Elias Wrenfield

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Every Window Lit

From The Current Encyclopedia

Every Window Lit is a novel by Elias Wrenfield and the sixth book of The Current series. It is a novel of fathers and sons about Ray Vance, a county surveyor, and the son he raises alone.

Premise

Ray Vance trusts a closed traverse more than a feeling and has never once erased a mistake. The autumn his son James is nine, Ray comes around the last curve on the ridge road and finds his wife at the kitchen table in her good coat. Lena could always fill up a room. Now she wants a bigger one. Ray doesn't follow her. He decides, the way his father did, to want exactly what he has and not one bit more. Fewer lamps. Less to lose. A card comes most years, addressed to the boy. Ray never opens one.

Eleven windows

Main characters

  • Ray Vance. County surveyor. Point of view.
  • Lena Vance. His wife, who wants a bigger life.
  • James Vance. Their son, nine when the book opens.
  • June. Ray's older sister, who keeps turning the lights back on.

Connections

  • Readers of Book 1 know Ray only as a flat voice on the phone at 6:15.
  • The boy grows up to narrate Book 1.

See also