City of Light

Amazon.com
City of Light is quite simply electrifying. Not that there's anything simple about this rich novel, which is first and foremost an examination of illusion, invisibility, and power--physical and personal. Set in the spring of 1901, as preparations for the Pan-American Exposition would seem to promise Buffalo, New York, a permanent place in the world, Lauren Belfer's book is narrated by the never-married headmistress of a fashionable girls' school. At 36, Louisa Barrett does her best to free her charges from their societal shackles. "I'm rather ashamed of all the things I've been able to give my students through the subterfuge of training them to be better wives," she says proudly. What Louisa is most concerned about, however, is her 9-year-old goddaughter, Grace Sinclair, who has grown increasingly unstable since her mother's sudden death. Meanwhile, Grace's father is heading up Buffalo's hydroelectric power plans with dangerous zeal--much to the chagrin of local conservationists who oppose any exploitation of Niagara Falls. Will Tom's intensity, which smacks of fanaticism, extend so far as murder?

But this offers only the barest idea of Belfer's complex grid. In 500 fast pages, she creates a fascinating, disquieting world in which nothing is what it seems. As Louisa battles against her instinct for self-preservation, her past--particularly a vile encounter with the corpulent Grover Cleveland--threatens to undermine her carefully created persona and loose her greatest secret. Looking back on the events of 1901 from the safety (and disappointment) of 1909, Louisa is the most astringent and intriguing of narrators. To Lauren Belfer's endless credit, City of Light is panoramic, subtle, and very physical. In her first novel, she makes us feel the rush of water, the thrill of light, the snap, crackle, and pop of social tension, and--alas for Louisa--the despair of tragic inevitability. --Sophie Atherton


From Publishers Weekly
A gift for social nuance and for authoritatively controlled narration shapes this compelling debut, which sets one young woman's extraordinary fate against the backdrop of the political struggles over the burgeoning electric industry as it began to harness the power of Niagara Falls at the turn of this century. Louisa Barrett, headmistress of a prestigious girls' seminary in Buffalo, N.Y., operates in the city's social circles with a freedom generally not accorded to other women. People assume her to be "without passion or experience," she observes, and she proceeds to tell her story with the clarity and restraint of a Jane Austen heroine. Louisa gradually reveals the great secret and sorrow of her life: having been raped by a high-powered politician (readers will gasp at the implications of his identity), Louisa secretly gave birth to a daughter nine years earlier, and arranged for the baby's adoption by her best friend, Margaret Sinclair, who has recently died. When Louisa visits her daughter Grace's father, Tom Sinclair, the idealistic businessman spearheading the building of the newest powerhouse at the Falls, she overhears an exchange between Tom and a famous engineer that arouses suspicion when the first of two murders of power company engineers occurs soon afterward. The city is embroiled in a battle between environmental preservationists protesting the diversion of Niagara's waters, and industrialists inspired by the benefits of electricity, and Louisa begins to understand the desperate measures to which each side will resort. Meanwhile, she is poised for a time to choose between two men: a prominent reporter who falls in love with her, and Tom, marriage to whom would make her legally Grace's mother. Belfer's delineation of society's power structure, deftly portrayed in the controversy over the Falls and the city fathers' preparations for the Pan-American Exposition, undergird a many-layered zinger of a conclusion. The rich mix of fictional and historical figures includes a family from Buffalo's black middle class, presidents Cleveland and McKinley, and immigrant power-station workers who risk life and limb. With the assurance of an established writer, Belfer delivers a work of depth and polishAan unsentimentalized story complete with dangerous liaisons, gorgeous descriptions of the Falls and a central character whose voice is irresistible to the last page of her tragic story. $200,000 ad/promo; BOMC main selection; simultaneous BDD audio; author tour; foreign rights sold in U.K., Germany, Italy, France and Sweden. (May) FYI: Belfer has been selected for B&N's Discover New Writers program.Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
The city is Buffalo at the turn of the century, and the light comes not from gas but from electricity, generated by the new power station at the thundering Niagara Falls. The power station is both a source of pride for the city, on the verge of the Pan-American Exposition, and an explosive political issue for those who fear that the falls will be devastated. At the center of this massive but lightly written saga is Louisa Barrett, headmistress of the Macauley School for GirlsAbrave, bright, freethinking, yet ultimately cautious, for she fears losing the support of the town's finely drawn upper class. What's more, she has a secret to keep: the daughter adopted by best friends Margaret and Tom Sinclair is actually hers, the result of her unfortunate seduction by none other than Grover Cleveland. But now Margaret is dead; Louisa suspects that Tom, who heads up the power station, may be implicated in the death of an engineer who opposed him; and Grace is behaving strangely. Swift and graceful reading, this debut novel nevertheless covers a lot of territory, offering a cross-section of American society and some barbed insights into social behavior and problems of the era. At times it may have more breadth than depth, but it is still exceptionally well crafted. For all public libraries.-ABarbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Ellen Feldman
...an ingenious first novel.


