Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful story, excellent book!
Review: "Light, Coming Back" is one of the best books I have ever read! For a debut novel, Ann Wadsworth has created a gem of literary work, detailing the life of Mrs. Mercedes Medina, a 59-year-old woman as lost as one can be. Mercedes has lived a rich and full life, but has reached a crossroads: her celebrated musician husband, Patrick, is dying, and for the first time in her life, she is discovering who she truly is, what her desires are, and how to handle these new emotions. The journey of self-discovery is beautiful, from her interactions with a much younger Lennie, to the later friendship cultivated with the captivating Diana. The book is also rife with a few humorous moments, most notably a sword-brandishing Patrick, ready to defend his wife's honor! While many have labeled "Light, Coming Back" a lesbian novel, I find it to be one for all types of women who enjoy excellent writing and a look at one woman's inner discovery. Major kudos to Ms. Wadsworth for this book!
Rating:
Summary: The ambiguity of real lives
Review: After a lifetime of assuming that she understands her own sexuality, an older woman discovers that her feelings are much more complex than she has imagined in this beautifully-written novel. The protagonist and her confusion are finely etched, as are her dying (and defiant) husband and the many other people in her life. Eluding simple classification, this book raises questions that many women face, regardless of the actions they take, and its ending is grounded in reality while satisfying the reader's idealistic hopes for the main character. In addition to all these fine attributes, "Light, Coming Back" is a very engrossing read.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books of 2001
Review: Ann Wadsworth's debut novel "Light, Coming Back" is a gem.
Mercedes Medina, a Bostonian of a certain age , has spent much of
her adult life seeing to the needs of her husband Patrick. A famous cellist, Partick is 25 years Mrs. Medina's senior
is failing in body and mind. Changes are coming, some breathtaking.
Twenty years earlier, on Mrs. Medina's honeymoon, a captivating woman briefly entered her life. Now, another woman, redolent of that almost forgotten past has appeared and Mercedes Merdina will
begin to question her assumptions of her past, present and future.
Ann Wadsworth has given us a beautifully written novel - at once
graceful, humorous, sad and wise.
Her gift of description is such that these characters lived with me as I read this remarkable book. Her talent is that I wish they
lived with me still. "Light, Coming Back" is, I hope , only the first gift of her fine storytelling. Highly recommended.will question assumptions of her past, present and future.
"Light, Coming Back" is not so much of a miccle age coming out story as it is a
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books of 2001
Review: Ann Wadsworth's debut novel "Light, Coming Back" is a gem.
Mercedes Medina, a Bostonian of a certain age , has spent much of
her adult life seeing to the needs of her husband Patrick. A famous cellist, Partick is 25 years Mrs. Medina's senior
is failing in body and mind. Changes are coming, some breathtaking.
Twenty years earlier, on Mrs. Medina's honeymoon, a captivating woman briefly entered her life. Now, another woman, redolent of that almost forgotten past has appeared and Mercedes Merdina will
begin to question her assumptions of her past, present and future.
Ann Wadsworth has given us a beautifully written novel - at once
graceful, humorous, sad and wise.
Her gift of description is such that these characters lived with me as I read this remarkable book. Her talent is that I wish they
lived with me still. "Light, Coming Back" is, I hope , only the first gift of her fine storytelling. Highly recommended. will question assumptions of her past, present and future.
"Light, Coming Back" is not so much of a miccle age coming out story as it is a
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books of 2001
Review: Ann Wadsworth's debut novel,"Light, Coming Back" , is wonderful.
Mercedes Medina, a Boston woman of a cerain age, discovers that
her sexual and (and other) identities are not as she assumed.
Wife of famous cellist Patrick Medina, Mercedes has spent her married life seeing largely to his needs. In failing body and
memory, Patrick's needs are becoming more obviously encumbering.
Changes are imminent. Some of them breathtaking.
For Mercedes Medina, 25 years Patrick's junior, a chance comes, redolent of an incident 20 years earlier - an incident submerged
in memory but not forgotten. A captivating woman, the gift of a
flower. Now, another captivating woman has entered Mrs. Medina's
life. What is she to do?
Novelist Ann Wadsworth has captured her characters with a deftness of touch I find amazing. Patrick, Mercedes Medina, et al
lived with my as I read. They live on in my memory as very welcome guests.
May I suggest this is not a Lesbian coming out story so much as
a story of becoming. The courage to be. We can thanks Ann Wadsworth for this fine, graceful novel and look for more ahead.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books of 2001
Review: Ann Wadsworth's debut novel,"Light, Coming Back" , is wonderful.
Mercedes Medina, a Boston woman of a cerain age, discovers that
her sexual and (and other) identities are not as she assumed.
