Faithful by Alice Hoffman
Faithful is a powerfully emotional read that follows in the footsteps of a young woman whose life is left in tatters after a car accident.
Shelby didn’t want to go out on the night of the accident but was strong armed into it by her best friend Helene. They both argued and whilst this didn’t actually have any bearing on the accident it adds to the guilt that Shelby bears. Basically it’s a cold night and Shelby’s car spins out of control on a patch of black ice. Shelby is pulled from the car wreck, nobody see’s her rescuer and she believes him to be a guardian angel. Unfortunately Helene suffers major trauma that leaves her in a coma, her dreams are gone, she was the most beautiful girl in school and everyone still flocks to see her – believing that she’s turned into a worker of miracles. Meanwhile, Shelby, the survivor, turns almost into a living ghost. She hates herself for surviving. She believes everyone else hates her. She lives in the basement of her parents’ house. She might not be in a coma but her dreams also come to an end after that awful night.
Faithful is a strange story – it starts off very melancholy indeed. Here is a life in tatters. A young woman who despises herself and who is for a time committed to a psychiatric hospital after she attempts to take her own life. Fortunately the sadness that pervades the first third of the story does eventually begin to lessen and that in fact is the major insight into what this novel is about. The main thrust of the story is redemption and self forgiveness. This is a different read to some of Hoffman’s other stories. There is no fantasy or magical realism here. This is a contemporary novel about one woman’s life and how she eventually allows herself to start living it. It is a very powerful story that I can’t deny brought me close to tears on a couple of occasions but don’t let that put you off. There is a story of hope in here it just takes a little while to shine through.
There isn’t really too much more that I can say about the plot to be honest. There are no hidden agendas here, no miraculous recoveries or waving of magic wands Watching Shelby as she goes through her different phases can be almost torturous to watch but at the same time compelling. She eventually moves away from home and although she still hates herself little by little she begins to turn her life around.
In terms of the characters. Well, I can’t deny that Shelby can be a little difficult to like at times but that’s because she doesn’t want to be liked. In spite of her prickliness though, over the course of time she manages to find herself a true friend. She also has a soft spot for the underdog – and in this case I mean that quite literally. She starts out working in a pet store and from their onwards finds herself rescuing dogs until there’s barely enough room in her tiny apartment! I think that probably marks a turning point in her own life to some extent.
I loved Shelby’s relationship with her mother Sue and how this changed so much as the story progressed until Shelby finally recognised the unconditional love that her mother had and how she’d always been there for her.
We also have the two ‘love’ interests in Shelby’s life. Ben loves Shelby. In a strange twist the timing for this is unfortunate for Ben because really Shelby isn’t at a time in her life when she’s ready to be loved. She hasn’t forgiven herself enough for that. Later in the story, in a series of ‘if onlys’ both Ben and Shelby come to realise more about their own true feelings for each other and the missed opportunities they had.
We also have the character of James. His own story has certain parallels to Shelby and similarly it has taken him a long time to come to terms with life.
The final star of the piece is Shelby’s only real friend Maravelle and her children. Maravelle is a lovely character to read and through her friendship Shelby is able to be a part of her family life, watching her three children grow up and come into their own making their own mistakes and experiencing the good and the bad as they grow into adults.
Even though this seems to be a step out of the ordinary for what I usually expect from Hoffman I found this a really good read. Yes, it will pull on hour heartstrings but it’s a beautifully written piece. It looks at the impact that one accident can have on so many lives. And it brings a ray of hope that people can learn to forgive themselves and to live again.
I received a copy of Faithful courtesy of the publisher through Netgalley for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
The Friday Face Off: The River King by Alice Hoffman
6 May 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Alice Hoffman, Books by Proxy, The Friday Face Off, The River King
Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme being hosted by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite books covers. The rules are fairly simple and can be found here. Each week, following a predetermined theme choose a book, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Simples. This week the theme is:
You Got The Blues
A cover which is predominantly blue
I had no idea how many blue covers were out there! Wow. Just wow!! The book I’ve chosen this week is from an author I really enjoy reading.
Alice Hoffman’s The River King with three covers as follows:
I’m not overly fond of the hands and fishes cover to be honest. The blurred middle cover – I like the yellow font and the layout. I think my favourite, even though it’s more green than blue is the third cover with the swan: This week’s winner:
Join in next week when the theme will be:
Which Witch is Which?
