the light review

The Light Behind Blue Circles by Robert Louis DeMayo is a great novel for young men and boys though I enjoyed it also. The story is set in 1983 Africa and 1993 Africa. In 1983 Peter, who is a 13 year old boy with his father a veteranarian in Africa studying poaching. This was their first trip together since Peter's mother's death. Peter was out exploring one morning before his father, Simon had awakened. Peter meets a young Maasai (warrier) named Lekai who is training to be the new tribal seer/doctor. Times are changing in Africa. Appartheid is not being embraced by all living in Africa--most especially not embraced by Conrad, also known as Red Beret, who has been recklessly running around drinking and killing animals and black Africans just for fun. Lekai and Peter form an immediate bond and Lekai convinces Simon and Peter to help him save his friend who was a rhino from death. On the trip out the trio meet up with Conrad who kills not only the rhina and other animals but also Lekai. Lekai gives Peter his bag of little stones with which he tells the future by letting the stones flow through his fingers. Peter keeps those stones with him always as one of his treasures. The story following is how Peter deals with the guilt of blaming himself for the death of Lekai. Peter learns what Lekai meant when he said to him one day, "The deeds of one's life are greater than the facts of his birth." For tens years Peter is plagued with dreams of Lekai and visits from Lekai even when he is awake. When Peter hears of his father's death, Peter embarks on a mystical trip through Africa to return to the village of Lekai to tell the old seer of how Lekai died. I enjoyed this book and it would be a good book for boys-coming of age. It kind of has a little of the Mark Twain flavor. I hope that this book is all fiction because in one of the life threatening encounters of Land Cruiser vs. elephant I was laughing so hard that I hope it did not have any connections to a real event. It is an action packed boys book. This book does have colorful language which may be a difficulty to overcome with some parents--one of the young men in the story flavors his speech patterns with the F bomb like salt on a fried egg and all the men occasionally swear. If you can get past the language there is a story worth telling. I received this book from the author through bookblogs.ning.com. (submitted by CB)