A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly (Harcourt, 2003, ISBN: 9780152053109) is a beautifully written historical fiction novel for young adults. Teachers will appreciate the possible tie-in with Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, while teens will savour the richly detailed historical backdrop and complex characters.
A Northern Light: A Brief Summary
Set in the early 1900s in Upstate New York, A Northern Light tells the story of Mattie Gokey, a farmer’s daughter with a passion for words but few outlets for her nascent creativity. The death of Mattie’s mother establishes her, the eldest of five girls, as the unofficial (and unwilling) head of the household. Her family’s poverty and father’s emotional detachment leave Mattie only one escape: into the rich world of books and writing. When her stories win her a scholarship to attend university in New York City, Mattie must decide whether she should leave her family – and unlikely love interest, Royal Loomis – behind, and learn to live her own life.
Throughout Mattie’s story, Donnelly weaves the famous death of Grace Brown, a poor city girl who became pregnant by her ambitious boyfriend, Chester Gillette. Grace’s story was immortalized by Theodore Dreiser in An American Tragedy, but Donnelly puts a different spin on it. Grace’s tragic death is the spur that propels Mattie to make a momentous decision about the course her own life will take.
Critical Review
By zeroing in on an imagined bit player in the famous narrative of Chester Gillette and Grace Brown, Donnelly opens up the complicated world of “ordinary” turn-of-the-century American farmers. It’s a world that aptly frames Grace Brown’s story, one where the lives of young women and men are tightly circumscribed and what is practical too often trumps what is right.
Yet Donnelly also uses her protagonist to communicate an important message: there are no insignificant stories, a message Mattie Gokey hears loud and clear. Mattie’s preoccupation with the literary world may make for slow going for reluctant readers, but she’ll quickly win the sympathy of teenage bookworms. Through Mattie, Donnelly presents keen observations on the fictional world as well as the real one, as Mattie complains of the dishonesty of fiction and its focus on the big, noisy lives over the smaller, quieter ones.
The novel hits a few false notes; those who have read Dreiser’s novel will be disappointed by the relative simplicity of Donnelly’s portrayal of Chester Gillette and Grace Brown. Both characters lack depth and definition, and their story more often interrupts than complements Mattie’s. In addition (and this is a fault of the publisher’s, not the author’s), any mystery Grace Brown’s story may have had for readers unfamiliar with the circumstances of her death is eliminated by the spoiler on the back cover (hint: it begins with an “m”). This was an unfortunate decision that cancels out much of the suspense Donnelly spends so much time crafting.
Caveats aside, A Northern Light is a brilliant debut novel. Teens who enjoy quieter historical fiction with rich settings like Anne of Green Gables and The Sky is Falling (not to mention Donnelly’s more recent work, Revolution) are sure to relish Mattie's story. Highly recommended.
Heather Fawcett - Heather Fawcett is a Vancouver-based writer and editor. She holds an M.A. in English Literature and specializes in teen fiction, having ...
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