A Red Heart of Memories [Hardcover]

Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

A masterful vision of witchcraft and wonder--from the award-winning writer who's been hailed as "an American original." (Locus)

Winner of the Bram Stoker Award and finalist for both the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, Nina Kiriki Hoffman presents a novel of two people who live outside ordinary reality--and who are about to discover life's extraordinary possibilities...

Matt (Matilda) Black possesses the unique ability to speak with inanimate objects and to witness the inner dreams of other people. She spends her days traveling from place to place alone, yet never lonely--for she can communicate with all that surrounds her. She finds a kindred spirit in Edmund Reynolds--a wandering witch on a spiritual quest to help those in need. Together, these two special people will embark on an odyssey of the imagination. They will encounter things both wonderful and terrifying. And after so many years of solitude, they will learn to depend on one another--as they look into the darkest depths of the past.

"Most writers show and tell. Nina Hoffman sings."--Algis Budrys

"A Nina Hoffman story is, by definition, a thing of high quality and mesmeric appeal."--Roger Zelazny

"Nina Kiriki Hoffman is a magician. Her words create worlds no one has seen before. Her characters are charming, her prose lyrical. She is one of the fantasy field's greatest talents."--Kristine Kathryn Rusch

"Nina Kiriki Hoffman is one of those special prizes in the field...One of a kind. An American original."--Locus

"Is Nina Hoffman a genius? Oh, yes. Yes, indeed."--The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

She doesn't write multivolume fantasy epics--what Nina Kiriki Hoffman does write are haunting, character-driven short stories and novels. Matt (Matilda) Black, one of the two main characters in A Red Heart of Memories, appeared in two previous Hoffman novellas: Unmasking and Home for Christmas. Matt is a wanderer with the power to speak to inanimate objects and watch other people's thoughts and dreams. She meets a wandering witch, Edmund Reynolds. "Mostly I just wander from one place to the next," said Edmund, "waiting to be needed for something, then trying to figure out what it is." Spirit tells Edmund he can help Matt, even if she doesn't want him hanging around, and Matt finds that she can help Edmund in return.

Hoffman's fantasy is very much in the spirit of Jonathan Carroll's The Marriage of Sticks and Peter S. Beagle's Tamsin. She's written for children and her books are suitable for young adult readers, but don't be fooled. They're sophisticated, well-crafted stories written in a distinctive, uncynical voice and filled with magical reality.

In 1994, Hoffman won the Bram Stoker First Novel Award for The Thread That Binds the Bones, and both The Silent Strength of Stones (1995) and A Red Heart of Memories were nominated for the World Fantasy Award. As of 2001, Hoffman had been nominated for Nebula Awards four times. --Nona Vero --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

It's a pleasure to see a new adult novel from Hoffman, even a lesser work like this one. Her debut novel, The Thread that Binds, won a Stoker for best first novel, but of late she has been writing for R.L. Stine's Ghosts of Fear Street series. This is an innocuous tale of three nomads who become friends and confront the problems in their past. Matt Black is not a witch, but she does have two special powers: "dream-eyes," which allow her to see others' mental landscapes, and the ability to communicate with inanimate objects. After years of wandering alone, Matt is surprised to meet another "special" person: Edmund, a witch who has been "blowing from here to there," using "spirit" to "help things fix themselves." The two quickly become companions and decide to retrace Edmund's life to find out why he is so alone. They visit his childhood friends, including Susan, who becomes part of the group. It turns out that the three all suffer from the effects of traumatic experiences: incest led to self-abusive "zoned" years for Matt; Susan has avoided friendship ever since she fled her controlling father; Edmund's self literally fragmented after he destroyed a man while protecting himself. Hoffman handles the interconnected solutions to the trio's problems with skill, as each solution leads subtly to greater understanding and compassion. At times, however, the characters' long talks skirt perilously close to pop psychology masquerading as wisdom: "He did the only thing he could, because that's what happened. The only place we can change anything is right now." Hoffman's "comfort magic" is even less successfulAEdmund's vague "spirit" and "gold" powers are ill defined, little more than ornaments in a quiet tale of three injured souls helping each other toward happiness. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 329 pages
• Publisher: Ace; 1st edition (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441006515
• ISBN-13: 978-0441006519
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,656,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hoffman shows sense of wonder and whimsical humour, August 31, 2000

