Forgiveness

Penny’s novel A Trick of the Light demonstrates that forgiveness is always possible. Several characters, badly hurt by circumstances in their lives, choose to forgive instead of holding onto their anger. Thierry, for instance, forgives Brian for killing his granddaughter. Suzanne manages to forgive Lillian for the exceptionally cruel review of Suzanne’s art. Fortin, however, is unable to forgive and allows his anger to ruin his life and the lives of others.

Thierry’s story illustrates the difficulty of forgiveness as he describes to Gamache his path to forgiving Brian. Gamache has already been surprised to learn that Brian is Thierry’s sponsor in AA, not the other way around. Thierry also tells Gamache that he owes his life to Brian even though “The little girl he (Brian) killed was my granddaughter” (335). Thierry explains that Brian apologized to Thierry and his family, but they...