Wife of famous cellist Patrick Medina, Mercedes has spent her married life seeing largely to his needs. In failing body and
memory, Patrick's needs are becoming more obviously encumbering.
Changes are imminent. Some of them breathtaking.
For Mercedes Medina, 25 years Patrick's junior, a chance comes, redolent of an incident 20 years earlier - an incident submerged
in memory but not forgotten. A captivating woman, the gift of a
flower. Now, another captivating woman has entered Mrs. Medina's
life. What is she to do?
Novelist Ann Wadsworth has captured her characters with a deftness of touch I find amazing. Patrick, Mercedes Medina, et al
lived with my as I read. They live on in my memory as very welcome guests.
May I suggest this is not a Lesbian coming out story so much as
a story of becoming. The courage to be. We can thanks Ann Wadsworth for this fine, graceful novel and look for more ahead.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Written
Review: How refreshing to find this novel that synthesizes the elements of popular fiction with the texture and layers usually reserved for books to be read again and again. Ann Wadsworth skillfully reveals Mercedes Medina: a woman willing to examine and pursue the awakening she experiences. Mercedes welcomes the mystery she discovers within herself. Her conversations with the other pivotal characters in the book (Patrick, Lennie, and Diana) illuminate not only the relationships but also the mastery of language that Wadsworth so deftly projects. These three characters still hold hidden places for me and that is one of the reasons (other than simply reading the WORDS again!) that I want to reread the book immediately. The experience of the book mesmerizes the reader as surely as the experience itself holds Mercedes in its grasp. The cultural parameter of Italy -- its language, its art, its passion -- provides the characters with a background worthy of their story. The motifs of the gardenia, the lisianthus, the "downward pull" throughout the book come together to impact the sensibilities of the reader. The ambiguity, which really wasn't ambiguity but more a sense of mystery, again spoke to me in the times the main character was called Mrs. Medina, Mercedes, or Merce. Mercedes says, "Although subtleties, I am told, are what give texture to one's life"; Ann Wadsworth's words give texture to her rendition of that story which is destined to haunt the heart and tease the imagination after the cover has been closed -- on the first reading.
Elizabeth Ackley, Professor of English, Wilmington College,
2 Triangle Park Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio 45246
Rating:
Summary: Light, Coming Back: A Synthesis of Motif and Meaning
Review: How refreshing to find this novel that synthesizes the elements of popular fiction with the texture and layers usually reserved for books to be read again and again. Ann Wadsworth skillfully reveals Mercedes Medina: a woman willing to examine and pursue the awakening she experiences. Mercedes welcomes the mystery she discovers within herself. Her conversations with the other pivotal characters in the book (Patrick, Lennie, and Diana) illuminate not only the relationships but also the mastery of language that Wadsworth so deftly projects. These three characters still hold hidden places for me and that is one of the reasons (other than simply reading the WORDS again!) that I want to reread the book immediately. The experience of the book mesmerizes the reader as surely as the experience itself holds Mercedes in its grasp. The cultural parameter of Italy -- its language, its art, its passion -- provides the characters with a background worthy of their story. The motifs of the gardenia, the lisianthus, the "downward pull" throughout the book come together to impact the sensibilities of the reader. The ambiguity, which really wasn't ambiguity but more a sense of mystery, again spoke to me in the times the main character was called Mrs. Medina, Mercedes, or Merce. Mercedes says, "Although subtleties, I am told, are what give texture to one's life"; Ann Wadsworth's words give texture to her rendition of that story which is destined to haunt the heart and tease the imagination after the cover has been closed -- on the first reading.
Elizabeth Ackley, Professor of English, Wilmington College,
2 Triangle Park Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio 45246
Rating:
Summary: A Rare Find
Review: I found poetry on each of this magical novel's pages. It is so rare that a "lesbian" novel reaches in and wraps itself around my experience and emotion. This one does. I only wish that Ms. Wadsworth had spent more time on the relationships between Mercedes and Lennie, then Diana and less on the annoying Patrick. The novel shines as Mercedes discovers herself and then what is the real music necessary for her to find complete happiness. If you shy away from lesbian literature because so much of it is a waste of time, this one is different. I cannot wait till Ms. Wadsworths next work.
Rating:
Summary: A Rare Find
Review: I found poetry on each of this magical novel's pages. It is so rare that a "lesbian" novel reaches in and wraps itself around my experience and emotion. This one does. I only wish that Ms. Wadsworth had spent more time on the relationships between Mercedes and Lennie, then Diana and less on the annoying Patrick. The novel shines as Mercedes discovers herself and then what is the real music necessary for her to find complete happiness. If you shy away from lesbian literature because so much of it is a waste of time, this one is different. I cannot wait till Ms. Wadsworths next work.
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