Angel Landing [Hardcover]

Alice Hoffman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 1980

The bestselling author of Practical Magic offers "an affecting love story, laced with humor" (Booklist) that tells the tale of a man and a woman, an activist and a therapist, so consumed with helping others that they are in danger of failing in their duty to themselves.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Hoffman's 1980 novel about love, politics, and therapy doesn't hold up well 20 years later. The politics of the impact of a nuclear power plant explosion, even if it is not yet operational, was probably, justifiably or not, a scarier and more conscious threat when she wrote Angel Landing. The story's romantic triangle of activist Carter Sugarland, bomber Michael Finn, and therapist Natalie is never fully realized. Carter is more dedicated to the cause than to love, and Natalie is a terrible therapist even without her questionable and predictable relationship with Finn; perhaps Hoffman's true political scrutiny is aimed at the ethics of therapy as all the therapists in the book are morally askew. The love story also suffers as the true thrust of the book focuses on the sadly stereotypical dysfunctionality of generations of Finns, whose individual plights deserve better therapy than they get. The strongest, most intriguing character is Aunt Minnie, an eccentric who charges into every situation with a golden-hearted agenda and the memories of a poetic love, providing the only humor and irony. A better book would have been her story instead. Bonnie Hurren's accents are unevenly sustained. Not recommended.
-Joyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Alice Hoffman is the author of fifteen novels: Blue Diary (2001), The River King (2000), Local Girls (1999), Here On Earth (1997), Practical Magic (1995), Second Nature (1994), Turtle Moon (1992), Seventh Heaven (1990), At Risk (1988), Illumination Night (1987), Fortune’s Daughter (1985), White Horses (1982), Angel Landing (1980), The Drowning Season (1979), and Property Of (1977). She is also the author of three children’s books: Aquamarine (2001), Horsefly (2000), and Fireflies (1997).

Born in New York City, and raised on Long Island, Hoffman graduated from Adelphi University and received an M.A. from Stanford University, where she was Mirrielees Fellow. She currently lives near Boston with her family and her dogs.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First edition (October 17, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399125043
• ISBN-13: 978-0399125041
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,057,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952 and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She currently lives in Boston and New York.

Hoffman's first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. She credits her mentor, professor and writer Albert J. Guerard, and his wife, the writer Maclin Bocock Guerard, for helping her to publish her first short story in the magazine Fiction. Editor Ted Solotaroff then contacted her to ask if she had a novel, at which point she quickly began to write what was to become Property Of, a section of which was published in Mr. Solotaroff's magazine, American Review.

Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published a total of eighteen novels, two books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults. Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte's masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Her advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman (Women's Cancer) Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. Blackbird House is a book of stories centering around an old farm on Cape Cod. Hoffman's recent books include Aquamarine and Indigo, novels for pre-teens, and The New York Times bestsellers The River King, Blue Diary, The Probable Future, and The Ice Queen. Green Angel, a post-apocalyptic fairy tale about loss and love, was published by Scholastic and The Foretelling, a book about an Amazon girl in the Bronze Age, was published by Little Brown. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year. In January 2007, Skylight Confessions, a novel about one family's secret history, was released on the 30th anniversary of the publication of Her first novel. Her most recent novel is The Story Sisters (2009), published by Shaye Areheart Books.

Hoffman's work has been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay "Independence Day" a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, Redbook, Architectural Digest, Gourmet, Self, and other magazines. Her teen novel Aquamarine was recently made into a film starring Emma Roberts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed the excellent character development., October 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Angel Landing (Paperback)

Although this was not my favorite novel by Alice Hoffman, it had the well-realized characters and description of place which always makes me unable to tear myself away from the stories and really care for the people in them. I did note one error in your synopsis which states that Natalie feels neglected by her husband and takes up with her patient. The character, Carter Sugarland, is her long time boyfriend, not husband, who will never make a commitment to Natalie. The synopsis makes it sound as though Natalie left her husband. This sort of review misrepresents the book and leads me to believe the writer of the synopsis did not read the book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not what I had hoped for, July 13, 2003

By 

Jennifer White "dezdmona" (Fort Drum, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angel Landing (Paperback)

I recently picked up Here on Earth and was really impressed. So I rushed out to get more Alice Hoffman books. I picked up Turtle Moon, Angel Landing, and The Drowning Season. I dove into Angel Landing and thought, why did I buy these?

After the intense characters in Here On Earth these characters were pretty blase. Finn was a bit textbook for my taste. I think we were supposed to base all of his adult behavior on his childhood woes and that just doesn't work for me. The only one I really liked was Minnie. She was quirky but had a real heart and conviction for things.

I am disappointed that I didn't get the good vocabulary in this book. I like to be challenged as a reader and I wasn't with this book. It won't keep me from reading another book by Alice Hoffman. There are too many good reviews of her other works to sway me from my pursuit of finding good material to fill my days.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Worst book, February 17, 2004

By 

Fabian - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angel Landing (Paperback)

This is the worst book i've read by ALice hoffman.All her other novels were brilliant,but this was disappointing.The characters in the book are weird and they are not likeable.The story just doesn't seems real.....