The Light Pirate

“The big coconut palm hanging over the yard sways. Its roots are sunk deep beneath the wilderness lurking at the edge of the property, but its trunk swings out over the lawn as if the wild is reaching for the house with those big fingerlike fronds. As if it’s trying to caress the family that lives here, or to crush them all. Or both. Frida knows all about beauty and violence arriving together. She’s seen it up close; she knows what nature can do.”

This passage vividly describes the anxiety Frida feels as Hurricane Wanda approaches Rudder, Florida, at the start of the novel. This excerpt also directly introduces one of the novel’s major themes, The Beauty and Violence of Nature. The coconut palm’s seeming ambivalence toward the Lowe family and the use of words like “fingerlike” and “caress” personify the tree. Throughout the novel, Brooks-Dalton uses a range of literary devices, including personification and imagery, to depict the beauty and violence of nature.

“‘Fri,’ he says, trying to de-escalate the fury he sees on her face, ‘we’ll be okay. I promise. I’ve been prepping for hurricanes since I was a kid. I know how to do this.’ He reaches for her. The baby kicks again, hard, and she suddenly doesn’t have the energy to point out that they have this in common. That there is not one expert in this house but two. Soon, a third. Because what will this baby know but storm after storm?”

This scene clarifies the Lowe family’s dynamics at the start of the novel. Kirby’s overconfidence in his own expertise and his efforts to calm Frida rather than offer her understanding are misguided. Additionally, this passage develops the theme of Survival and Adaptation. Frida’s grim prediction for her daughter’s future proves true. Climate change plays a major role in the novel, which presents a near-future Florida. However, Wanda adapts and not only survives “storm after storm” but learns to thrive.

“He’d known for years how decrepit the U.S. electrical grid had become. Every lineman knew that. But he’d imagined, as they all had, that one day the work would get done. The lights, somehow, would stay on. Turns out that in a territory where no one could vote, they wouldn’t. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knows that Puerto Rico was only the beginning, but he doesn’t dwell on that.”

Kirby reflects on San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he met Frida in the aftermath of Hurricane Poppy. He understands how human corruption and inequality worsen the effect of nature’s violence in “a territory where no one could vote.