What if our pain was the most beautiful thing about us?
From best-selling and award-winning author Kevin Brockmeier: a new nove... read full description
From best-selling and award-winning author Kevin Brockmeier: a new nove... read full description
reviews
Mar 06, 2011
VegasGal
rated it: 
I don't think I've ever been so engrossed in a book like this one, and enjoyed it so much (even recommended it) but then suddenly half way through the story something happened and I got the literary rug pulled out from under me. How can something go from an "awesome wow", to a fizzled bunch of yuck?
Since I happen to be a person who suffers from chronic pain, I found the main premise of this story to not only be intriguing but personally touching - It's about pain suddenly g More...
Since I happen to be a person who suffers from chronic pain, I found the main premise of this story to not only be intriguing but personally touching - It's about pain suddenly g More...
2 comments
like
(8 people liked it)
Mar 13, 2011
Nicola
rated it: 
Sometimes a good book is hard to read. Sometimes a hard book is good to read. Sometimes, a book is as good as it is bad. The Illumination was mostly the latter.
'The Illumination' is a phenomenon that suddenly occurs across the world, where physical aches and pains light up for all to see, and suffering becomes visible. The book follows 6 protagonists in a story hand-off that is spectacularly evenly divided and yet totally unsatisfying. Initially, we find ourselves in the company of a More...
'The Illumination' is a phenomenon that suddenly occurs across the world, where physical aches and pains light up for all to see, and suffering becomes visible. The book follows 6 protagonists in a story hand-off that is spectacularly evenly divided and yet totally unsatisfying. Initially, we find ourselves in the company of a More...
Jun 26, 2011
Lexie
rated it:
What a premise: Every person and creature on the planet lights up -- with pain. Whatever the wound, it's set ablaze. No more hiding our pain ... and every living thing is illumined to some degree. What happens when we perceive pain as light ...?
Jan 20, 2012
Paul
rated it: 
This was an odd one and I have mixed feelings, I want to give it 3.5 stars. The idea is a good one; one day, very suddenly everyones pain is illuminated; shines in the form of light. Cuts and bruises, cancer, arthritis etc all shine from peoples bodies.
The story revolves around a journal put together by a wife whose husband left her a note on the fridge every day. These notes started "I love the way you...." The notes have been pasted in a journal. This journal travels between s More...
The story revolves around a journal put together by a wife whose husband left her a note on the fridge every day. These notes started "I love the way you...." The notes have been pasted in a journal. This journal travels between s More...
Jan 18, 2012
Grace
rated it:
When I first read the back of the book I was very intrigued and interested, however as I read the book I became less and less enthralled in the story. This book is written
very simply and there isn't much depth to any of the characters. I didn't feel a connection with any of the characters and I think this is partly because this book follows the story line of several different people. I also didn't feel as though this book had a purpose or a point to make to the readers.
More...
very simply and there isn't much depth to any of the characters. I didn't feel a connection with any of the characters and I think this is partly because this book follows the story line of several different people. I also didn't feel as though this book had a purpose or a point to make to the readers.
More...
Nov 06, 2011
Blaire
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Aug 10, 2011
Patty
rated it:
This book had an Interesting concept and characters but a little sad. Each character is the main protagonist of each chapter and it would have been nice if at least once the ending turned out happy. Plus the end of the book let me down. This might be a spoiler if you plan on reading this book but I thought maybe everything would be pulled together but I didn't get that satisfaction when I reached the end.
However, except for the chapter that describes the characters that use self-m More...
However, except for the chapter that describes the characters that use self-m More...
Jul 29, 2011
This book is difficult to rate: I almost compromised with a "4"; but am not sure the definition "really liked it" is quite right. The ideas in the book and material for discussion get an easy "5"; the stories of six recipients, threaded together with a traveling journal, get mixed reviews. I would not recommend this book for readers desiring closure to stories; I would recommend it to readers desiring thought provoking ideas and stimulating book club material.
More...
Jul 06, 2011
Kirstie
rated it: 
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
More...
Jul 04, 2011
Alex
rated it:
This artful and clever meditation on light, language, and love could become the most poetic Julia Roberts/Tom Hanks movie ever with the right director lacing together these stories rife with cinema-ready devices: how a book of love notes passes from hand to hand and life to life, how suddenly all of our pain manifests itself as light hanging around and pouring from our bodies, how we are yadda-yadda interconnected by our yadda-yadda living in the world. I don't mean this any of this as a negativ
More...