Erik Brady, USA Today, May 25, 1999
Like Niagara Falls itself, it's breathtaking in its achievement. Lauren Belfer's first novel is a remarkable blend of murder mystery, love story, political intrigue and tragedy of manners ... Belfer handles it all large cast, big themes uncommon assurance. Her story does not meander like the Mississippi. It moves like the Niagara. The river's famous falls get visitors they deserve. This book should have the same."


From AudioFile
Lauren Belfer's intriguing first novel is beautifully suited to audio and realizes all its potential through skillful narration and careful production. An unlikely heroine--charismatic headmistress Louisa Barrett--is intriguingly portrayed by Jan Maxwell. Cast as a central character and the narrator, Barrett is involved in the intrigue, romance and politics surrounding Buffalo and the development of hydropower at Niagara Falls. Maxwell gives "Miss Barrett" a subtle resonance with her clear, unique speech pattern, while deftly coloring other historical figures against a backdrop of turn-of-the-century manners. The timing, cadences and transitions are carefully orchestrated in this program directed by Charles Potter and produced by David Rapkin. R.F.W. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
In 1901, Buffalo, New York, is thriving: a hydroelectric power station is poised to use the water of Niagara Falls to light the nation, and the city fathers are planning a Pan-American Exposition. The 36-year-old Louisa Barrett, headmistress of the Macaulay School for Girls, is accepted as an equal by Buffalo's wealthy and powerful leaders. The intellectual and artistic elite of the city flock to Louisa's home for her regular salons. Although her best friend, Margaret Sinclair, recently passed away, Louisa has a close and loving relationship with Margaret's nine-year-old daughter, Grace. But when two men die under suspicious circumstances at the Niagara power station run by Margaret's widower, Tom, Louisa is forced to examine her own past and question not only her allegiances but also the choices she has made. Using both real and imagined characters, Belfer examines an early skirmish in the war between conserving and exploiting natural resources, the sexual double standard, and racial prejudice in a northern city at the turn of the century. Nancy Pearl


From Kirkus Reviews
An ambitious, vividly detailed and stirring debut novel offering a panorama of American life at the beginning of the 20th century. Louisa Barrett, the bright, outspoken, handsome but rigidly proper headmistress of the exclusive (and progressive) Macaulay School for Girls in Buffalo, where the citys elite send their daughters, seems at first an unlikely heroine. In fact, she harbors an astounding secret: shes been the mistress of a powerful national politician and has given birth to a daughter. The child was adopted by a wealthy local couple, Louisa's best friends, and Louisa owes her position partly to political influence: the elite have joined to protect the President's reputation by sheltering Louisa. All of that is threatened, though, when the adoptive father, Tom Sinclair, is implicated in the death of the chief engineer at the new Niagara power station. Tom, a technological visionary, is director of that same electricity-generating station. Louisa, in an attempt to save him (and her daughter, an affectionate child who assumes that her mother is simply a good family friend), begins to investigate. Louisa's persistent inquiries offer Belfer an opportunity to create a cross-section of American society in a turbulent time; ranging from the slums to the grand houses of a city then very much in the ascendant, her narrative encompasses everything from labor turmoil and the struggles being waged by minorities (women, immigrants, blacks) for a voice, to the dazzling dreams of visionaries like Tom Sinclair, who imagines that technology will bring equality in its wake. Belfer keeps a large, fascinating, exuberant cast well in motion, and Louisa, who manages to resolve the murder mystery but loses much in the process, is a vulnerable, complex, and believeable heroine. Belfer's portrait of the nation at a hard if ebullient time, while likely to remind some readers of Doctorow's Ragtime, is less chilly and more subtle than that work, and very gripping. A remarkably assured and satisfying first novel. ($200,000 ad/promo; Book-of-the-Month main selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


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Lauren Belfer's intriguing first novel is beautifully suited to audio and realizes all its potential through skillful narration and careful production. An unlikely heroine--charismatic headmistress Louisa Barrett--is intriguingly portrayed by Jan Maxwell. Cast as a central character and the narrator, Barrett is involved in the intrigue, romance and politics surrounding Buffalo and the development of hydropower at Niagara Falls. Maxwell gives "Miss Barrett" a subtle resonance with her clear, unique speech pattern, while deftly coloring other historical figures against a backdrop of turn-of-the-century manners. The timing, cadences and transitions are carefully orchestrated in this program directed by Charles Potter and produced by David Rapkin. R.F.W. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award. cAudioFile, Portland, Maine Read all 11 "From The Critics" >


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