Mr Mascellani's Musings

For reasons that I won't get into here,I would have to say that my favourite adolescent literary protagonists have been (and are) Holden Caufield , PonyboyCurtis, and Adrian Mole. -and, now, I have a new character to add to this list: Louise "Lou" Connor.

She is the main character in M.J.Hyland's engaging debut novel, How the Light Gets.
A title that was apparaently (and aptly) taken from set of Leonard Cohen lyrics.

The novel tells (very well) the story of highly intelligent 16 year old Sydney girl who comes from a poor, dysfunctional family. She goes to the US as an exchange student, where her hosts are a highlyregulatedupper middle-class family, which means some drama, tension, and humo(u)r occur as "Lou" and her American family try to understand each other.

I enjoyed reading this novel.