I Am the Light of This World, Michael Parker
I Am the Light of This World, Michael Parker
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I Am the Light of This World

Author: Michael Parker

Narrator: Michael Crouch

Unabridged: 8 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/15/2022


Synopsis

Acclaimed author Michael Parker tells the searing  and unforgettable story of one decision that irrevocably changes  the course of a young man’s life.

In  the  early  1970s,  in  Stovall,  Texas,  seventeen-year-old  Earl—a  loner,  dreamer,  lover of music and words—meets Tina, the new girl in town. Tina convinces Earl to drive her to see her mother in Austin, where Earl and Tina are quickly separated. Two  days  later,  Earl  is  being  questioned  by  the  police  about  Tina’s  disappearance  and the blood in the trunk of his car. But Earl can’t remember what happened in Austin,  and  with  little  financial  support  from  his  working-class  family,  he  is  sentenced for a crime he did not commit.

Forty  years  later,  Earl  is  released  into  a  world  he  can  barely  navigate.  Settling  in a small town on the Oregon coast, he attempts to establish a sense of freedom from both bars and razor wire and the emotional toll of incarceration. But just as Earl finds the rhythm he’s always sought, his past returns to endanger the new life he’s built.

Steeped in the music and atmosphere of the 1970s, I Am the Light of This World is a gritty, gripping, and gorgeously written story of loss, redemption, and the power of the imagination, perfect for fans of Ron Rash, Rachel Kushner, and Laird Hunt.

About Michael Parker

Michael Parker is the author of six novels and three collections of stories. His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times Magazine, the Oxford American, Runner's World, Men's Journal, and other publications. His work has been anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize. He is the Nicholas and Nancy Vacc Distinguished Professor in the MFA Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He lives in Saxapahaw, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Stephanie (aka WW) on November 17, 2022

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The writing is terrific, poetic and lyrical with classic song lyrics peppered throughout. I rushed through the book to see how things would turn out for Earl, the main character. The book opens with 17-year-old Earl falling hard for Tina, a pretty new girl in......more

Goodreads review by Erin on November 18, 2022

This book's jacket blurb has it described as a 'gut punch of a novel.' There were definitely some grim moments where I noticed my stomach turning, but I wouldn't necessarily label it in this way. "I Am the Light of This World" by Michael Parker is narrated by Earl, a teenager from Texas in the 1970s......more

Goodreads review by Susan on November 20, 2022

3.5 🌟 Earl Boudreaux is a teenager in Texas in the 1970s. He’s a bit spacy - inside his own head at times, and his brothers pick on him, but he loves music and he’s falling for Tina. Tina asks Earl to drive her to Austin so she can visit her mother who is currently in an asylum. While in Austin, Earl......more

Goodreads review by D.K. on November 28, 2022

ALGONQUIN BOOKS TOUR – Scheduled – November 21, 2022 – 3.5 Stars I AM THE LIGHT OF THIS WORLD – by Michael Parker The year is 1973; seventeen-year-old Earl Boudreaux, and his family, formerly from Louisiana, moved, for reasons unknown to him, to Stovall, Texas, where he lives with his twin older brot......more

Goodreads review by Kate on July 26, 2023

Not what I was expecting but the Earl is endearing until the end.......more


Quotes

I Am the Light of This World is as true and moving a book, as honest, as gripping, as any I have ever read.  I continue to be haunted by this tragic novel--its note-perfect depiction of clueless youth, its bad breaks, bad choices, bewilderments and quirks, and, above all, the small moments of mercy that give hope in the midst of a hopeless situation.  How do you piece together a broken life that wasn't much in the way of whole to begin with?  With a career's worth of powerhouse fiction already in the books, Michael Parker has delivered his strongest work yet. I Am the Light of This World is a novel of truly singular beauty and wisdom.”β€”Ben Fountain, author of Beautiful Country Burn Again

“Earl Boudreaux, the protagonist of Michael Parker's stunning new novel is one of the great inventions in recent fiction. Watching this beautiful dreamer get lost in a netherworld where fate, and drastic human error are disastrously intertwined, I realized that “Earl” is just another word for the hopeful, hopeless, yearning, worn-out soul of America. Parker is just flat out astonishing.”
 β€”Marisa Silver, bestselling author of Mary Coin and The Mysteries

I Am the Light of this World is a grimy, gutsy, glorious, novel and one of my favorite books in recent memory.  Somehow, Michael Parker channeled the ghosts of Kent Haruf and Harry Crews (the good angel and the bad) to write this literary gem which is as lowdown and gritty as it is graceful and profound.  An unforgettable novel that sings out on every page.”β€”Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs and Godspeed

“A gut punch of a novel — lyrical, mordantly funny, and wrenching.”β€”Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble

“From the opening sentence on, I was transfixed, locked into the phonic level of Earl’s world and somehow magically both rooted and flying. I don’t know how Michael Parker does it. There is the rhythm of the sentences and the deep attention to sensory details but there is also something even more ineffable going on here. This novel is incredible. Read it! Read it! Read it!”β€”Mesha Maren, author of Perpetual West

“Michael Parker’s latest is a haunting story of how easily life can go off the rails. This book made me thank my lucky stars on every riveting page, as it simultaneously had me outraged at the ravening gyre of uneven justice and circumstance. I Am the Light of ThisWorld finds Parker working in profundities both deeply spiritual and relevant.”
 β€”Smith Henderson, author of Fourth of July Creek