AustLit logo
image of person or book cover 2184412540731173601.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon How the Light Gets In single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2003... 2003 How the Light Gets In
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Lou Connor, a precocious, gifted, and unhappy sixteen-year-old, is offered a place as an exchange student in the United States, something that she hopes will take her far away from her bleak life of poverty in Sydney, Australia. Having endured a childhood with an emotionally crass, deadbeat family, she welcomes the opportunity to live the middle-class life she has long dreamed of. But soon after she moves in with her host family, the Hardings - who live in a prefabricated mansion in a nameless Chicago suburb - Lou's acute need for acceptance and love runs up against the Hardings' suffocating pursuit of a particular form of suburban perfection. How the Light Gets In is a portrait of a girl on the verge of adulthood whose world - like Holden Caulfield's before her - is full of mixed messages.' (Synopsis)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Camberwell, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2003 .
      image of person or book cover 2184412540731173601.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 317p.
      ISBN: 0143001280
    • Camberwell, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2010 .
      Extent: 317p.
      ISBN: 9780143001287
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Works about this Work

Untitled Christian Mondeil , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 24 no. 2 2010; (p. 61-62)
— Review of How the Light Gets In M. J. Hyland , 2003 single work novel
Deep Listening Hilary McPhee , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , July vol. 4 no. 6 2009; (p. 23)
— Review of This Is How M. J. Hyland , 2009 single work novel ; How the Light Gets In M. J. Hyland , 2003 single work novel ; Carry Me Down M. J. Hyland , 2006 single work novel
Teenage Wasteland : Adolescents and Adolescence in M. J. Hyland's Novels "Baleiro adolescente" : adolescentes e adolescencia nas novelas de M. J. Hyland David Clark Mitchell , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australia and Galicia : Defeating the Tyranny of Distance 2008; (p. 275-289) 'This paper studies the presentation of adolescence in the two novels written my M.J. Hyland, How the Light Gets In (2003) and Carry Me Down (2006). After commenting on the trans-national basis of much contemporary fiction, and Hyland's relationship to both an Australian and an Irish literary system, we discuss the concept of 'grace' as a term for defining a certain set of perceived human qualities, and how the rupture between adolescent and adult society can be seen as the apparent result of mutually confused interpretations of such qualities. Both novels are examined through the relationship between the adolescent protagonists and the various social levels on which they are seen in the works.' (p. 275)
Call of the Young Aviva Tuffield , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 12 March 2006; (p. 18)
A Rebel and the American Idiom Robert Hefner , 2005 single work column
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 30 October 2005; (p. 14)
Shining a Light on Teenage Alienation Owen Richardson , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 12 July 2003; (p. 5)
— Review of How the Light Gets In M. J. Hyland , 2003 single work novel
Forget the Moral Sermon Ben Naparstek , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 19 July 2003; (p. 6)
— Review of How the Light Gets In M. J. Hyland , 2003 single work novel
Search for a Ray of Hope Bernard Zuel , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 9-10 August 2003; (p. 16)
— Review of How the Light Gets In M. J. Hyland , 2003 single work novel
Other Voices Tony Maniaty , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 4-5 October 2003; (p. 11)
— Review of The Different World of Fin Starling Elizabeth Stead , 2003 single work novel ; Old Jazz Mike Williams , 2003 single work novel ; How the Light Gets In M. J. Hyland , 2003 single work novel ; Junkie Pilgrim Wayne Grogan , 2003 single work novel
Sea of Possibilities Madeleine Byrne , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 254 2003; (p. 53-54)
— Review of Tristessa and Lucido Miriam Zolin , 2003 single work novel ; How the Light Gets In M. J. Hyland , 2003 single work novel
A Rebel and the American Idiom Robert Hefner , 2005 single work column
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 30 October 2005; (p. 14)
Call of the Young Aviva Tuffield , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 12 March 2006; (p. 18)
Teenage Wasteland : Adolescents and Adolescence in M. J. Hyland's Novels "Baleiro adolescente" : adolescentes e adolescencia nas novelas de M. J. Hyland David Clark Mitchell , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australia and Galicia : Defeating the Tyranny of Distance 2008; (p. 275-289) 'This paper studies the presentation of adolescence in the two novels written my M.J. Hyland, How the Light Gets In (2003) and Carry Me Down (2006). After commenting on the trans-national basis of much contemporary fiction, and Hyland's relationship to both an Australian and an Irish literary system, we discuss the concept of 'grace' as a term for defining a certain set of perceived human qualities, and how the rupture between adolescent and adult society can be seen as the apparent result of mutually confused interpretations of such qualities. Both novels are examined through the relationship between the adolescent protagonists and the various social levels on which they are seen in the works.' (p. 275)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (11)

Awards

VIEW ALL AWARDS (4)
Last amended 26 Jul 2017 13:32:18
Subjects:
Settings:
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • Chicago, Illinois,
    c
    United States of America (USA),
    c
    Americas,
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X