Name that book!

August 22, 2013 3:14 AM

I've been trying to find a great book I read about ten years ago. It is told (I think) from the POV of a young boy. He travels around from town to town with his mother, who enters a series of bad relationships and then they skip town each time. The kid in the book is very precocious, I think he is supposed to be quite young throughout. Eventually the mother settles down with a boyfriend, they move into his house I think...and at the end the kid murders his mother's boyfriend. I keep thinking the title has something to do with Light and Motion, and I think it refers to him watching the streetlights pass as they drive from town to town. Any help greatly appreciated.
posted by drunkonthemoon to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Best answer: "The history of luminous motion" by Scott Bradfield.
posted by labberdasher at 3:24 AM on August 22, 2013 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Brilliant! Thank you :)
posted by drunkonthemoon at 4:08 AM on August 22, 2013

Interesting. It also sounds quite similar in themes to the short novel by Mishima Yukio, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea.
posted by chomarui at 7:39 AM on August 22, 2013

This could have been Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life but with a more satisfying ending, especially if you're only familiar with the movie. (I met the author at a book-signing once, and told him I thought Michael Caton-Jones left out all the good parts, and emphasized the bad parts.) Film-Dwight DeNiro certainly had it coming.
posted by Rash at 10:38 AM on August 22, 2013

This book sounds GREAT! I only wish I didn't read the bit about the ending!
posted by mooza at 2:56 AM on August 23, 2013