage of life, she has expressed feelings and experiences that my generation can completely relate to.. I was moved by her view of motherhood and how we try so hard, but at the end of the day our children's lives are their own. And in later life trying to rediscover our own passions. And the music that accompanies our lives. This is beautiful and heartfelt story that I could not put down. I hope to be reading Joyce Maynard for many more years to come. Thank you to a brilliant writer for her continuing gifts.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read How the !ight gets in by Joyce Maynard, an author who writes with huge heart and depth. Her meticulous research, as revealed in the acknowledgements of this book, evident in the storyline so seamlessly, carefully inserted bring a level of realism we've come to expect in her work. She breaks our heart,but gives us hope.

I’m a huge fan of Joyce Maynard, and I gave the prequel to this book, Count the Ways, 5 stars. Unfortunately, I did not think that this book was as good. It’s extremely character driven and while there are some interesting plot points, not a whole lot happens in the story. Since it is more character focused, I wish I had related to or cared more for Eleanor. To add interest, the book is set amongst the backdrop of significant cultural events over time, and music plays a role in the story-telling. I would have enjoyed a more condensed version.

Thank you very much to William Morrow for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

There are books that we love -without exaggeration- completely knowing why. This is one of those types of books.
Its as if we need them to make us ‘feel’ immediate emotions….[happiness, sadness, anger, grief, guilt, disappointment, horror, fear, boredom, admiration, appreciation, nostalgia, etc.]….
We think about our family and friends, love, loss, grief, joy
likes, dislikes, music, old television shows, the schools we attended, games we’ve play, meals we’ve eaten, the tragedies we’ve experienced, the love we feel in our hearts, memories, (good and bad), —
Not ‘only’ our ‘own’ personal lives — the characters in these types of books ‘are’ personal to us too; they ‘are’ our family; character friends that live inside us!
And … along with loving these type of books (flawed as we ourselves are) …. without reservation, we give our hearts and souls over to them. [it’s even possible to feel embarrassed at one’s own hedonism animalism craving]….
….as Joyce crafts a tale of family and identity…. we learn to understand and accept one another while also trying to understand the larger world around us and the issues we face —
[hopefully without crumbling to pieces from our awareness: climate change, hunger, health, gender equality, human rights, estrangement, violence, political, social, economic, and environmental issues affect us all] …. some of these issues ‘are’ observed in “How The Light Gets In”…..but
Joyce doesn’t preach these issues — she includes them….(as easy as she does music our characters enjoy)….
In the same way music affects us, so do global issues.
I appreciate that Joyce combines our personal lives with world issues….but mostly this novel is still a ‘family’ story.
After all — our protagonist is a MOM ….also an incredible ‘can-do’ women ….a multi-talented artist and writer, gardener, a conscientious woman…. and a yummy cook, to boot.

“Sometimes when the light hits the broken glass just right, it makes a lovely rainbow” . . .
“It’s like that with her family, Eleanor thinks. Not all the time, or often—just now and then—the light hits the pieces of colored glass, just right, and for what may be just a fleeting moment everything looks beautiful. If a person doesn’t ask too many questions about what happened yesterday or what’s going to happen next. If she can just look at this one brief moment in time, without asking for more. It’s the sunlight hitting the glass. Catch it if you can”.

Taking off from Joyce’s spellbinding novel, “Count The Ways”…. we follow along with recent happenings—
Eleanor at the center of everything. Her ex- husband, Cam, who readers get to know intimately in “Count The Ways”, has recently died. And not before Eleanor returned to the farm house in New Hampshire to care for him before he died.
Eleanor and Cam produced three children: (all adults now).
….Al (a transgender) married to Teresa….wishing to adopt a child. They were living in Seattle.
…. Ursula, middle child. Married to Jake. They have two children, a daughter Lulu, and son, Orson. Not only is Ursula struggling with her marriage to Jake — she is mostly estranged from Eleanor. Ursula says some pretty nasty things to her mother.
[note]
> this was a very sad-relatable part of this story for me - painful - as my 42 year old daughter, blindsided me a little over 4 years ago — wanting no relationship with me (or her younger sister or my husband). She’s successful in her work at least.
I related to something Eleanor felt …..she no longer prayed to ‘have’ a relationship with her daughter….instead she prayed that her daughter was happy. Me too, I do the same (oh….don’t get me wrong - I’d love to have a cozy loving close relationship with my first born daughter (relationships are great with our younger daughter with both my husband and I) — but today, I simply pray our oldest daughter is happy, too.
….Toby is youngest child. He survived a near drowning in “Count The Ways” when he was four years old, leaving him with a brain injury. Toby was slower in many areas in life than others, but he’s likely to be the most endearing character in this novel. He’s just so darn wonderful, caring, sweet, tender, kind. His love for his goats and children are real ….and beautiful.
…. Other characters I’ll mention briefly:
…. Coco, (Cam’s ex-wife; once the young babysitter to Eleanor’s and Cam’s three children.
….Elijah, (a son born to Cam and Coco),
….Raine (the young single pregnant girl living next door to the farm house),
….Spyder, (Raine’s child that Toby delivered and would babysit often)
….Timmy Pouliot, a special friend of Eleanor’s who experienced an awful tragedy when he was younger.
….Jason, another special friend to Eleanor.
….Scarlett Johansson, (read the book - think I should spill all the beans, huh? 😉)
….June, (again - not sharing anything more other than my heart melted with joy)
….Guy MacDowell > not married, never married, no children. He was however Eleanor’ new relationship guy — ha - named GUY…. (for about five and a half years). Guy was an explorer; an adventurer. His commitment was to save Antarctica. Guy was also that razzle-dazzling heartthrob between the sheets > be it at The Four Seasons or any other series of nice hotels… in Cambridge, Seattle, etc.
As much as Eleanor and Guy enjoyed each other, they both knew Guy was not a settling down type of man. Not a relax by a woodfire stove on winter nights, or take the grandchildren out blueberry picking.
He would always be thinking about glacial melt.

