Customer Reviews

A Trick of Light

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A Trick of Light is a beautifully accessible novel with specific characters and events shaped by the real world. They are touching and familiar, and the voice that tells of them is honest, respectful, and unpretentious. What is particularly impressive is the construction of the novel's chapters. In some cases, they are no longer than a prose poem, bringing our attention to the smallest nuances, pauses, gestures, that collectively bring a character to life. In a sense, one could argue that the book works cinematically in the way that it moves gracefully from scene to scene, but it is the poetry of the language that really shines through and makes each "scene" satisfying and moving. What is more? It's a page-turner, a piece of literature that is immediately engrossing and one I found very hard to put down.

Trick of Light is a subtly layered book that takes a reader effortlessly through the tragedy and nightmare of two families' lives. The protagonist Hattie is so vivid, I felt like cheering when she reaches insights and her hard fought victory. It is a tribute to Blomain's writing that I could suspend disbelief when Hattie chooses to stay and help her deceased husband Ben's second family. And it is remarkable that the cad in question is also revealed to have hidden depths, and that Ben's betrayal of his first family is not only plausible, but makes a kind of sense. After reading Season of Lost Children, the second book of a planned trilogy,I went back to read Trick of Light and I'm sure glad I did. The plot unfolds like petals opening on a flower, all the main characters are richly drawn, and Blomain uses a settings in New England as eloquently as dialogue.

Odd, that a book that leaves me with more questions than answers should be so satisfying, so moving, so thought-provoking. Karen Blomain traces one woman's horrifying discovery of her late husband's double life through the decisions that woman makes, the impact of those decisions on her friends and family, and the painful growth she experiences as she gives comfort to those she came prepared to hate. Beautifully drawn contrasts between urban and rural life, reflections on the pull of duty in family bonds, and the unexpected rebirth of passion, all these and more await the reader. And yet, perhaps the greatest gift of this enchanting narrative is the reader's inevitable grappling with the "what if's". How would I handle challenges such as these? What if the protagonist had made other choices? What, after all, is really important in life?

A Trick of Light took me away from my own experience to a place of more understanding and empathy. Karen Blomain is a storyteller in the tradition of the Irish seanchai. No pressure, but I'm looking for the second in her quartet.

"Karen Blomain takes the controversial subject of bigamy and makes it into something poignant, thought provoking and compassionate with a very compelling plot and unforgettable characters. A TRICK OF LIGHT can't help but touch your heart in all the nooks and crannies as it explores the creativity of an extraordinarily talented author whose characters seem so real that they shatter you emotionally as you become involved in their lives. When you finish the book, you can't help but wonder what you would do if faced with the same set of circumstances. Yes, it certainly is food for some lengthy discussions isn't it when you think about bigamy, middle-aged sexuality, agoraphobia, and widowhood!"

A TRICK OF LIGHT is one heartbreaking eye-opener as to how something like this could ever happen. Ms. Blomain handles it with the finesse of a master storyteller. I know this reader cried her eyes out many a time while reading this emotional roller coaster of a novel. Karen Blomain delves into the deepest of human emotions as she takes a woman's love for her husband, her memories of their life together, his death and what it means to his two wives, and mixes it with the stark reality of facing the truth behind years of deception and lies that were the result of a man's love and compassion for the two women he loved. The twister is that Hattie finds herself caught in the same web that caught up her dear Ben, a man who experienced the dilemma of falling in love with two women and adjusted his life to accommodate the two families.

This is the first book in a trilogy spanning 40 years in the lives of three women in a small town. Look for A TRICK OF LIGHT as a CBS movie by Barbara Streisand's Barwood Films in the future!