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The Light of Evening Hardcover – October 6, 2006

by Edna O'Brien (Author)

25 customer reviews

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Brimming with the lyricism and earthy insight that are the hallmarks of Edna O'Brien's acclaimed fiction, The Light of Evening is a novel of dreams and attachments, lamentations and betrayals. At its core is the realization that the bond between mother and child is unbreakable, stronger even than death.

From her hospital bed in Dublin, the ailing Dilly Macready eagerly awaits a visit from her long-estranged daughter, Eleanora. Years before, Eleanora fled Ireland for London when her sensual first novel caused a local scandal. Eleanora's peripatetic life since then has brought international fame but personal heartbreak in her failed quest for love. Always, her mother beseeches her to return home, sending letters that are priceless in their mix of love, guilt, and recrimination. For all her disapproval, Dilly herself knows something of Eleanora's need for freedom: as a young woman in the 1920s, Dilly left Ireland for a new life in New York City. O'Brien's marvelous cinematic portrait of New York in that era is a tour de force, filled with the clang and clatter of the city, the camaraderie of working girls against their callous employers, and their fierce competition over handsome young men. But a lover's betrayal sent Dilly reeling back to Ireland to raise a family on a lovely old farm named Rusheen. It is Rusheen that still holds mother and daughter together.

Eleanora's visit to her mother's sickbed does not prove to be the glad reunion that Dilly prayed for. And in her hasty departure, Eleanora leaves behind a secret journal of their stormy relationship -- a revelation that brings the novel to a shocking close.

The Light of Evening is a contemporary story with universal resonance. In this beautiful and moving new novel, Edna O'Brien delves deep into the intense relationship that exists between a mother and daughter who long for closeness yet remain eternally at odds.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In her 20th work of fiction, O'Brien meditates with haunting lyricism on the lure of home and the compulsion to leave. Dilly, 78 and widowed, lies in a Catholic hospital in rural Ireland waiting for her elder daughter, Eleanora, to arrive at her bedside. In gorgeous stream-of-consciousness from the masterful O'Brien (Lantern Slides), Dilly recalls her early years as well as decades of misunderstanding and conflict with Eleanora. Dilly's past unfolds in fits and starts: she leaves her mother behind in a small village in Ireland to seek a better life in 1920s Brooklyn, returning after a failed affair and the death of her brother, Michael. She promptly marries the rich Cornelius; they settle at Rusheen, his dilapidated family estate, and have two children. For Eleanora's story, O'Brien shifts to the third person: the daughter moves to England, marries an older novelist and begins a successful career as a writer before divorcing him and embarking on a series of affairs with married men, a life that Dilly both envies and scorns. The award-winning O'Brien evokes the cruelty of estrangement while allowing her characters to remain sympathetic and giving them real voice. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Edna O'Brien's 20th work of fiction does what all of her novels do: it lyrically expounds on the dizzying power of love. Nevertheless, reviews were mixed. Light of Evening is simultaneously overwrought, sentimental, forceful, and heartbreakingly true—even if the tacked-on conclusion felt strained. The narrative shifts between third-person points of view, stream of consciousness, and diary entries also caused a problem for some reviewers, including Erica Wagner from the New York Times Book Review: "Overall, the novel is destabilized by the shifts in perception that are also so much a part of its structure."

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Product details

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition edition (October 6, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618718672
ISBN-13: 978-0618718672
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 25 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,551,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #17528 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Psychological Thrillers
- #66240 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary
- #104263 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

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Physiux

Sadly I cannot honestly say I liked this book and have therefore only given it two ...

July 31, 2015

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Sadly I cannot honestly say I liked this book and have therefore only given it two stars. I recognize that the writing itself is beautiful but that just was not enough to redeem the book. The author jumped around constantly between characters, place and time and I found myself having to guess when and where we actually were. She frequently seemed to start an explanation and then drifted away leaving so many things vague that I was just plain unsatisfied. To an extent the novel is about the relationship between a mother living in rural Ireland and her cosmopolitan semi-famous novelist daughter who doesn't seem to have the time to visit. Beyond the geographical divide, O'Brien's novel is an exploration of the presentness of memory, it's ability to keep one rooted in the past while slipping through present moments without experiencing them, the danger of never breaking the pattern of repetition, the fear that one's memory is a lie. The novel is also an experiment in language as O'Brien takes cues from Faulkner, Flaubert, Joyce and others while shattering and maybe extending characteristics that have become archetypes of modernism. As a reader, one feels veiled like falling asleep during a movie and missing really crucial sections of the narrative. This feeling is persistant; just as the narrative flow picks up, one is flung into a new voice, in a new time period. It's difficulty is worthwhile for the gorgeous descriptions of the rural country and for the emotional impact the silences press into the reader. O'Brien creates a wonderful clash between folklore and modernity, pastoral and urban life, and past and present.