A cover which features a witch and/or witchcraft
The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
14 June 2014
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Alice Hoffman, The Museum of Extraordinary Things
Alice Hoffman is one of those writer’s whose books I keep a lookout for. She usually writes stories with a slight fantasy or magical element, although The Dovekeepers was a step out of character in that respect. So, did I crack open the pages of this book with maybe slightly elevated and maybe higher than average expectations? Maybe. Did it meet my expectations? In some respects, yes, although perhaps not all. I confess that I have slightly mixed feelings for this book. I enjoyed it and it was easy to read but I can’t with honesty say that I absolutely loved it which is puzzling because it’s such a good concept and set in a fascinating period of time.
The story is set in New York during 1911 and uses actual events of the period to progress the tale. We follow two main characters. Ezekiel and Coralie. Ezekiel is a Jewish immigrant who fled with his father after their small village was razed and the other inhabitants murdered. They eventually wound up in New York city where they struggled to make a living both working in clothing factories and suffering dreadful working conditions. Coralie is the daughter of the local museum owner which in actual fact is more like a sideshow of oddities – the painted lady, wolfman, etc. She’s led an incredibly sheltered and withdrawn life suffering herself from a slight affliction and with a father who has raised her to think of herself as something that must be hidden. She’s at ease with the unusual objects contained behind the curtains of the museum that separates the displays from their home life and equally content around the employees that her father takes on during the high season to attract customers. Coralie eventually becomes one of the attractions on display at the museum and to this extent her father has raised her to be a strong swimmer, encouraging late night swims in all weathers and trying to prolong the length of time that she can stay underwater without having to surface for air. In the eyes of the patrons Coralie is a mermaid!
During Coralie’s progression into this role Ezekiel’s story is also moving forward. He feels bitterness for his father, believing him to be cowardly, he also feels great anger for the way in which they live holding strong resentment for the factory owners and the comfort in which they live at the expense and misery of their employees. He eventually rebels against his father and his religion and leaves home. Following a chance encounter he becomes an apprentice to a well known and ground breaking photographer. This in turn leads Ezekiel (or Eddie as he is now known) to work on the local newspapers where he encounters many disturbing and grisly sights. He is called to work on an event when a factory blaze results in the deaths of many workers who it appears had been locked into their workroom on the ninth floor. Many of these workers jumped to their deaths rather than being consumed by the flames. It’s a terrible and horrifying evening that provokes unrest throughout the city. During the events of that night a young woman goes missing. It could be she was killed in the factory but her body has not been recovered and her father has sought out Eddie to help him search for her. Eddie’s searches will eventually draw him to the river Hudson which is where he will have his first encounter with Coralie – although he doesn’t actually see her as she watches him from the secrecy of the forest he is aware that he’s being watched. From then onwards their stories start to entwine more with both of them feeling unaccountably drawn to each other.
What I really liked from this story and took away from it was that things are not always as they appear on the surface. Both characters have very different upbringings but whilst Eddy is angry and resentful of his family he has in actual fact been the focus of more family love than he is aware. On the other side Coralie seems to have been raised by a father who loves her and keeps her safe and protected and yet his motives are not completely selfless. It’s an interesting concept that makes you think about the story for days after you finish reading. And, things are not what they seem on other levels than the two main families. There are the deceptions within the museum and between the employees of Coralie’s father. On top of this I also thought Hoffman created a really exciting ending with plenty of tension.
In terms of criticisms – I struggled a little with Eddie. I could understand Coralie’s behaviour a lot more than his and whilst sometimes I felt frustrated with her because I wanted her to be more courageous I could understand why she wasn’t able to rise to certain challenges and was so browbeaten. Eddie’s actions on the other hand feel a little contrived for me. He’s not a bad character per se but certain of his actions just puzzled, frustrated or plain annoyed me. I can see he was supposed to come off as a very brooding and dark individual and I like that and think that Hoffman succeeds in that respect I just don’t think his actions always felt real. And, in spite of his moody and antagonistic nature he certainly seemed to attract his share of people and animals who help him throughout his life. I suppose I wanted to feel more for him than I actually did. I also felt the two storylines took quite a long time to eventually cross paths and yet once they did the love story element was instantaneous. I don’t mind the slow burner aspect but I felt that once Eddie and Coralie finally met things were just too rushed.
On the whole, this was a good read. I was quite captivated by Coralie and her story. The time period was fascinating to read about as was the setting. I also liked reading about Eddie’s past. The writing is evocative and although I didn’t find this quite as magical as some the author’s previous works it was still an enjoyable novel.
I’m adding this to my reads for Stainless Steel Droppings Once Upon a Time reading event.
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
19 November 2011
Filed under Book Reviews, Challenges for 2011
Tags: Alice Hoffman, The Dovekeepers
Just finished reading the Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. Set in ancient Israel the Dovekeepers tells the story of four remarkable women, the struggles they have endured and the friendship they share. Whilst this is a work of fiction it is based on actual events that took place in 70 AD when over 900 Jews fled the Romans and made a settlement in the fortress Masada.
