On Lighthouses
On Lighthouses by Jazmina Barrera, published by Two Lines Press in 2020, is a thought-provoking exploration of lighthouses that intertwines personal memoir with literary history. In this 183-page work, Barrera reflects on her experiences in a New York apartment, using the metaphor of lighthouses to convey messages of human presence and connection. The narrative begins with Robert Louis Stevenson’s grandfather and extends to various lighthouses along the Spanish and Oregon coasts, as well as those featured in the works of notable literary figures such as Virginia Woolf and Edgar Allan Poe.
Readers will find that On Lighthouses artfully examines the significance of these structures while prompting deeper questions about writing and the act of collecting. Barrera’s journey leads her from feelings of isolation to a place of understanding and peace, as she contemplates the nature of existence and the guiding light that lighthouses symbolize. This edition invites readers to engage with themes of nature, personal reflection, and literary criticism, offering a unique perspective on the intersection of life and literature.
Official synopsis Publisher
“After spending sufficient time inside a lighthouse, who wouldn’t begin to hear a song in the sound of the machinery, a voice in the wind or the waves?”
Far from home, in the confines of a dim New York apartment where the oppressive skyscrapers further isolate her, Jazmina Barrera offers a tour of her lighthouses–those structures whose message is “first and foremost, that human beings are here.”
Starting with Robert Louis Stevenson’s grandfather, an engineer charged with illuminating the Scottish coastline, On Lighthouses artfully examines lighthouses from the Spanish to the Oregon coasts and those in the works of Virginia Woolf, Edgar Allan Poe, Ingmar Bergman, and many others.
In trying to “collect” lighthouses by obsessively describing them, Barrera begins to question the nature of writing, collecting, and how, by staring so intently at one thing we are only trying to avoid others. Equal parts personal memoir and literary history, On Lighthouses takes the reader on a desperate flight from raging sea to cold stone–from a hopeless isolation to a meaningful one–concluding at last in a place of peace: the home of a selfless, guiding light.
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