A review by miagw962
A Bright Ray of Darkness by Ethan Hawke

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

"The wind doesn't blow," J.C. said. "You get it? It's wind, what else is it going to do? Rain doesn't fall. It's rain. And you don't act. You are. You get it?"

Let me start by saying I love Ethan Hawke - I love him as an actor and I think he is genuinely a very intelligent individual. I love the way he talks about acting and making movies and I believe he has some very interesting perspectives on those topics. And a lot of that comes through in this book which I really enjoyed! I think it's powerful and very cathartic how he wrote a fiction book based on his experiences in that industry as well as his relationship issues. I think there was a lot of truth in many of the very impactful moments throughout the story and I commend him for writing stuff like that because it felt very personal. I actually have a newfound respect for actors and their role in the GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS ie. life, the world. I think good actors do a lot more for our personal experiences, or my personal experiences at least, than we give them credit for. There are a lot of actors I see in movies and TV that I KNOW are good at what they do but I've only recently actively acknowledged what they are doing that makes their performances so great. I used to think it was just about playing make believe and just pretending to be someone else but because of some of the stuff said in this book, like the above quote, I think it's a lot more. I couldn't tell you specifically because I've never tried acting, best leave it to the professionals.

Anyway, the actual book was great! Just like when I hear Ethan Hawke speaking, his writing is intelligent and deep yet still unpretentious - it's like an accessible intelligence that makes everything easy to read but you're still able to ruminate on different concepts. The main character of William Harding is desperately flawed and honestly unlikeable at times which did get annoying to me sometimes. Sometimes I would be thinking '🤔not sure about how this main character is talking about women. I sure hope Ethan Hawke doesn't always think this way' but it was both jarring and oddly comforting to hear that honesty. It still kind of was a 'white man problems' book which would turn a lot of people off it but I also think there is more here than meets the eye. I loved a lot of the other characters in this book, that ensemble of characters kind of reminded me of Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood a little bit. Actually, a lot of it reminded me of that book, maybe because of the adaptation of a Shakespeare play and then life imitating art which I think happens more often than we acknowledge.

I've written a lot about this book already but I just think it was cool, coming from Ethan Hawke's perspective. Would I have liked it as much if it was written by someone else? Yes and no. I do truly think it was a well-written book with some questionable characters but I think it is more poignant and sincere coming from Ethan Hawke and his real life experiences. Love you forever king.
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