Customer Reviews

A Red Heart of Memories

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

...

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.

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.

In Hoffman's world, the nature of good and evil is not always clear. Magic is real, but evil is human--and it exists in both hero and villain. The novel deals with redemption, but more--it explores trust in a world of flawed people. How can you trust others when you have been hurt? And when you have hurt others, how can you trust yourself?

The novel is more narration than action--the plot expands primarily through the stories that characters tell to Matt. Given the nature of the novel, this technique works well to emphasize that events do not have meaning only in themselves, but in our interpretation of them.

While the themes are mature, the book is appropriate for teens.

What a wonderful book! Nina Kiriki Hoffman has a flavor that I'd never tasted before. She took the story of a woman who communes with houses and man-made things, 'talks' to them, and therefore creates her own community and language in a world bereft (safely, for Matt) of people, and mixes her with a man so natural and earth like that HE can mix with anything of the earth, or organic and stay with it until it's 'fixed'. So you get the idea. Matt (woman) runs into the fix it man (his name eludes me right now) and becomes the next thing that he has to fix/ heal. This story was the first I'd seen where a man is compelled to help a woman in just such a way as Hoffman invents. I found my heart about ready to split at times, with the shear relief and cartharsis that this book/story provides. If you've ever been through something that really shook you, and you've wanted (even if just secretly) someone to somehow see the emptiness/the hole/the pain and somehow do JUST what you needed without you ever having to explain... someone that was so safe that they COULD be there. Well, that's what this book provides. Just so not to leave it out, Matt provides some healing too (predictably) and somehow things turn out differently than the young man has ever experienced before. Really interesting book. If you read it, I hope you like it as much as I have.

I really enjoyed this fantasy! It would have left me hanging if I hadn't known about the next book in this series; Past the Size of Dreaming. I enjoyed both and wish that Nina Hoffman would continue on with other books of Matt and Edmund plus the rest of the "house's" children!

Normally a mystery fan, I don't know what prompted me to purchase this book, but I'm glad I did. It was one of my first tries at fantasy, and it was totally enjoyable. The main character, Matt, is able to communicate with inanimate objects. She meets a guy named Edmund who happens to be a witch. They travel together to Edmnund's hometown and then leave there to find one of Edmund's childhood friends in order to put to rest something that happened when they were teenagers. I liked the storyline and the characters, and Matt's ability to communicate with inanimate objects was enjoyable. I will definitely try another of her books.

Hoffman is one to watch. For those of you who loved Zelazny, Sturgeon, and Bradbury, keep your eye on this lady. She's the next generation. She has a very sweet style, and blends fantastic imagery with a kind of magic that helps, hinders, and drives charcters to discover themselves.

I normally don't read books like this but it just sucked me in. I can't say much more than that...it will capture you from the first sentence. Nina Hoffman has delivered a work of art with something for every kind of reader and I only hope that we can see more books with Matt.

As usual, Nina Kiriki Hoffman has written a story that flows easily about characters one can't help caring about and with a dash of hair-standing-on-end witchcraft. If you liked The Thread That Binds the Bones, you'll love this one. It really is a 4.5-star.