As for the juice….the juicy parts of this story — I’m giving nothing away…..
other than to say, I admit to being a tad cranky in parts I felt was repetitive > however….I forgive it all —
I also admit to be ‘very’ surprised with a couple emotional tales — more toward the last twenty-five percent. I was choked up a few times.

Lots of great stories throughout ….JOYCE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A GIFTED STORYTELLER….
….more memories on the farm, in Brookline, in Vermont, The Cork People, goats, bowling, Eleanor’s art and writing, yummy meals, music, and each of THE CHARACTERS lives: struggles & joys.

Note: 🎶. . .
….in this book, I was less familiar with many of the songs and artists Joyce included….(I was much more familiar with the songs from “Count The Ways”, but I listened to everything —
I added new music to my iApple iTunes playlist. (thanks Joyce)….for introducing me to: John Prine, and Sinead O’Conner. (beautiful songs). I also really like the song “Simple Gifts” by Alison Krauss.

I don’t think I would’ve written a review this long, if I wasn’t giving it the full five star rating.

A couple of excerpts ….
“How can it be that something as simple as the tone of a person’s voice can have the effect of a knife slicing into your heart? It can have that effect if the person is someone you love, and they’re speaking as if you’re a stranger to them now. A stranger you gave birth to once, a million years ago”.

“A good mother. Who even knows what that is?”

“For nine months, you carry a child in your body. Then you give birth to this person, and they depend on you (for a little while anyway) for every single thing in their life, including their survival. What they need: not only food, warmth, safety, diapers, baths, sunshine, fresh air, milk—also comfort, reassurance, protection, encouragement, vigilance, stamina, compassion. Money. Love. You teach them what bread is, and milk, and a ball, a dog, a helicopter, a tree, a car, a lawnmower, a cell phone, a gun. They look to you to tell them about everything, basically. The whole wide world. The meaning of everything. As if you knew”.

Joyce’s writing is engrossing, fragile, brittle, sharp, and pulsing with life. The characters and their voices she creates are so real — they remain friends in my head!

How the Light Gets in is the sequel to Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard. It continues the story of Eleanor and her family, and further delves into their struggles, not only as a family, but as individuals, as well. Many issues are addressed in this book, including gender identity, parental alienation, political viewpoints, traumatic brain injury, and the CoVid epidemic. Since I have been reading Ms. Maynard's books for many years, and subscribe to her newsletter, I am familiar with her political views and her interest in parental alienation. I appreciate that she manages to include all of these things in her novel, but recently have been somewhat irritated with authors addressing these issues at length in their books, which, to me, can take away from the story itself. As usual, I appreciated the descriptions of Eleanor's feelings and her attempts to cope with all that is happening around her. The affair with the Antarctic explorer made sense to me because it was the only thing in her life that seemed to have no strings attached, and she was longing for some freedom from the heavy issues she had dealt with for many years. I was relieved when she realized what she had been doing and was able to forgive herself for it. I guess, one of my favorite things about Joyce Maynard's writing is that she is able to process her characters' behaviors and look at them in a realistic fashion. This is a hard book for me to review because I struggled with some of the repetition of past events from the first book and also the many social issues that were addressed, I do appreciate her writing style and character development. Thank you, #Netgalley and William Morrow Publishing for giving me the opportunity to preview this book in exchange for an honest review.

Maynard skillfully draws us into Eleanor's family and shows each member with flaws and all. Life may not be perfect or how you expected it to be, but it is beautiful. Eleanor's life has been difficult and certainly not the experience that she expected, Divorced, estranged from her daughter, and taking care of her son who has some limitations, since almost drowning, Eleanor takes care of everyone before herself. Finding love in an unexpected place and trying to keep that aspect of her life private brings a new set of challenges and excitement.
I highly recommend you read Count the Ways before this novel. Both books may be read as stand-alones, however, your experience will be richer reading them both. This is the best book I have read in a long time. Maynard's descriptive style held me captive throughout the book. I experienced every emotion through Eleanor; her love of family at the top of the list. Maynard provides insight into how society perceives those less than perfect and how greed can cause heartache in unexpected ways. An excellent choice for Book Clubs looking for a novel about current issues and how they affect a family.

