June Chen’s debut novel, Seeing the Light: A Novel takes you
on a lifetime of events of a selfish and self-centered girl awakening to the
meaning of life. The storyline unfolds similar
to a soap opera, whereas a succession of events occurs to Rhea, the only
daughter of a farming family with three brothers. Her dad nicknamed her Princess, a bit
sarcastic because of her lack of feminine vanity. The family moved from the mid-west to the
Central Coast of California to raise cattle just east of San Luis Obispo. The story begins in California when Rhea was
a young girl, and follows her into maturity and eventually her Seeing the Light.
June Chen writes in a way of conveying her story without
overly embellishing descriptions, nor filling in details unrelated to the
story. She is not pretentious with her
choice of words, wanting the book to be easily understood for its meaning by
everyone – mostly by young adults. It is
a brisk read, and filled with many lessons learned affording the reader quality
time and is an enjoyable book.
She tells a story of an ordinary family having some
extraordinary experiences. Rhea is an
observer to some bizarre behavior of local farm workers, wanders, and
hitchhikers. She holds steadfast with
her zero tolerance for alcohol and drug use while seeing others fail at the
challenge. She finds love in the
aftermath of an event by a person coincidently placed in her life that wouldn’t
have been there if it weren’t for an unfortunate incident. Not to expose the plot, Rhea comes to her
life changing reality with the sobering circumstances of a tragedy which is no
doubt the worst kind imaginable.
June Chen takes Rhea’s tragedy and begins a journey into a
dream sequence. Rhea’s dream recurs and
the characters within the dream play out. In a montage of religious beliefs, spiritual encounters, demonic characters
and self actualizations, she masterfully shows the reader just how Rhea’s
thoughts had altered her personality so dramatically. In essence, June Chen explains how the core
of her character changed thus bringing the superficial behavioral difference to
the surface. From originally thinking
that generosity and charity as shown by her parents were a form of weakness of
character, she matured to having humility and kindness in a way which seemed
disgusting to her in her youth. This is a significant accomplishment of June
Chen’s writing technique, one that can be understood and assimilated by maturing
adults.
What takes a lifetime and a horrific experience in Rhea’s
life can be learned by others in a few hours by picking up and reading Seeing the Light.
Buy this book at Amazon.com
