SOURCE: Crane, David. “Patches of Darkness.” Spectator 281, no. 8873 (29 August 1998): 27.

In the following review, Crane praises the opening of Pieces of Light, but finds the rest of the novel disappointing.

For the first 136 pages Adam Thorpe's new novel [Pieces of Light] seems just about as good as fiction gets. The book opens on a remote outpost of empire in 1920s Africa, and traces the emotional growth of a young boy from the first intense experiences of a jungle childhood to the cold and alien world of guardians and English prep school.

It is a measure of just how wonderfully good this part is that, in spite of the obvious differences of style and setting, the book it constantly brings to mind is Great Expectations. There is the same delicate awareness of a boy's fears and anxieties in both novels, the same sure feel for the ways in which the...