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The Light of the Evening is a 2006 novel by Irish novelist Edna O'Brien. The novel explores the relationship between one of O'Brien's archetypal defeated rural women, who on her deathbed is trying repair her relationship with her daughter, a writer.
Reception
Reception of the novel was mixed. Anne Enright doesn't make a firm conclusion about the novel, but notes two major features when reviewing the novel for The Guardian: the novel continue's O'Brien's interest in down trodden, and calls the depiction of life "remarkable [for its] honesty". Publisher's Weekly was more positive about the novel noting that it "evokes the cruelty of estrangement while allowing her characters to remain sympathetic and giving them real voice."
Slate reviewer Claire Dederer described the novel as challenging to start reading, but epitomizes O'Brien's focus on "the poetic and the sensational", while at times the "lyricism" and "sentamentalism" "get away from her". Dederer concludes that the novel does two things: it "stands apart, refusing to give mere comfort."