And the Dark Sacred Night

Kit Noonan is an unemployed art historian struggling with a stalled career and mounting family pressures. His wife Sandra pushes him to uncover the identity of his biological father - information his mother Daphne has kept hidden his entire life. Kit's search leads him to his former stepfather Jasper, who holds key knowledge about Kit's past. The narrative follows Kit's journey through Vermont and the Berkshires as he uncovers family secrets and meets people connected to his history. The story shifts between past and present, revealing interconnected lives across multiple generations of families. Characters must confront how their choices and secrets have rippled through time, affecting relationships decades later. The novel explores themes of identity, family bonds, and the impact of choices made in youth. Through Kit's quest for answers, Glass examines how people navigate between honoring the past and moving forward with their lives.

Readers describe this as a slower-paced, character-driven novel that follows the previous book Three Junes but works as a standalone story. Readers appreciated: - Rich character development and complex family relationships - Detailed Vermont and Cape Cod settings - Handling of LGBT themes with sensitivity - Interconnected storylines that come together Common criticisms: - Too many characters to track - Plot moves slowly, especially in first half - Excessive detail and description - Some found main character Kit passive and frustrating From review sites: Goodreads: 3.6/5 from 2,100+ ratings Amazon: 3.9/5 from 180+ ratings Notable reader comments: "Like having a long conversation with old friends" - Goodreads reviewer "Beautiful writing but needed editing" - Amazon reviewer "Gets lost in minutiae when the story should move forward" - BookBrowse review "The payoff is worth the slow build" - LibraryThing reviewer

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🌟 Julia Glass won the National Book Award for her debut novel "Three Junes," which shares several characters with "And the Dark Sacred Night" 🌟 The book's title comes from Louis Armstrong's famous song "What a Wonderful World" and its line "the bright blessed day, the dark sacred night" 🌟 The story spans three generations and explores themes of family secrets, identity, and the impact of the AIDS crisis on the art world of the 1980s 🌟 Kit, the protagonist, is a laid-off music teacher whose search for his biological father leads him through Vermont, New York City, and Cape Cod 🌟 Glass worked as a painter before becoming a writer and didn't publish her first novel until she was 46 years old