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: Intense!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the first Alice Hoffman book I have ever read. Im not sure I can say I really enjoyed the book but I will tell you this I could not stop reading. Be advised....Dont start reading this book late at night because you will never fall asleep, it's a real page turner. Book Review: Not worthy
Summary: 1 Stars
Reading the first chapter was the only time I actually enjoyed this book. Everything went downhill afterwards, when I realized this was just a retelling of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is a well-told classic, timeless, raw, and beautiful. Here On Earth, however, is just a poor rendition, very contrived, no spontaneity whatsoever.
The almost-complete cast of characters in Wuthering Heights is present in Here On Earth. I don't remember the names of the characters in Here On Earth but I remember their counterparts pretty well. There's your modern-day version of Catherine Earnshaw, there's the modern-day counterpart of her brother Hindley. Then there's the counterpart of Heathcliff! Surprise! Surprise! A foundling with a dark and ominous character! And then there are the neighbors: the counterpart of Edgar Linton (whom Catherine's counterpart marries), and the counterpart of Isabella Linton (whom the counterpart of Heathcliff marries). And then there's the counterpart of Catherine Jr (Catherine-counterpart and Edgar-counterpart's daughter), who falls in love with cousin counterpart of Hareton (son of Hindley's counterpart). There's also Nelly Dean's counterpart, and Linton Linton's counterpart, but that's all I'm going to say. Those of you who've read and loved Wuthering Heights, you know the rest.
It's a sad thing that this is the first Alice Hoffman novel I've read. I'm now inclined to ignore the rest of her novels. Maybe. Or I might be open to her other novels if I've finished reading all the other books I really wanted to read first.
Book Review: Romance run amok
Summary: 3 Stars
When March Murray, fortyish and married in CA, returns to Mass for the funeral of the lady who raised March after her mother's death, she knew that she would have to encounter Hollis the orphaned boy living with her family whom she passionately loved as a teenager before he left town. Hollis a man of mystery returned to the small town a millionaire, buying both March's and her husband's childhood homes. But Hollis seems to leave destruction in his wake, being at times paranoid, abusive, possessive, and vindictive, not to mention his wife's death. Yet March blithely ignores all of this and basically abandons her family as she is helplessly drawn to Hollis.
The story is set in the Fall, and the encroaching bleakness of the landscape reflects the situation of Hoffman's characters. March's daughter Gwen, who accompanied her from CA, arrived as an insolent teenager, but is forced to find herself and is aided in that endeavor by her taming of a racehorse thought to be too mean for human contact. In addition, Gwen finds a kindred spirit in Hank, the teenage son of March's brother now a drunken hermit. They keep the story from collapsing.
The book is practically incestuous with all of the brother, sister, cousin, and next-door-neighbor marrying and romance. There's enough dysfunctionality among them for the whole town, let alone a couple of families. At its best, the book has some insight into excess, romance, coping, etc. But then again, the evil and obsessiveness is fairly akin to what is found in the grocery store genre. The entire book has a dream-like feel - way short on realism. And the ending is weak and unreflective. I wonder what Oprah saw in this book?
Book Review: Perhaps a more apt title would be: What On Earth?!?
Summary: 2 Stars
I survived reading about four chapters before I couldn't take it any more! I bailed out just before March and the towns folk of Jenkintown gathered for the housekeeper's funeral. (see? I can't even remember that woman's name) The characters were so polarized. Hollis was the mean, evil, brooding forsaken lover, a loner... The housekeeper was just so "good good good" it was not believable. I was vistiting a nursing home today and decided on the spot to get rid of the book, I left on the reading table.Book Review: Kissing Cousins Makes for a Not-So-Nice Feeling
Summary: 3 Stars
I began to read this book because Oprah's book club had given it their stamp of approval. I started out loving how the author flows from one point of view to the next without a bump in the road. All-in-all I loved the author's style of writing and creative word usage, but I couldn't wash off the disturbing feeling I got when the Gwen/Hank relationhip took seed even after they found out that they were FIRST COUSINS! Not third cousins twice removed or something as obscure as that, but first cousins, YUCK! I was waiting for them to seal the deal on their relationship by consumating it somewhere along the storyline, but thankfully that does not take place. Also, I think that the story dies right at the end where the author uses Hank, a side character, to close the story. I felt at this point, what could have been a tremendous ending to a fairly good book just kind of fell over just before the finishline ribbons. Recommended? Sure, but skip over the cousins who feel the need to make out on occasion. Maybe this book could be coupled with the movie Deliverance!