May 29, 2011
Elyse
rated it:
I have to say, this book just didn't leave much of an impression on me. I finished and thought to myself, "Maybe I've overdosed on multiple-narratives in my reading recently." But then I wanted to dive back into George R. R. Martin's "A Storm of Swords" immediately, so it's not the format that got me. "The Illumination" reminded me of "Blindness" meets "Cloud Atlas." But when the global affliction in "Blindness" went unexplained I wasn'
More...
Apr 11, 2011
Amy
rated it:
This novel asks the question, "What if our pain is the most beautiful thing about us?" It's a compelling question, and the premise of the novel--that anywhere and anytime a person experiences pain it becomes illuminated so that everyone can see it--is ripe with potential. The common tie between characters in the novel, in addition to their pain,--Patricia's journal in which she records the messages that her husband leaves for her on the refrigerator every morning to reveal one new thin
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Apr 05, 2011
Tim
rated it:
Anyone who's read The Brief History of the Dead knows that Brockmeier is capable of creating beautiful poetry from fantastical scenarios. In The Illumination, the fantastic premise is that pain is manifest as light emanating from the bodies of those who suffer, and Brockmeier doesn't disappoint with his poetic treatment of the phenomenon. One of the things that kept me reading (and here I might get a little too close to spoilers, so don't read on if you haven't read the book; just know that I
More...
Mar 18, 2011
Alex
rated it:
The jacket copy of this novel-in-stories asks, "What if your pain were the most beautiful thing about you?" Having read this and a couple of other of Brockmeier's books ("The Truth About Celia", "The View from the Seventh Layer"), I can say that this is an entirely appropriate question. Few writers write about suffering quite as exquisitely as he does. If I were one of those types that assumed things about writers based on their writing, I'd say that Brockmeier must
More...
Mar 05, 2011
Jennyreadsexcessively
rated it:
Here’s a book that I really liked and yet I do feel that it is terribly flawed. The author imagines that one random day all people begin to radiate light from their pain and injuries. Anything from a hangnail to internal cancer is clearly visible. I expected the novel to show the compassion that humanity would surely exhibit if we could easily identify anyone’s suffering. And yet here, sadly, the characters remain isolated and do not reach out to one another.
The novel opens with wom More...
The novel opens with wom More...
0 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Mar 01, 2011
Holly
rated it:
Before page 65 I was already growing impatient with the premise: I didn't require any more extended descriptions of light pouring from wounds. I also found the writing/story a little sentimental, romantic, cheap, and obvious. Brockmeier's earlier novel A Brief History of the Dead, had an intriguing premise, but there the reader projected the inevitable conclusion the concept requires/contains (a Bardo-like city where the dead carry on their lives until all the humans on Earth who remember them a
More...
Feb 22, 2011
switterbug (Betsey)
rated it:
In this quasi-dystopian and poetically rendered, if uneven, book of five interlinked stories, we are introduced to a new era of the world, dubbed by journalists as The Illumination, whereby pain is illuminated like a neon glow, so that everyone's physical torments are seen by others, and there is no camouflage for people's physical (and, in some cases, emotional) afflictions. You glow brightly wherever there is pain in your body. As a motif, it is a mixture of fascination and gimmick.
More...
More...
Feb 08, 2011
Judy
rated it: 
Readers of my reviews may have noticed that I am attracted to the whimsical, the magical, the fantastic, in novels. Kevin Brockmeier surprised and startled me with his first novel, A Brief History of the Dead. I wondered how he would do that again in his second.
The Illumination is another work of sheer imagination laid over the gritty reality of modern life. Brockmeier uses the device of an object which passes through the hands of six characters, in this case a book of lov More...
3 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Jun 17, 2011
Adam
rated it:
A really great read. I was afraid that the whole "light" part was going to be a gimmick that carried the story, or at least that it would be the focus. In reality, the illumination is just one of the many threads that weaves throughout the story. It's the slight light that gives us permission to enter into the lives of the many people you meet.
The book is much more a look at the dichotomy of love and pain, those who are understood and those who aren't, the many many different More...
The book is much more a look at the dichotomy of love and pain, those who are understood and those who aren't, the many many different More...
