Helpful Score: 3
Whenever I see an Alice Hoffman book, I think to the time I read the book and always get inspired to read it again. She has a way with words that just transport you into the heart of the story. I was an Army brat and grew up in a variety of different places. I would always make up stories about my neighbors and sometimes, I would even share that with them. One day, living in VA, I came across a woman, in her mid-thirties, that everyone in town was just drawn to. She helped everyone that came into her path. There really was something magical about her and she encouraged me to keep writing stories about the things that I witnessed, day in and day out. Eventally, we moved away and I always wondered what happened to Lily. When this book came out, I was immediatly brought back to that time in my life and I kept thinking, OMG, Alice Hoffman knows Lily! I know this is probably not the best review or if it even qualifies as a review, but reviews are not always just about what happens in a book. It's why a person can identify with the book that is importnant.
Helpful Score: 2
I read this in a literature class years ago, read the whole story over a weekend. It was a very easy read, and interesting, too. Then when class resumed the following week, my instructor delved into the details, such as Hoffman's use of symbolism, which I initially TOTALLY missed! This is the one that opened the door to other Hoffman novels for me - now I look at her work in a different light and it is captivating.
Helpful Score: 1
This story takes place in the late 50s in a community on Long Island, a former potato field where all the houses look so much alike that sometimes women wander around for hours trying to find their houses. Into this cookie-cutter community of stay-at-home mothers with perfect homes arrives Nora Silk, divorced from her magician husband, with two small boys. The house she moves into is reputed to be haunted and is slowly disintegrating.
Nora is not welcomed by the other mothers, as they have never known anyone who is divorced and they are suspicious of her (and afraid of what their husbands will do). One look at Nora in her stretch pants and spike heels and you know what the husbands thought! Her son Billy is shunned at school--it does not help that he can read others' thoughts. All Nora wants is to be accepted, grow flowers, and have some friends.
But to her credit, she never succumbs to artifice in this quest. Instead of acceptance, Nora is labelled as a witch and Billy fails every subject except penmanship. As for the rest of her life, she "crossed her fingers and waited, she thought good thoughts and experimented with casseroles that contained olive loaf and hoped that would be enough."
There is some of Hoffman's magical realiam woven into the story, but so adroitly that the reader hardly realizes it and must go back and re-read the passage. Hoffman's character descriptions are subtle and spare, but draw a complete picture of this neighborhood.
Another great book by this author!
Nora is not welcomed by the other mothers, as they have never known anyone who is divorced and they are suspicious of her (and afraid of what their husbands will do). One look at Nora in her stretch pants and spike heels and you know what the husbands thought! Her son Billy is shunned at school--it does not help that he can read others' thoughts. All Nora wants is to be accepted, grow flowers, and have some friends.
But to her credit, she never succumbs to artifice in this quest. Instead of acceptance, Nora is labelled as a witch and Billy fails every subject except penmanship. As for the rest of her life, she "crossed her fingers and waited, she thought good thoughts and experimented with casseroles that contained olive loaf and hoped that would be enough."
There is some of Hoffman's magical realiam woven into the story, but so adroitly that the reader hardly realizes it and must go back and re-read the passage. Hoffman's character descriptions are subtle and spare, but draw a complete picture of this neighborhood.
Another great book by this author!
Helpful Score: 1
Hoffman is always good; this book is no exception. I love the way magic is so commonplace in her novels.
Helpful Score: 1
Did you ever walk through a subdivision and wonder about the lives that go on inside the houses? Alice Hoffman does at giving us a peek.She masterfully intertwines lives of people living in a subdivision where the houses and the people appear to be cookie cutter same on the outside(except for one newcomer),but what goes on behind closed doors is very different.Very well written and kept my interest all the way through. Hard to put down.
Helpful Score: 1
Highly enjoyable revisitation of suburbia in the late 59s, with all of the familiar commonalities of neighborhoods and the people in them, most of whom rise above their sameness with courage and spirit and strength of character.
Single mother is a typical suburban community (1950's)raising two children willing to take love where she finds it.
classic Hoffman. A wild man and his "redemption" into society. Oh, and, of course, love.
Kind of boring and slow moving.
Great book..Classic Alice Hoffman
I loved this book - the characters, the emotions, the excitement, everything made it a great read that changes you.
Fabulous book. Alice Hoffman has a true gift for bringing characters to life!
"Seventh heaven confirms her place as one of the finest writers of her generation" Newsweek
I don't read novels like this one very often but I should probably do so! Alice Hoffman was recommended to me and I happened upon this book at a local thrift store. It was very enjoyable -- being a slice of life from 1959 to 1960, an era that I lived through as a young boy. The novel reminded me a lot of Rabbit Run by John Updike or of Peyton Place, one of my favorites. It definitely does not show the idyllic life of the 50s as portrayed in such TV shows as Leave It to Beaver or Father Knows Best. As I said, it takes place during a year period from 1959 to 1960 in a small bedroom community on Long Island, New York that was built six years previously on what was once a potato farm. All of the houses are the same and it takes the residents some time to get used to the sameness but after six years there are small differences in the lots from landscaping, etc. Suddenly, one of the homeowners dies and the house he lived in is abandoned when his widow moves back to Virginia. The house starts to become overgrown and is taken over by a group of crows! Well the men of the neighborhood band together to try to get the house sold and eventually a young divorcee, Nora Silk, moves in with her two small children. Nora is looked down on by everyone...after all she is divorced, and her young son is bullied by his classmates. My how times have changed since then. The novel peeks into the private lives of the residents and what really takes place behind all of the sameness. It includes the coming of age stories of several of the younger residents and the dissolution of some of their parents' lives. Overall, I really enjoyed this and would recommend it. I'll also be looking to read more of Hoffman.
Fun read, light and easy, good summer reading. A few of my friends thought is was "too dicey" in some areas.
Did not like this book.
