Many of Alnilam's pages are split into two columns: the left, in dark print, representing Cahill's perception, and the right, in light print, representing the "objective reality" of the many people he meets. The use of physical blindness to portray psychological and philosophical insight draws on a long literary tradition that includes Oedipus, Tiresias, and Gloucester. The novel's dense, allusive prose forces the reader to undergo the same groping toward enlightenment as blind Cahill.

Each of Joel's instructors, fellow cadets, and female companions has a story to tell and a role in resolving the mystery of his life and death.

Alnilam abounds in flashbacks and digressions and in rich narrative sequences, such as the recounting of blind curmudgeon Cahill at the controls of an airborne plane or his encounter with Hannah Pelham, who transmits the gonorrhea she acquired from his son Joel. However, during almost seven hundred pages...