Apr 25, 2011
Kandice
rated it:
This book is not a cheery, uplifting book. However, if you want a book that is brilliantly written this is the next book you should read. The story is actually broken down into individual stories of 6 characters who live through some part of "The Illumination." The Illumination is what occurs during, and after, everyone suffering from some type of pain starts to shine brightly from their wounds. Typical and untypical questions are raised by this event. "Is our pain the most b
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Mar 20, 2011
Andrew
rated it:
The world had changed in the wake of the Illumination. No one could disguise his pain anymore. You could hardly step out in public without noticing the white blaze of someone’s impacted heel showing through her slingbacks; and over there, hailing a taxi, a woman with shimmering pressure marks where her pants cut into her gut; and behind her, beneath the awning of the flower shop, a man lit all over in a glory of leukemia.
***
An interesting thing happens when reading More...
***
An interesting thing happens when reading More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jan 23, 2012
M.
rated it:
At 8:17 on a Friday night, around the world, everyone’s pain becomes visible. Wounds of all kinds emit a radiant light that can be seen even through clothes. It changes a lot about the way people interact. It completely changes the way healthcare works. It’s an interesting premise, with a poetic quality that has a lot of potential. However, the author doesn’t give this idea the full attention it might deserve.
Somewhere in the second section of this book, it becomes clear that the supernatur More...
Somewhere in the second section of this book, it becomes clear that the supernatur More...
May 14, 2011
Irisjade
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
May 10, 2011
Readnponder
rated it:
This is the first book I've read by Kevin Brockmeier so I wasn't sure what to expect. His writing is beautiful. He paints characters in a rich way. The book is a collection of six short stories involving two common threads: (1) a phenomenon where a part of the body experiencing pain glows. Everyone can see it; nothing private about one's pain. (2) a diary from a husband to his wife extolling all the big and small things he loves about her.
Each of the six characters are in some so More...
Each of the six characters are in some so More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 10, 2012
Kristen
rated it:
This book has an interesting concept. I was really engrossed in the first half of the novel, but then the second part started getting very, very draggy. It wasn't until the very last page of the book that I came to understand what author Kevin Brockmeier was going for.
Let me just say that I wish I had someone to debate this novel further with! Each character that is featured seems to be harvesting a different kind of pain. Yes, all of them have physical ailments (ailments that are s More...
Let me just say that I wish I had someone to debate this novel further with! Each character that is featured seems to be harvesting a different kind of pain. Yes, all of them have physical ailments (ailments that are s More...
Feb 24, 2011
nicole
rated it:
This was a good book to follow A Visit From The Goon Squad. Both stories talk of the human experience by switching the narrator, place and time without removing the reader from the story. I think Brockmeier's vision of the human experience is a little darker and his process less-story driven. I wish he had spent more time talking about the physical portion of The Illumination, rather than focusing on the individuals involved in the transfer and the importance of the notebook. But, of course, tho
More...
Aug 12, 2011
Jane
rated it:
I loved this book. It's a series of linked stories held together by the phenomenon of the "illumination" and by a journal of daily love notes from a husband to his wife. The Illumination causes pain to appear as an emanation of light from the part of the body where the pain occurs. Each of the characters experiences this phenomenon in some way, and each connects in some way or other with the character whose story follows theirs. But this connection is ephemeral, it's really the book th
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Apr 06, 2011
Bookmarks Magazine
rated it:
Brockmeier maneuvers his imaginative metaphor to its natural, if sobering, conclusion, exploring human nature and our inclinations toward both empathy and indifference along the way. Juxtaposing the joys of love found in the journal with the suffering revealed by the Illumination, Brockmeier concludes that humans are united as much by their shared capacity for pain as by the quest for companionship. Although some critics were annoyed by the “grocery list” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) of diseases an
More...
Aug 31, 2011
Angela
rated it:
As I flipped through the first chapters of the book, I could not bare to put it down. Unfortunately as the book continued, I could put it down.
Overall, it wasn't exactly what I expected and in some ways that's good and in others it's bad. Good, being that the concept was pretty good. The writing technique almost sounded poetic, which I loved. It gave you something to think about and what was the author really trying to get across. The intertwining of the characters lives was a change up in More...
Overall, it wasn't exactly what I expected and in some ways that's good and in others it's bad. Good, being that the concept was pretty good. The writing technique almost sounded poetic, which I loved. It gave you something to think about and what was the author really trying to get across. The intertwining of the characters lives was a change up in More...
Nov 09, 2011
Jennifer
rated it:
I really liked this, even though I don't quite know, ultimately, exactly what the author was trying to say. The premise of the book is that one day, all at once and all over the world, people's pain literally begins to glow with a bright light, so that everyone's pain is visible to everyone else. A hangnail might emit a small but sharp light, whereas cancer might be visible as a hazy light around the affected organ. But the novel isn't about some huge big change that happens in the world as a
More...