By 

Donna McMahon (Gibson's Landing, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Red Heart of Memories (Hardcover)

Matt Black, a homeless woman, is sitting on a park bench eating discarded sandwiches when a man steps out of a nearby ivy-covered wall. "The leaves wove together into green skin, the skin smoothed and formed a man, and then a man all green stepped away from the wall, shaking his head slowly."

The man is Edmund. Edmund wanders the world, going where the spirit moves him, and the spirit has told him to follow Matt. Thus begins a most extraordinary fantasy adventure set in the contemporary U.S., slightly to the left of reality.

I'm not going to say much else about the plot of A RED HEART OF MEMORIES because I don't want to spoil it or prejudice readers. Not being a big fan of fantasy or some of the book's themes (or California for that matter), I would likely have avoided it based on a plot synopsis. However, Hoffman's terrific writing made it a novel that I'm glad to have read.

The characters in A RED HEART OF MEMORIES are well drawn and compelling, but what impressed me most was the amazing sense of wonder Nina Kikiri Hoffman brought to her magic scenes, and her whimsical humour. Hoffman uses magic to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. For example:

"The rocks were singing.

Matt kneeled and placed her hand on them. Gold bared her palm --Hello?-- she thought.

''Greetings, man-thing. Thing like those that chopped us and split us and carried us and buried us, looking for seams and nuggets and ore. Greetings, thing that stripped us from our parent and brought us to a new place. Greetings, thing that left us shattered here an age ago.--

--Uh, greetings,-- Matt thought. None of these events sounded very positive, but the rocks didn't seem too angry about them. On the other hand, all the rocks had sharp edges."

My only serious criticism of A RED HEART OF MEMORIES is that the end of the book lacks impact, particularly given the emotional intensity of earlier chapters. Part of the weakness is structural. The book's viewpoint character, Matt, is pulled into a quest to solve Edmund's problem, and this in turn draws them into solving someone else's problem. These two steps distance us from Matt's needs and emotions, thus making the ultimate payoff inevitably less intense. Moreover, the climax of this magical quest begs for pyrotechnics and, unfortunately, Hoffman opts for a low key resolution. It is more realistic in human terms, certainly, but it lacks dramatic closure.

The disappointing end of A RED HEART OF MEMORIES reminded me a great deal of THE HEALER'S WAR, a fantasy novel by Elizabeth Anne Scarborough, based on her experiences as a nurse in Viet Nam. Because Scarborough hadn't resolved her feelings about Viet Nam, she wasn't able to resolve her protagonist's problems either, consequently this otherwise excellent book drizzled to an uncertain stop.

Hoffman has done a better job, nonetheless she tackled an ambitious, thorny theme and it's little wonder she had difficulties. I still recommend this book strongly, and will be watching for more of Hoffman's work.

...

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing and Engaging, December 29, 1999

By 

RSO Kent - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Red Heart of Memories (Hardcover)

I'm not usually a reader of fantasy books, but I couldn't resist picking this up. And I'm not sorry I did. Once I plunged in, I couldn't stop. I identified with Matt and Edmund, and almost drank the story line. It was mercilessly easy to follow, and as I finished the story, I found myself wanting to read more of their adventures. This book completely flew by, and I was sorry to see it end.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great contemporary fantasy, February 18, 2003

By 

Ashareh (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Red Heart of Memories (Hardcover)

Matt (Matilda) Black has been drifting from town to town, away from home, polite society, and her past, when she meets Edmund, a wandering witch who has a bit of an identity problem. Matt uses her magical gift of speaking with inanimate objects to make friends with a ghost of a haunted house (the ghost happens to be an old friend of Edmund's), who starts Edmund and Matt on the journey to recover Edmund's lost memories. An imaginative, engaging, and well-written urban fantasy that made me seek out Hoffman's other books.