Light Boxes

Light Boxes by Shane Jones, reviewed by Brooks Sterritt

Light Boxes, the first novel by Shane Jones, is a fanciful, high-energy account of a small town menaced by a personified February, who outlaws flight, kidnaps children, plunges the town into darkness and cold, and extends the month indefinitely. As an object, the book is a pleasure to view and to hold. It is well designed, and variations in font–tiny text for whispers, a section of text blacked out though still legible, and lists–are used to startling effect. The story is engaging and image-driven, with “children [who] explode in piles of corduroy leaves,” “bladders being filled with lead,” and a dog “barking green-colored clouds.”

One of several lists interspersed throughout Light Boxes is the “Catalog of Missing Children,” with entries such as “Bianca Lowe - taken from her bed on February 255th.” The novel features short sections told from multiple points of view, yet manages to fully render a large cast of characters. Bianca’s father, Thaddeus Lowe, is well drawn as a reluctant, tortured hero. February himself, a villainous presence at first glimpsed only occasionally, emerges over the course of the book as a complex, intriguing, and often pathetic figure.

The freshness of Shane Jones’ prose is evident throughout, as in the words of Caldor Clemens, “I’d swing a nice big bucket of sap right into the side of his head and watch the ice of his mind explode like confetti.” One horrifying passage describes a family threatened by February-sent encroaching moss, surrounding their home and “making its way down their [horses'] throats.” The novel’s fantastical elements are complemented by its emotional core, which derives its power from the age-old dilemma of winter, of nature itself. Stunning images are coupled with ruminations on mortality: “Tell me everything won’t end in death. That everything doesn’t end with February.” Film rights to Light Boxes were recently acquired by Spike Jonze, with Ray Tintori slated to direct.

Light Boxes by Shane Jones

Publishing Genius Press, 2009, 175 pages, $12.00