A Light in the Window
J. Elizabeth Harris
Review by Alyce Wilson

In her first novel, J. Elizabeth Harris explores issues of racism, family loyalty and women's rights in a well-crafted tale about Sarah Banks Keller, who returns to the South to be at her dying father's side, only to relive her painful past.

Harris is an extraordinary storyteller who skillfully uses suspense, dialogue and foreshadowing to pull the reader along. She does this so skillfully that the surprises and plot twists genuinely take the reader by surprise. She gracefully handles transitions between flashbacks and the present. She writes with an earnestness which endears the main character to the reader.

If there's one flaw in A Light in the Window, it is the early chapters, where the introduction to the 1960s South feels forced. Occasionally, anachronistic slang wrenches the reader out of the past, so that the book at first feels as if one is trying on another's glasses, and nothing is quite in focus.

But Harris soon finds her legs, and when her skillful storytelling takes over, it's easy to overlook small inconsistencies.

She might have benefited from more research into the historical and geographical context of this book, but Harris' storytelling skills involve the reader and leave no doubt of her potential as a writer.