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Edited on Mon Jun-13-05 11:50 AM by BlueIris
And excellent. Has anyone ever read the early to mid-career works of Alice Hoffman? I post early because if you've read her stuff published after about 2000, you may have noticed that she appears to have stopped caring about writing decent novels. I don't believe in (permanent) artistic "burn out," but I do believe that sometimes people run out of ideas, fail to remain invested in their work, or lose their good editors. Or their minds. Anyway, I don't know what happened to her, but her books of the late '70s and the '80s are terrific. I would love to reexplore them, as I haven't done it in years since becoming too shocked at the downturn in the quality of her prose.
The plots of Hoffman's early to mid-career stuff almost all concern primarily the lives of convincingly constructed female characters living realistic lives in various time periods and locations in America. Almost all the novels have something really interesting to say about the way women relate to other women in the world; their mothers, female coworkers, neighbors, daughters. The word "feminism" is almost never mentioned, but these (usually) independent, intelligent and realistic characters and the decisions they make in their lives would make any feminist proud. The upside of our groupd choosing one of these books to read is that a) they're readily and cheaply available at most used books stores and b) they're extremely readable (when she wrote well, she wrote well). My suggestions:
"Seventh Heaven"--It depicts a neighborhood in Long Island in the last days of 1959 and first few months of 1960. Yes, there are male characters in this one two, but as in most Hoffman novels, they, well, play second string to the female characters involved, mainly the wives and mothers of this neighborhood, in this snapshot of an America on the brink of cataclysmic change. What I think would be fun to do is read the book, and decide what we think will happen to the characters as the '60s wear on--which couples will stay together, which women will become (more) feminist, which teenagers revolutionaries. There are also plenty of things to talk about in terms of the psychologies of the female characters and their choices to discuss.
"Fortune's Daughter"--This is a great one about mother-daughter relationships. Takes place in L.A. in the '80s and focuses on the strange friendship that develops between a fortune teller and one of her newly pregnant film producer clients.
"Turtle Moon"--I'm lukewarmly suggesting this one because it takes place in Florida. I don't remember much political content, so if it bothers anyone that we're reading about a 1980s Florida that is depicted as sanely governed, which on DU, would be understandable, this might not be the books to go with. There are some great potential discussions here about the relationships between particularly young women. And it features a few of my favorite male Hoffman characters, who are among the sweetest and the smartest (and the most subtly feminist) from within her works. It's been so long that I barely remember the actual plot, except for something about a murder and some turtles.
Thoughts?
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