The Illumination

I really enjoyed the topic of this book more than anything else..the idea is that somehow our wounds-be them cuts, bruises, or cancerous tumors radiate light...some feel it's beautiful and some try to disguise it. The novel explores a few different perspectives of people finding out then living with this oddity, which is what becomes termed "The Illumination" itself. We meet a photographer, an author, a young boy who refuses to speak, an evangelist, and a homeless bookseller as well as all of the people they interact with. The writing is above average but I felt at times he needed to continue with a person or chapter before ending it. I did like the way their lives intersect or I should say some of the aspects of their lives if not show more themselves specifically.

When books like this succeed, they do so by virtue of their ease in combining a fantastical like situation in the world with enough reality to make it a believable scenario and offer insights into humanity by look at the way people might (again, realistically) deal with something of this bizarre nature. I think Brockmeier succeeded with this in a number of ways but was lacking in a few areas, especially with the first section. However, I did find the way he carried an aspect of the first section, a journal where a wife has written down every thing her husband revealed he loved about her, into the remainder of the novel. It comes off as very honest and sweet, not shmaltzy as one might think.

I found this novel to be creative and insightful, well worth reading. I did not, however, find it life changing and absolutely brilliant, which is what I reserve 5/5 stars for. I am probably a harsh critic but not all books are written and read equally. Also, fyi this novel reminded me slightly of Douglas Coupland's Girlfriend in a Coma, another novel I really enjoyed.


Some memorable quotes:

ppg 15-16 "Were we outlived by our pain? How long did it cling to this world?"

(VIA WHITTAKER CHAMBERS) pg. 43 "The reality cuts across our minds like a wound whose edges crave to heal, but cannot. Thus, one of the great sins, perhaps *the* great sin, is to say: It will heal; it has healed; there is no wound; there is something more important than this wound. There is nothing more important than this wound.


pg. 127 "Chuck would be an orphan with the sad parts included."

pg. 150 "...she read the verse printed at the top. 'Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun. Ecclesiastes 11:7.' 'Well, that's fine and all," Felenthia said, 'but you're forgetting Ecclesiastes 11:8: 'If a man lives many years, let him rejoices in them all, but let him remember the days of darkness for they shall be many. All that comes is vanity.'"

ppg 184-185 "Her signature slowly changed beneath her fingers, rearranging itself, purifying itself, plunge by plunge and bend by bend until it was no longer a set of letters at all but a curious abstract design. It was like the pattern she had once watched a moth draw with its wings in the condensation of her bathroom mirror. She remembered switching off the lights and opening the window so that it would fly away and the, when it did, calling Wallace in to see the strange hieroglyph of swesps and flickers it had left behind.

'I bet it was trying to communicate with you,' he mused. 'Maybe it was dad, reincarnated as a moth, and the only way he knew how to get in touch with us was to write something with his wings.' He looked more carefully at the mark. 'Except he's illiterate'"

pg. 188 "Esque-ish. It's a word me and Coop came up with. First esque then ish. Something that reminds you of something that reminds you of something."

pg. 197 "I love that game where you draw a picture on my back with your finger and I try to guess what it is."

pg 211 "In Phoenix the streets ran flat and straight, and the jacaranda blossoms made strange ghosts in the slipstreams of the cars..."

pg 212 "One of the managers gave her a t-shirt with the words FICTIONAL CHARACTER printed on the front."


pg. 214 "Once there was a country where it rained for most of the year, and everyone resided underground, and no one was quite sure who was dead and who was living. But id did not matter because they were happy. And they were ever. And they were after."

(VIA FRANZ KAFKA) "It is enough that the arrows fit exactly in the wounds they have made."


pg. 225 "Sometimes, on the gray soaked days of February and March, when the sun seemed to dissolve into the clouds like an antacid tablet, h would peer down the street and see nothing but a gleaming field of injuries, as if the traumas and diseased which people suffered had become so powerful, so hardy, that they no longer needed their bodies to survive. From the doors of shops and art galleries came strange floating candles of heart pain and arthritis. Stray muscle cramps spilled across the sidewalk like sparks scattering from a bonfire. Neural diseases fluttered in the air like leaves falling through a shaft of light. A great fanning network of leukemia rose out of a taxi and drifted incandescently into an office building, and he watched as it vanished into bricks, a shining angel of cancer."

pg. 256 "Their thesis-and the Hval equations had already borne this out-was that there was no such thing as photonic degradation, that light was effectively immortal, or at least as immoral as the universe itself. show less

I can't explain why, but I love Kevin Brockmeier's writing. It's sad and beautiful and oddly soothing.

