Illumination Night (Paperback)

by Alice Hoffman (Author) "SIMON looks out his window and sees something white moving in the window of the house next door..." (more)
Key Phrases: Elizabeth Renny, Eleanor Freed, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
With an eye for household details and respect for daily events, Hoffman (Fortune's Daughter unleashes the mythic forcefulness of ordinary life in this polished story of love and loneliness set on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Simon is in his fourth year and small even for his age when he sees white-robed Elizabeth Renny, a neighbor in her 75th, tumble out her attic window "like a cloud." In her convalescence, Elizabeth is cared for by her rebellious teen-aged granddaughter Jody, sent from off-island. Jody sets her sights on Simon's father, Andre, who restores antique motorcycles, raising doubts and fears in Vonny, Simon's mother, Andre's wife. Elizabeth recovers; Jody pines and plots for the taciturn Andre; Simon doesn't grow; and Vonny's anxieties bloom into full-fledged agoraphobia. Seasons advance. Jody learns the limits of her desires and meets a freakishly tall eggman; a child dies, another grows; Elizabeth decides she'd rather live than die; and Vonny faces her fears. Illumination Night, an annual celebration on Martha's Vineyard when Victorian houses surrounding a park and bandstand are lit with hundreds of magical Japanese lanterns, provides apt title and image for this shimmering, radiant tale.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
With her signature "vivid, convincing characters [and] uncommon insight," (People) Alice Hoffman in Illumination Night follows the lives of an old woman whose last mission is to save her granddaughter's soul; a family torn apart by a wife's fears and a husband's desires-and a high school girl who comes to Martha's Vineyard against her will, and who will bring everyone together in a web of yearning, sin, and ultimate redemption.

"[A] bright constellation of characters...draws the reader into the dusky, dreamy world of Alice Hoffman." (St. Petersburg Times)

"Alice Hoffman hits bull's eyes on the incomprehensions between the young and the old, on the magic and pain of ordinary life. She is erotic and romantic...funny...clever and humane." (The Times, London)

"Alice Hoffman takes seemingly ordinary lives and lets us see and feel extraordinary things." (Amy Tan)

"One of the best writers we have today-insightful, funny, intelligent, with a distinctive voice." (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

"A major novelist." (Newsweek)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (February 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425183262
• ISBN-13: 978-0425183267
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #313,261 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Looking for love, overcoming fear and isolation, August 10, 2002

By	Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I picked up this book on a summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard and was both charmed and entertained by it. The tradition of Illumination Night and the summer gatherings of Methodist families on the island make a kind of magical, firefly-lit ambiance for this tale of people, young and old, whose lives intersect in unexpected ways.

The most fascinating character for me was the agoraphobic young wife, trapped in her house by fears she can barely articulate. Hoffman's treatment of this characters is so realistic and convincing that after reading the novel I felt for the first time that I not only understood this condition; I had lived it.

While the gentle-giant young man is a bit of a surprise for someone reading Hoffman for the first time, she also makes this character perfectly plausible and sympathetic. You can accept the young girl's falling in love with him because we come to care about him ourselves, while realizing that she has the power to break his heart.

As a writer, Hoffman leaves you with the impression that she feels deeply for her characters, regardless of their weaknesses and shortcomings. And putting down this novel, you can feel in yourself a tender-heartedness for others that most books either don't try to evoke, or try and fail.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly vivid, July 3, 2000

By	Jenny (Finland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Illumination Night (Mass Market Paperback)

This was the first book I ever read of Alice Hoffman, and I was completely amazed by her talent of writing such vivid and enchanting tales of ordinary people. Illumination night is a somewhat sad tale about destructive and longing love, that is destined to fail from the beginning. I could feel the pain that the young girl felt, knowing that the man she loved could never be hers. This is a story of passage, a young girl grows up and faces reality and her grandmother grows older and faces the fact that death cannot be avoided. After reading this book I got hooked on Hoffman's books. This is still my favorite book, alongside HERE ON EARTH. I really recommend this book if you aren't afraid of getting touched. Tears will fall, but in the end you will feel very whole.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing, fast read . . ., August 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Illumination Night (Mass Market Paperback)

Illumination Night is the seventh book I have read by Alice Hoffman. I wasn't too sure I would like this book, but it was a delightful surprise.

This book centers around Andre and Vonny, a couple who lives on Martha's Vineyard with their four-year-old boy, Simon. Andre and Vonny are having some martial problems, which is complicated by Andre's failing business and financial troubles, the worry that Simon has some defective genetic disease that prevents him from growing, and Jody, who moves in next door.

Jody is Elizabeth Renny's grandchild, and she was sent there in part because her parents were experiencing marital problems of their own, and also in part because Elizabeth was having trouble seeing and getting around. Jody is a sixteen-year-old teenager who likes to steal cars, manipulate boys, smoke cigarettes, skip school, and sleep with the neighbor's husband.

Jody becomes Simon's baby-sitter, and pretty soon, Andre can't control himself. Soon after that, Vonny snaps and can no longer leave the house. She finds out that she's having panic attacks, which seems to make her and her husband grow closer for the time being.

Jody finally loses interest in Andre when she spots the beautiful Giant in the woods, named Edward. At this point, you are sucked up in a romance of two unlikely people, much like a Beauty and the Beast.

This detailed and intricate storytelling is woven around high-charged emotions and mystical surroundings. It is this kind of tale-telling that Alice Hoffman is known for, and what she does best. Illumination Night is a truly engrossing read, and is shows further evidence of what a great writer Alice Hoffman is.