![]() Rumors abound about Serena being maybe a witch or a werewolf or engaging in bizarre, dire activities involving blood. From a local legend about a weeping willow carving lines in a cliff-face with its tears to Laurel’s idyllic vision of what American teenage life looks like. From there being the equivalent of a huntsman’s cabin in those woods, to a magical meeting place. Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals- BuddhaThere is a fairy tale aspect to The Lightness, from using Once upon a time to having to go through the woods to learn truths. ![]() And see what they might do to seduce the studly 23 yo gardener, who is reputed to know things, into giving them the lowdown on how to elevate their game. They try to ease the heavy lifting with a bit of weight reduction, in a nettlesome way. The Feeling exercise they engage in is a fun bit of ASMR nerve stimulation. Serena and her crew go through a range of activities designed to elevate their consciousness, or something. Serena sets the group a mission, by summer’s end, learn to levitate.Įmily Temple - image from her site - maybe searching for a cabin? ![]() Olivia is drawn to her, becoming a part of their small circle. Wicked smart, attractive, but not necessarily the prettiest, there is a presence to her that is compelling. She is one of those people who draws all eyes to her. She does not sleep in dorms with the other girls, but lives in a fancy tent, among those available for the more fiscally able. She has been at the camp for some years, more of an institution than a regular. (none of them named Heather, as far as I can recall) And then there is Serena. Girls who drank whiskey and worse by the waterfront…They were girls who ran away, who inked their own arms with needles and ballpoint pens, who got things pierced below the neck. They were girls who liked boys and back seats, who slid things that weren’t theirs into tight pockets, who lit fires and did doughnuts in the high school parking lot. They were slick-finish girls, cat-eye girls, hot-blood girls. The campers are a motley crew, with a diversity of dark tales to tell. Learn some Japanese floral arranging, meditation techniques, archery, and gardening, among other things over the eight-week session. The Levitation Center (not its real name), which Olivia calls Buddhist Boot Camp for Bad Girls, (dare we suggest Dharma Drilling for the Damaged? No? Oh, ok) runs an annual summer program for teens. Not on the best of terms with her mother, she has left home and signed herself into the last place she had known him to be, hoping to dig up some clues to his current whereabouts. Sixteen-year-old Olivia Ellis is on a mission. I also know the next part: and he never came back. Once upon a time, My father went to the Levitation Center. Set over the course of one fateful summer that unfolds like a fever dream, The Lightness juxtaposes fairy tales with quantum physics, cognitive science with religious fervor, and the passions and obsessions of youth with all of these, to explore concepts as complex as faith and as simple as loving people-even though you don’t, and can’t, know them at all.Īn insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind - Buddha - The beginning I know for sure. Led by the elusive and beautiful Serena, and her aloof, secretive acolytes, Janet and Laurel, the girls decide this is the summer they will finally achieve enlightenment-and learn to levitate, to defy the weight of their bodies, to experience ultimate lightness.īut as desire and danger intertwine, and Olivia comes ever closer to discovering what a body-and a girl-is capable of, it becomes increasingly clear that this is an advanced and perilous practice, and there’s a chance not all of them will survive. Soon, she finds herself drawn into the company of a close-knit trio of girls determined to transcend their circumstances, by any means necessary. Once there, she enrolls in their summer program for troubled teens, which Olivia refers to as “Buddhist Boot Camp for Bad Girls”. Yearning to make sense of his shocking departure and to escape her overbearing mother-a woman as grounded as her father is mercurial-Olivia runs away from home and retraces his path to a place known as the Levitation Center. One year ago, the person Olivia adores most in the world, her father, left home for a meditation retreat in the mountains and never returned. A stylish, stunningly precise, and suspenseful meditation on adolescent desire, female friendship, and the female body that shimmers with rage, wit, and fierce longing-an audacious, darkly observant, and mordantly funny literary debut for fans of Emma Cline, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Jenny Offill.
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