After reading Joyce Maynard’s last novel, The Bird Hotel, I was very excited that the author had written a new book about a strong woman.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading “How the lights gets in”. I particularly liked the character development of Eleanor and her youngest son Toby. My main criticism of the story was the inclusion of too many world events that impacted their lives ( climate change, January 6 th insurrection, school shooting) It’s a bit of a slog to get through and wonder what more can happen in the world that can impact Eleanor, her family, and friends.

I would definitely recommend this book to Bookclubs, a lot of meaty issues to discuss.

Family saga hardly seems enough of a category to do justice to this long novel. Family and children, parenting and relationships exude from its pores. If you aren’t interested in these topics, give it a miss. Otherwise relax into its repetitive, tireless tracking of the characters and their dramatic yet simple dilemmas. Maynard’s fluid style helps it all slip down like syrup. It’s the literary version of comfort food. Yes, it tackles historical events but really it’s all about her affection for these one dimensional people.

Wow! I absolutely loved this book! Continuing the life of Eleanor as she returns to her former home to care for her dying ex-husband. Eleanor continues to live there and care for Toby, while he cares for his goats. She is still writing and involved with her children, as much as they will allow and still struggles with her relationship with her daughter Ursula, as she faces issues in her marriage and is quite the snit to Eleanor. A relationship develops with a man that allows her to feel special even if it’s when he’s available and they never see more than the inside of hotel rooms.
We follow Toby as he continues to find his place in the world and his impact on those he loves. There are some wonderful and sad and joyful events in his life and you can’t help but be his champion.
We follow Eleanor up to current years and demonstrates the impact the current elections have had on her and how they’ve changed the world. She comes to terms with knowing that there are more days behind her than in front of her, while continuing to feel like that young girl. Haven’t those of us that are a certain age felt like that? Eleanor struggled to find her happiness while remaining supportive of those she loves.
This was the type of book that I absolutely savored! I didn’t want to read it too quickly and I didn’t want it to end but I wondered what they were doing when I wasn’t with them. The best kind of book!
Joyce Maynard has a hit here! Eleanor is my champion, my woman warrior, my hero! Thank you for this title!

I was privileged to get the ARC of this book from @NetGalley and was so excited to continue reading the family saga that Joyce Maynard began in Count the Ways. I quickly got reinvested in the lives of these characters and watched them evolve as the plot cycles through the seasons in various stages of their lives.

Eleanore’s children are now grown up, but she is back home on their family farm trying to find her place in life. Her lovable son, Toby, is still there tending his goats and bringing cheese to sell at the farmers market, but he has gained independence and doesn’t need her as much as he once did. Her daughter, Ursala, is living nearby with her husband and two children, but she keeps her mother at a distance for many years still hurt by the divorce that tore apart their family a decade ago. Coco, the young woman that her husband left her for continues to cause complications in Eleanore’s life, even though Eleanore and her children have a close relationship with her son (their stepbrother, Elijah).

This novel ties up many of the loose ends from the first novel, exploring forgiveness and healing, though I think there is some redundancy and recaps of details from Count the Ways that could have been left out of this book to reduce the length and provide teasers to entice readers who hadn’t read the first book to pick it up and experience it for the first time.

I don’t think authors should share their personal political commentaries in fiction. My mom is also a huge fan of Joyce Maynard’s books, but I wouldn’t recommend that she read this one because it contains too much hype for the Democratic presidential candidates and political platforms and bashes the Republican party (even though I think my mom could relate to Eleanore’s current stage of life and plight of a mother who puts the needs of her children and grandchildren ahead of her own).

Also, I was not a big fan of the storyline of Eleanore’s escapades with Guy, the Antarctic explorer. Again, it seemed like she was trying to tie in a political statement about supporting climate change causes. I was rooting for Eleanore to find romance, but I would have preferred she settled down with a small-town wholesome man, like Quince, the Police Chief, rather than a casual affair with a man who would choose saving the planet over getting to her and her family.

I did enjoy many of the other quirky cast of characters that are included, including the superhero of Eleanore’s graphic novel she is writing and illustrating. She struggles with a climactic ending for the Mineral Man story, and I think she wraps it up perfectly with a message of hope for a broken world.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED Count the Ways so much, so I was thrilled to see there was a sequel. But I was a little bummed when it didn’t quite live up to the beauty of the first novel. I found myself not relating to or caring about Eleanor as much in this book, which was a letdown. Still a great book with so many beautiful passages, just not the 5 stars of its predecessor. I also would have liked to read more about Eleanor taking care of Cam. 4 stars for me.