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Illumination Night Alice Hoffman 9780099429180 Books

Download As PDF : Illumination Night Alice Hoffman 9780099429180 Books

Illumination Night Alice Hoffman 9780099429180 Books

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.


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Illumination Night Alice Hoffman 9780099429180 Books Reviews

Descriptive and expressive, “Illumination Night”, reveals the passions, fallibilities and sensitivities of a varied cast of characters, each struggling to cope with their own identities, the effects of past influences and their hopes and dreams for the future. The story takes place in present day on Martha’s Vineyard, in the small town of Chilmark, where a young woman, wild and sullen, will arrive and ultimately test the will, the love and the fears, of the individuals she encounters.
The lives of the ordinary year round resident's of Martha's Vineyard are the focus of this story. An elderly woman struggling to cope with the true twilight of her life. A rebellious teenage girl unwillingly designated to be her grandmother's helper. And a young couple and their young son, all with their own inner struggles.Their lives are entangled in the most ordinary yet extraordinary ways.
Alice Hoffman is known for the magical element in her stories. This one had it as well, although it didn't figure as prominently. And while initially I struggled to engage, the prose so beautifully done kept me reading until the characters took hold of me.
Alice Hoffman's beautiful writing makes all her stories come to life, and Illumination Night is no exception. Its difficult to describe the plot of this story. On the one hand, it is the story of neighbors moving through a year together. The reader gets to know Vonny, Andre and their son, Simon, as well as their neighbor, Elizabeth and her granddaughter, Jody, and all the intricacies that make up their lives. We watch Vonny and Andre lose and find each other, Simon find a real friend, only to lose her, Elizabeth deal with growing old, and Jody find true love in the most unexpected place. Beyond these individual stories, Illumination Night is about facing our fears, learning to let go, and accepting death as part of our lives. It is about relationships and making sure we never take our loved ones for granted. Its a beautiful, magical story about life, as only A!ice Hoffman can tell it.
Andre and Vonnie are struggling to make ends meet while raising their young son, Simon. Little do they know however, how much their lives will change when their elderly neighbor, Elizabeth decides she can fly and falls from her roof. This event sets in motion the arrival of Jody, Elizabeth's granddaughter, who is banished to the small town by her mother, to take care of grandma. Jody is a teenager with plenty of oats to sow, and quickly sets her eyes on Andre, well just because she thinks she can do whatever she feels like.

As the chaos heats up between Andre and Jody, Vonnie is stricken with severe panic attacks. She can't leave the house and spends hours a day driving her truck up and down the muddy driveway desperately trying to break through her imaginary bubble. Adorable little Simon, is trapped between the comings and goings of all of the adults.

Alice Hoffman does a great job of developing a diverse cast of characters and weaving their actions together. I enjoyed this book for the most part. The one thing that bugged me however, is why the title was Illumination Night. The lighting of lanterns played a very small part in the story. And I didn't feel that any of the characters found "illumination" by the end. Only Jody moved on, every one else simply moved back into a pre existing comfort zone.

Illumination Night is not my favorite Alice Hoffman novel but it's high on the list and worth the time I invested in it.
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.