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.


Book 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)


From the Publisher
Illumination Night is the first book I ever read by Alice Hoffman. Was I in for a surprise! It is a lovely, uniquely imaginative story of an elderly woman, a young couple and boy giant on Martha's Vineyard. Illumination Night refers to a 4th of July tradition on the island. Hoffman's characters are so vulnerable, and believable, and memorable that I immediately went and found all of Hoffman's books. There is always a magical element in all of Hoffman's books that prompts us to look at life and people in a whole new way.
--Maureen O'Neal

ANNOTATION

Elizabeth is an elderly widow suffering from spells of fantasy and failing sight. Andre and Vonny are a young couple trying to make ends meet. Jody is a teenage runaway. On the island of Chilmark near Martha's Vineyard, they all come together. "Haunting, fable-like."--Cosmopolitan.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Subtle touches...make this intelligent novel shine. Ms. Hoffman knows how to tell a story."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Set on Martha's Vineyard, here is a stunning novel that brings that beautiful island to vivid life—a novel that weaves together the lives of a little boy, an elderly woman, a blond giant, a young couple, and a teenaged girl...lives of intense erotic longing, of quiet understanding, of willful determination. It is a novel of magic and mystery, and a literary event that confirms Alice Hoffman as one of our finest and most compelling writers.

FROM THE CRITICS

Cleveland Plain Dealer

One of the best writers we have today-insightful, funny, intelligent, with a distinctive voice.

Gwyneth Cravens - New York Times

Subtle touches here and there make this intelligent novel shine. Ms. Hoffman knows how to tell a story in clear language and how to avoid subordinating the meanderings of temperament to logic or plot.

Publishers Weekly