It's not just the landscape of Lake Superior on the North Shore of Minnesota that can be moody and unpredictable.
So, too, are the characters at the center of Peter Geye's new novel A Lesser Light, published by the University of Minnesota Press.
Set in the 1920s, Theodulf and Willa Sauer find themselves almost forced into marriage — for very different reasons. Theodulf is trying to be someone he isn't, while Willa has lost her father as well as the ability to continue her independent life. Their union is unhappy to say the least, but in the tension, the characters reveal their complexity.
Theodulf is a man shaped by duty, stationed as head keeper of a newly constructed lighthouse. Raised in privilege where he didn't quite fit in, he is an emotionally stunted and isolated man. Marrying is expected, but he finds his willful wife anything but expected.
"She is his unsuspecting and ill-suited wife who is much younger than he is," Geye said on the KAXE Morning Show. "They're not only cast in this unlucky union for both of them frankly, but also at this remote lighthouse."
"She's an independent woman. She's probably a brilliant woman, and I love all those qualities about her, even if she is kind of a jerk sometimes."Peter Geye
After her father's death, Willa has to return home from Radcliffe and is pushed into marriage by her mother, for financial stability. A musician and scientist, Willa finds herself navigating not just the rocky terrain of the North Shore, but the even rockier terrain of an unwanted marriage.
The characters aren't easy to love, but Geye's writing makes them compelling.
"Listen: many of us, most of us, face difficult lives. When you're forced to live under circumstances that are in direct conflict with not only your ambitions and your hopes and dreams, and your very nature, what is the result going to be?" Geye said. "They are going to be complicated and they're going to be difficult."
Geye said the early reader reactions have surprised him. Many have said they have more patience for Theodulf than Willa.
"To me, Willa is the much more sympathetic character," he said. "She proves herself to be more adaptable than he is."
All six of Geye's novels are historical fiction rooted on the North Shore.
"It's the first time I've really drawn on real life events to set the story in motion," he said, explaining the storm of 1905 and the building of Split Rock Lighthouse served as inspiration for his fictional story.
Geye often includes characters from previous novels, and he explained how even though they're imaginary, as a writer he falls in love and feels close to them. "When you are done writing the novel, it's like you're closing the door and they're gone."
Central to the story are the characters of the family who lives across the cove, a fisherman and his orphaned niece. They provide companionship and love. Also important to A Lesser Light are the other two lighthouse keeper's wives. Through these women, Willa learns concrete skills like gardening and cooking, while also showing how a lighthouse keeper's wife can live more peacefully and respectfully.
Geye said the women are what he remembers writing most vividly. "They stand in for the mother that Willa didn't ever have."
In the end, A Lesser Light really digs into survival and societal expectations. "She's an independent woman. She's probably a brilliant woman, and I love all those qualities about her," Geye said, "even if she is kind of a jerk sometimes."
What are you reading? Let us know!