This is an incredibly moving and tragic story full of detail and populated with outstanding characters whose lives are mesmerising to read about. In four individual sections we come to know Yael, Revka, Aziza and Shirah. All these women have come to Masada under different circumstances, they all have unique stories to tell and yet their stories intertwine in a satisfying way. We begin with Yael. Her mother died in childbirth and her father has never forgiven her for the loss of his wife. Following the fall of Jerusalem Yael and her father flee into the desert with another family where they endure hardships and great suffering but eventually reach the fortress where Yael is assigned the duties of dovekeeper. This is where she meets Revka. Revka crossed the desert with her son in law and her two grandsons, who no longer talk after watching the horrific murder of their mother at the hands of the Romans. Aziza is also a dovekeeper. She is the daughter of Shirah, brought up on the Iron Mountain as a boy, taught to ride and fight and happiest when around the warriors rather than the women. And, finally, Shirah, feared and shunned. Shirah was brought up in Alexandria where she was taught ancient magic and the ways of wise women. Originally respected and revered such practices were now forbidden and anyone practicing magic or worshipping idols, although still sought out in secret by desperate women, would be called a witch and cast out. Shirah has crossed the desert for love.
All four women move the story forward in their own individual chapters and this is done in such a way as to provide you with their history and introduce you to their links to each other. All four are strong individuals, made so by the trials they have suffered and the secrets they keep. These are harsh times indeed and this story doesn’t flinch away from telling things as they were.
Exactly how historically correct this is I wouldn’t like to say but the story provides such a wealth of detail about how people lived and behaved that it’s impossible not to get caught up in their lives and to read on with every mouting horror as the story reaches its drastic finale. I think the title – the Dovekeepers – belies the true nature of the book. It sounds so gentle and peaceful and yet the content is anything but.
In terms of criticisms I did have my doubts when I first started reading, and, truthfully it did take a good few chapters before I became hooked by Yael’s story but once I reached that point the book had me in it’s clutches. It’s not an easy or light read. The subject matter is tragic after all and reading a story based on actual events which left only two women and five children surviving at their conclusion was never going to be lacking in emotion. That being said, this is really well told with great imagination. It’s perhaps not what I have come to expect when picking up one of Hoffman’s novels. They’re usually more contemporary and always have fairly uplifting magical themes running through them which is not so much the case here. Obviously we have Shirah and her potions and spells and there is a lot of superstition and talk of demons but it has a decidedly different feel than I would normally have expected.
I would definitely recommend this book, as I said, it’s not an easy read, but it is certainly gripping and I think this will become one of Alice Hoffman’s most outstanding novels.
Rating -A
The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman
I’ve read a few books by AH and I really like her writing style. She manages to conjure up such wonderful images of the people and the places in which they live and her books always have an ‘other world’ type of feel to them.
This book focuses on the relationship between three sisters and the profound impact they have on each other’s lives. The story takes you through the three girls lives from being early teens through to their 30s. At the start of the story the three sisters Elv, Meg and Claire have a very close bond, they spend all their time together, don’t have any particular friends and have in fact even developed their own special language (Arnish) which they sit upstairs whispering to each other in their attic bedroom. Elv is the eldest and most beautiful although the other two are by no means unattractive. The girls live with their mother Annie who has separated from her husband.
Fairly soon into the story the girl’s relationship starts to fracture, this seems to be as a result of a number of things. Elv and Claire have formed a strong bond as a result of an incident when Elv saved Claire from abduction (and was actually abducted herself as a result). This incident is never talked about and the mother of the girls never finds anything out about this – in fact Meg is also in the dark about what happened and so she probably doesn’t really understand why they have become so close – and why she seems to be excluded. Eventually, petty jealousies between Meg and Elv turn into hatred with both of them vying for the attention of Claire. Elv, understandably given the trauma she has been through suffers huge emotional turmoil and starts to spin out of control.
This is such a sad story and yet told so beautifully that it is quite captivating. There is such a lot of darkness and despondency and yet throughout there are elements of fantasy woven in. This is what I really like about AH – the way she manages to take a story that frankly is so emotional and yet make it magical at the same time.
I suppose in writing a novel with such a wide scope it is difficult to focus equally on all the characters. I think Elv is perhaps focused on a little too much and the mother Annie barely gets a mention and is almost transparent. Also, the ending felt a little short. That aside I would recommend this book – I wouldn’t say it was a joy to read because of the subject matter involved but it was a very quick read in that I didn’t want to put it down a great deal.
Rating -A
The Story Sisters
Books and travelling with Lynn 