The Illumination

If you could see pain would it change how you thought about the world?

In this intriguing book Brockmeier creates a world in which pain becomes not only felt but seen. Pain manifests as light radiating from one’s body and is dubbed “the illumination”. He follows the effects of this phenomenon through the passing of a journal of love letters written from a husband to his wife. After a fatal car accident the journal is passed to a lonely divorcee, a widowed photographer, a schoolboy, a missionary, a writer, and a homeless man. The journal connects them in complex and moving ways. Pain also resonates in each character’s life differently and how they react to it is changed and challenged by the illumination.

Brockmeier’s The Illumination has an extremely interesting premise. It is as much a meditation on pain and suffering as it is on love. I highly recommend this book.