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From The (Batavia, N.Y.) Daily News, March 24, 2006 Lights burning brightly 'A Northern Light' author visit attracts record crowds By
Ben Beagle
About 150 people filled the library's
Reading Room, an adjacent alcove and the Gallery Room for
Donnelly's presentation, the second of four she will make as
part of the "A Tale for Three Counties" community reading
project. So many people attended the program, that a closed
circuit video system was used for the first time in the Gallery
Room for about 20 of those attending. Following the hour-long talk, the line
for the booksigning stretched across the front room of the
library to the back of the Reading Room - a distance of some 120
feet or more. The signing lasted nearly an hour. A Northern Light melds fact and fiction to
tell the story of Mattie Gokey, a young woman growing up in the
Adirondacks in 1906 who must make some crucial decisions about
her future. The real-life murder of Grace Brown by Chester
Gillette, the father of her unborn child, provides an ominous
undercurrent through the novel . "A Tale for Three Counties" has people in
Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties, reading the same book,
discussing it and then talking about it with the author during
visits which continue through Saturday.
The author explained how photographs of
landscapes, people and the Glenmore as it appeared a century ago
allowed her to capture details that no longer exist. She also
gleaned from the images such things as how people worked, wore
their hair and what kind of body language they might exhibit. "I think the technology added to the
presentation. You really got a feel for the time period," said
Diana Wyrwa, director of Richmond Library. Amy Dorman, a Batavia teen-ager, received A Northern Light as a birthday
gift months ago and marked the date of the Donnelly's visit on a
family calendar. She attended with her mother, Mary Ann Dorman,
and plans to re-read the book. "It seems more inspirational after
hearing the author tell her story," Amy said. "Before I was not
interested so much in history, but now I'm more interested in
what really went on." Suzanne Long of Bergen, a teacher at Monroe Community College, read the
book over Christmas break. She loved it so much, she sent a copy
to her mother in New Mexico. Long's daughter, Emmaline, read A Northern
Light when it was first published three years ago. Now 15,
Emmaline said she found it easier to understand and relate to
issues in the novel since she is closer to Mattie's age. Mattie, who dreams of becoming a writer, must
decide between college and responsibilities to her family and
her suitor. She is drawn in to the tragedy after reading letters
she was given by Grace, who asked that they be destroyed. And while readers ultimately learn Mattie's choice, many wonder what happened after events of the novel. Some inquired about a sequel, which Donnelly said is unlikely - "Mattie left me on the platform with everyone else, and I haven't heard from her since," the author said - others preferred to create their own future.
Donnelly said fiction and history are her
passions. "I can't walk by an old house without
imagining who lived in it. Or look at old photos without asking
all the men and the women in them, 'Who were you?', 'Who loved
you?', 'What were your dreams?'," she said. The slide show explained the four things
Donnelly said goes into her work: the inspiration, imagination,
research - both the rigorous and thorough pursuit of facts and
the airy-fairy, touchy-feely, totally unscholarly intuitive
pursuits - and emotion. "Facts by themselves don't make for good
reading," she said. "I don't want to embalm history." "More than anything, I want you to feel your
own dreams," she said before reading a passage from the book and
taking questions from the audience. Earlier Thursday, Donnelly gave a similar
presentation to a gathering of more than 100 college students
and community residents at Genesee Community College. "As a student, I think I can speak for other
students by saying the story of Mattie is most appealing because
we're still living it," said Katie Ireland, who introduced
Donnelly at her GCC visit. "Jennifer's story allowed people to
take a look at their own lives and see it in Mattie's
experiences." Many audience members made connections with the book. One woman,
originally from the Adirondack region, passed on a thank you
from a family member who had read the book and appreciated the
depth of Donnelly's research. Jennifer Jacobs, who works in a Monroe
County library, learned of the "Tale" project from a newspaper
article a patron brought to her. "I happened to pick this up on
a whim and I read it and loved it. I heard Jennifer was coming
and decided to come see her," Jacobs said. Foster and her husband both enjoyed the book,
but disagreed on the ending. "My husband and I had an argument over the ending," she said. "He
thought it was great. I wished it had gone on."
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