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A Clinic On How To Write

June 7, 2008

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You get an idea of just how good a writer Edna O'Brien is when you reach page 20 (paperback version) of The Light of Evening. Up to that point, O'Brien had been casually describing her protagonist (Dilly)'s illness, the farm (Rusheen) from where she came, and the relationship between Dilly and her daughter. Then, out of the blue, O'Brien includes the following sentence in a letter that Dilly is writing to that daughter:

"Your brother says he will sever all ties with us unless we do as he asks and sign Rusheen over to him."

With this short sentence, O'Brien both introduces a new character and sets up a dynamic of family strife that permeates the story. Best of all, she doesn't mention the brother's demand for the rest of the letter, thereby enhancing the impact of that line. In the hands of lesser writer, such exposition would have taken several pages. But, O'Brien has enough talent to completely turn the story on its head with just one sentence.

That sentence and its impact on the story best explain why this dense, challenging book is worth reading. The story itself is little more than the typical "I love you/I hate you/I love you" drama inherent in a dysfunctional parent-child relationship. But, O'Brien intricately uses language in a master craftsman-like manner to provide the narrative with heft and power. While the story itself is not worth meriting the book's purchase, readers should buy The Light of Evening just to discover (or rediscover) how effective and beautiful the English language can be in the hands of a gifted writer.

3 people found this helpful4 people found this helpful

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Michele B

Irish Women Portrayed

June 5, 2016

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I had never read this well known author, and was thrilled to find her. You can hear the Irish lilt in her dialogue, her descriptions of the world are specific, poetic. I Imagine that the mother daughter relationship, which this book explores, mirrors her own. Would give writer 5 stars, but one section of journal slowed flow for me, but certainly loved the rest and will read her other books now!

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Cynthia A. Nelson

very disappointing read

January 27, 2007

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This book held my interest initially when the mother, Dilly, is a young girl and travels against her parents' wishes to America. The descriptions of what life was like for a young domestic were illuminating and offered interesting food for thought on the class structure (Irish emigrees still subjugating their own countrymen). And the letters from Dilly to her daughter, Eleanora, were real and full of life. Sadly, all of the novel that centers on Eleanora and her sad life is just empty in feel--I couldn't wait to be finished reading those sections. If, metaphorically, O'Brien wishes for the reader to see Dilly as the one full of life despite her impending death, then she succeeded. Otherwise, this novel simply fails on almost all levels to be either an enjoyable read or a book with any true enlightenment about the mother/daughter relationship.

18 people found this helpful19 people found this helpful

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Naomi

Tiresome and doesn't hang together.

December 1, 2013

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This is the story of a mother and daughter. In the first part of the book, the mother emigrates from Ireland to New York. She falls in love, but for various reasons, things don't work out and she returns to Ireland. The story then jumps to her daughter and became rather tedious.

2 people found this helpful3 people found this helpful

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Patricia A. Lee

Light of Evening

April 29, 2014

Verified Purchase

I found it heavy and morose and stopped reading it - something I rarely do. I may go back later but there are so many good reads that I didn't want to pursue this one at the time.

One person found this helpful2 people found this helpful

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Friends Danville Lib

Well written but basically depressing

January 9, 2007

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This book got good reviews from professional reviewers so I bought it. Big mistake. It's basically a rehash of all the old Irish immigrant stories, although Dilly and daughter are not dirt poor. Reviews have said the book is about mother love and the push and pull of passion. Maybe. The faux "Joycean" stream of conciousness writing is hard to follow and unenlightening. This author is not for me. Sorry!

11 people found this helpful12 people found this helpful

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nellfenwick

solipsistic and boring. If she's the voice of Ireland

July 8, 2014

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I bought this book because I heard an interview on NPR with the author, but I found her highly overrated. Narcisistic, solipsistic and boring. If she's the voice of Ireland, my half-Irish heritage begs to differ.

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