Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club) by Alice Hoffman Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)
Book Review: "Wuthering Heights" meets "Gone With the Wind"
Summary: 4 Stars
'How do you tell an awful truth to someone you care for and wish to protect?' Alice Hoffman explores this question in a tale of passion and adultery in which Wuthering Heights is translated to modern New England. Lovers of Bronte will appreciate the similarities in vivid landscape descriptions, the initmate relationships between the lead characters - and it is no accident that their names begin with H!Hollis/Heathcliffe is the orphan boy, who becomes embittered through the loss of his childhood love, March until she returns a married woman with a teenage daughter, Gwen. He determines to reclaim her, threatening the fabric of not only March's family, but the whole community, who are forced to examine their consciences concerning the boundaries of small town gossip and taking action over unneighbourly suspicions of abuse.
Whilst initially I feared this was a well worn tale, I was quickly gripped could empathise with the characters and ploughed rapidly though the pages desperate to know the outcome. 'Here on Earth' is an old fashioned story, but with none of the Victorian prudery. The sexual tension aches from its pages and drips from its descriptions. Hoffman's observation of men and women (and adolescents!) in love is impressively keen. As a choice for Oprah's Book Club this was far from disappointing!
Book Review: Fantastic
Summary: 5 Stars
From the very first page I was embroilled by Hoffman's shrewd nack at sensitively evoking the thoughts and feelings of the reader. Hollis is just wonderful, mysterious and intriguing. The first Hoffman I read was The River King that was great but in my opinion not as good as here on earth which is excellent. Hoffman is a real star find, Go out buy a book and read some!Book Review: Not all it's cracked up to be
Summary: 2 Stars
I tried hard to like this book after reading very mixed reviews on amazon.com It begins very well with intiguing first few chapters giving some background info on the story. The desciptions of scenery are excellent but unfortunately, it seems, at the expense of the central characters. All four seem very false, unlike real people. Hollis is very unlikeable but not a realistic villain. March is selfish and shallow and I find it hard to believe that any parent would neglect her teenage daughter to that extent, whatever the circumstances. Gwen is the most interesting character, although her rapid transformation from selfish brat to mature, sensible young woamn in a matter of weeks (or is it days even?) doesn't ring true. Hank is pathetic in his loyalty to Hollis and Gwen would never have fallen for him if these were real characters.In truth, the plot is interesting enough to make you read on till the end but the weak characters make this book easy to forget. Good for a beach holiday, nothing more.
Book Review: Got better and better
Summary: 5 Stars
I felt that the story started slowly, but as the relationship between March and Hollis grew, I soon became fascinated by their 'love' for each other, but I don't think that love had anything to do with it. I was shaken by this story, and glad that is was not a slushy romantic, and it teachs us the lesson that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Full marks to Alice Hoffman who is not afraid to write about true human nature, no matter how ugly.Book Review: More about obsession and spells than love
Summary: 4 Stars
"Here on Earth" is a rather disturbing book... it is not one of Hoffman's best but is certainly worth reading. It is somewhat remiscent of "Wuthering Heights" - obsessional love, revisiting the past, and the dangers of following one's dreams at the expense of others.It took a few reads to understand what was happening to March: she was not in love, she was being taken over and spellbound by Hollis and the dreams of what-might-have-been. It is not the love of which she, and Iris, dreamt. Therefore on subsequent readings the novel becomes darker than it at first appears.