The story is strange - about a world where pain glows with light - and his characters are all troubled and riddled with pain. Their stories are loosely intertwined in a way that reminded me that the world is smaller than we think.

I wish I knew what happened to all these people after the book ended.

I found this book interesting from the start and I loved how it grew in complexity as the chapters/sections went on. The ends of each section, before we're moved on to a new character, are wonderfully unresolved. If you're a reader who wants something tidy and traditionally plot-driven, perhaps you will be frustrated (but then, also, why are you reading Kevin Brockmeier?). If you're someone looking for a unique, moving, beautiful, and thoughtful reading experience about grief, love, suffering, pain, and connection, read this book.

*I listened to the book except for the last section, which I needed to read on the page to understand. That part fluidly goes in and out of various people's minds and I couldn't keep up with what was happening show more in the audio. Other than that little challenge for me though, the audio was excellent. show less

A series of linked stories, each focussing on a different character, set in a world where pain starts showing as light shining from the diseased/injured part of the body.

This change didn't have the effects I (and at least one of the characters) expected nor did the book go in directions I thought it might, but it was beautifully written. This is the second of the author's books that I've read and I'm really looking forward to reading others of these lovely and unexpected explorations of unlikely premises.

It's been a long time since a book has absorbed me as much as this one did. I read it in just over 24 hours. I didn't want to sleep. I didn't want to eat. I didn't want to do anything except read. I spent all of one of my classes thinking about it, and wound up having to skip my second class so that I could read it. It's a beautiful concept with some really, really good writing. It moved me in ways that I don't think I have words to describe yet. I'd wait to write a better review when I've had more time to think, but I didn't want to wait.

I especially liked Chuck's section. I've often felt that objects feel pain, and I used to have to stop myself from feeling sad for old toys and things that I didn't use anymore. Reading that part made show more me cry. I wish that the rest of the book had explored this a little more.

One thing, though. I felt like the journal's moving between characters would have been better if it was done differently. At times it felt like it didn't really have an impact on the people who had it, and like its being there was incidental. I get that it was supposed to connect the characters somehow, but I don't think that I quite "got it," and thus the book felt kind of disjointed, because while the characters were kind of tangentially related, they weren't really. It felt more like I was reading five (rather lengthy) short stories, rather than a cohesive novel.

HOWEVER, I did enjoy the variety of voices, and each of the parts was exactly the right length. Just as I started to get tired of one voice, it would be time to start the next one. I wish that there had been more closure and development to each of the characters, though. In some ways, this book left me wanting more. On the other hand, it was so packed with emotion and intensity that I'm not sure I could have handled much more.

Even though I had some complaints, The Illumination is still one of the very best books I've read this year. show less

This was a story that sucked me in early - I was enchanted with the writing and the constantly changing perspectives. It is a beautifully written book. I have never heard of Kevin Brockmeier before, but now I will be watching for his other books.

This book is filled with pain, humanity and wonder. I fully expected the story to be corny and silly (based on the premise that pain suddenly starts to emit light in this world) but found that Kevin's writing made the potentially silly turn into something believable. I also found that I wanted to know more about the characters you run into - each and every one of them won a place in my heart.

I can understand how people want to know more about the "why is this illumination happening" and "what show more does it mean". Several people here have given it poor markings because it is not explained. Personally, I enjoyed following the thread and peaking into the series of vignettes. I didn't walk away at the end saying "now I understand", but I did close the book feeling like I have experienced something fundamentally human. I felt compassion for the human condition - what more should one want from a story? show less

'Tender' is a word that might get thrown around a lot when this book is discussed. Brockmeier shows authorly attentiveness and compassion in developing his characters, but beyond that, the emotional tenor of the whole thing is... bruised.

I warn you that this is not a book with a driving narrative arc. The experience is more like being dropped into a recognizable but radically different world -- i.e., one where bodily trauma is visible as illumination -- and puttering about in there, trying to understand what this odd feature of life might mean. Brockmeier's thesis seems to be that even if pain were visible in this way, compassion would continue to be scarce and communicating with other people would remain incredibly difficult.