The Same Bright Stars - Ethan Joella - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Ethan Joella

GENRE: Literary Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: July 2, 2024

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: If you know Ethan Joella’s writing, you know what to expect from this. A character-oriented literary fiction with multiple emotional hues. Focusses on the interplay of relationships across family, friends, and employees. Well-written plot, balanced emotions, excellent character sketches. Recommended!

Plot Preview:

Fifty-two-year-old Jack Schmidt has been taking care of the family restaurant since his college years. And now he is tired. He has always put the restaurant first in his life, even at the cost of relationships and friendships. With no family around, he wonders if he should have done things differently.

When the DelDine corporation approaches Jack with a takeover offer, his initial reluctance slowly gives way to consideration. But what is Jack without Schmidt’s? Can he trust a corporation to take care of his family’s legacy and his staff the way he did?

The story comes to us from Jack’s third person perspective over two timelines.

Bookish Yays:

🌞 Jack is a deserving protagonist. His care and concern for his employees is as evident as his confusion over his decision and his regret at some past incidents. Despite this, Jack is carved realistically, with flaws also a part of his character development.

🌞 The other characters, whether major or minor, are also layered. Some of them are typical while other are more unusual, but most make an impact.

🌞 It might seem like Jack has reached the point of a midlife crisis, when people begin pondering the what ifs and if onlys. But the story is much more than that. I like how the character-focussed narrative still paid attention to the plot.

🌞 The two timelines work together in harmony, effectively depicting how the actions of the past can have repercussions on the present. For a change, I liked the contemporary timeline more than the past one, as it had much more to offer.

🌞 The third-person writing works excellently in this novel. It's surprising to see how much we understand the characters even though we get only Jack's third-person view of their behaviour.

🌞 The challenge of running a family/independent business in today's world where commercialisation and standardisation are the norm comes out well.

🌞 The setting of Rehoboth Beach is perfect for this story. There are interludes after every few chapters from “Rehoboth Beach: A Guidebook’, which give us a perspective on the location. I kept thinking about how well the author seemed to have captured the pulse of Rehoboth Beach. Turns out, he stays there with his family! No wonder the writing feels so personal and genuine!

🌞 As a character-oriented literary fiction, the pacing is obviously on the slower side, but it doesn’t slacken anytime.

🌞 This is a gentle, melancholic kind of read that is mostly introspective but offers moments of light-heartedness. Rarely do stories with male protagonists have such realistic exploration of diverse emotions. More importantly, few male writers can capture feelings so well. I love the overall emotional tone of this story.

🌞 The ending is perfect. I love how the author doesn’t forcibly try to fit in shiny rainbows into every characters’ lives. The ending is just as the plot deserves: hopeful.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

🌤️ There are many characters with secrets. A couple of them felt flat and forced to me, but the rest were written well and fit into the narrative neatly.

🌤️ The cover might lead to some erroneous expectations, so don’t be confused by it. This is not a beach read, though those chairs have significance in the later part of the story. The book has clearly been marked as literary fiction, and that is exactly what it is. Also, there are several dark themes in the book. Though these are written without going overly maudlin, they still mean that the book works more as a contemplative read than as an entertaining palate cleanser.

All in all, this is a mood read and if picked up at the right time, it will satisfy the reader with its mellow observation of humans and their strengths and shortcomings.

This is my second book by Ethan Joella, the first being ‘A Quiet Life’, which was similar in mood but had three characters’ perspectives. While I liked that book as well, ‘The Same Bright Stars’ worked out even better in theme as well as writing. Ethan Joella teaches English and Psychology at the University of Delaware, and he seems to use both subjects optimally while crafting his stories. This is definitely an author I’d love to read more from.

Recommended to literary fiction readers and those who enjoy slow-burn character-oriented writing in a small-town setting.

My thanks to Scribner for providing the DRC of “The Same Bright Stars” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.