While I love Alice Hoffman’s books, this one left me feeling meh. I never really grew close to the main character Vonny and was much more invested in Jody and her grandmother. This ending, and I certainly don’t need happy endings in my books, but this one left me frustrated. Also, the tragedy that happened seems entirely unnecessary to this story. I have more thoughts and questions but I don’t want to give anything away.
Just frustrated by this one.

For a reason unbeknownst to me, I really wanted to like this book. It may have just been that I love the word "illumination," but ironically enough, I also just read Everything is Illuminated and was similarly unimpressed. Maybe I should avoid forming expectations for a book based on the title, because I was disappointed (probably unreasonably) in Illumination Night.

The novel takes place in Martha's Vineyard and centers around a small group of neighbors. Vonny and Andre live next to elderly Elizabeth Renny, whose granddaughter Jody arrives to be her caretaker and stir things up with her mischievous adolescent disposition. While I enjoyed the writing itself, the story felt very piecemeal, and I could never quite figure out why a certain event was relevant. There was also an unexpected magical realist aspect thrown in there about halfway through. Hoffman demonstrates that she knows how to tell a story about love, marriage, and acceptance, but it seems that she does so in three separate stories, not one novel.

For starters, the back cover is pretty misleading. The summary places undue emphasis on Jody's role in the novel; yes, she does have an affair with Vonny's husband Andre, but it is extremely brief and, incredibly, doesn't even seem to affect how the rest of the story unfolds. When she subsequently hooks up with the Giant, her story kind of faded into the background while Vonny stole the spotlight with her panic attacks. The only time all of these characters really "come together" is when Vonny and Andre's son, Simon, is involved in an accident along with his friend and the Giant, and though Jody is technically there, she doesn't do anything, so how does she "bring them all together"? I honestly found the book completely disjoint. None of the events seemed to connect to me; one story line's plot would develop and suddenly veer off in a totally different direction. In the end, I found myself asking what this book was even about.

Another point of confusion was the character of the Giant. He is introduced by way of a rumor-legend-fable type of story, and it's unclear whether he's truly a mythical being or just an exceptionally tall man. After reading the first half of the novel, I didn't think that magical realism really had a place in the story. The Giant's appearance came very abruptly, and really only seemed to distract Jody from Andre. So why did he have to be a Giant? Was he meant to contrast with Simon's concerning lack of height and, in that case, contribute to the theme of accepting our loved ones? I couldn't discern what place he had in the story, and his fairy-tale like air just confused me.

All in all, I thought Illumination Night kind of just fell apart for me. It started out promisingly, what with the night actually called "Illumination Night" (which, by the way, is barely mentioned after the first chapter) and the sexual tension between Andre and Jody, but then everything panned out in ten different directions, veering sharply away from the story I had come to expect. I'm not arguing for predictability, but a logical progression of events would have been appreciated. I could barely see what each new development meant for the story, and because of this, I couldn't enjoy the novel as much as I'd hoped.

You know that magic you feel when you’re uncomfortable with the direction you’re going but it somehow works out? That feeling that your life is charmed and will shake out for the best? That’s this book.

Vonny suffers panic attacks. Andre suffers the boredom of commonality. Simon suffers feelings of inadequacy. Renny suffers the byproducts of old age. Her granddaughter suffers the feelings of stagnation and need common to all teenaged girls. And the Giant suffers unimaginable height. All of their paths will cross- some in pleasant ways. Some not. Some will help each other. Some can barely help themselves. All of them are lost. Some of them will be found.

Vonny, Andres, and their three year old, Simon, live in a secluded area of Martha's Vineyard near their elderly neighbor, Elizabeth Renny. When Elizabeth falls from a second floor window and is severely injured, her defiant, rebellious, 16 year old granddaughter, Jody, comes to care for her. With Jody's arrival, people and relationships change -- Vonny, Andres, Simon, Elizabeth, and Eddie, a giant sized hermit.

This was a "quiet" novel, more about character development and relationship changes than action. The writing style is lyrical and descriptive, and written in the present tense, makes the book almost dream-like. Alice Hoffman can take the most mundane of occurrences and make them interesting to read. She vividly makes the reader see and feel what she is trying to convey, which makes her, in my opinion, an excellent author.

This book was a solid 3.5; not as good as some of Hoffman's other novels, but definitely worth reading and enjoying.