2/5 stars
How’d I find it? I picked up this book at Sherman’s in Bar Harbor, Maine during a visit to Acadia National Park. Van Booy won me over with his lovely short story collection, The Sadness of Beautiful Things, and I looked forward to reading him again.
Why not 3 or more stars? Night Came With Many Stars tenderly follows Carol, who overcomes an abusive childhood to create a new family. While Carol is the book’s center, chapters focus on various supporting characters (her grandson, her father, her mother-in-law) at different points in their lives, but the jarring transitions and shifting perspectives even within chapters suggest that Van Booy isn’t convinced of his own structure.
Electric language could have redeemed the book’s obvious plot of happenstance and tidy endings. The prose, however, is messy, the Kentucky accents unconvincing. The sweetness of Night Came With Many Stars is more aspartame than sugar.