At First Light
At First Light spans two different but inter-connected periods in the history of Florida’s Key West. It opens in 1993 with the killing of a Ku Klux Klan official by 96-year-old Alicia Cortez, who arrived in Key West in 1919 (the novel’s primary and strongest setting) having been sent away from Cuba. She is drawn into a relationship with WWI battle-hardened returnee, John Morales, a relationship outside acceptable degrees of racial segregation but tolerated until the arrival of the Ku Klux Klan. Cortez and Morales’ story is based on a real incident, and the novel tackles the themes of racism and prejudice based on religion and race with a strong eye to the period’s dreadful intolerance. Lafaye has a visceral way with description: Key West with its sewage and insects and vibrant life is evocatively imagined and Alicia’s shock at the world she is pitched into beautifully drawn. Alicia’s resilient character is the story’s lynchpin. Morales becomes a kinder man for his association with her, and the young and deeply confused Dwayne, torn between wanting to become a man as his father defines it and the warnings of his troubled conscience, also finds a form of redemption and hope through her.
The novel explores the nature of justice, who defines this and who deserves it, in an extremely readable way. The story can feel a little imbalanced—the Ku Klux Klan is the force which horribly changes Key West and Alicia’s life, and I would have preferred more focus on this than some of the earlier sections, which set up character relationships, to create a greater sense of menace before the pivotal event itself, which unfolds very quickly. Despite this, At First Light is a highly accomplished and recommended read and a novel that is not easily forgotten.
