The Probable Future [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Alice Hoffman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 24, 2003 | Series: Hoffman, Alice (Large Print)

Alice Hoffman’s most magical novel to date—three generations of extraordinary women are driven to unite in crisis and discover the rewards of reconciliation and love.

Women of the Sparrow family have unusual gifts. Elinor can detect falsehood. Her daughter, Jenny, can see people’s dreams when they sleep. Granddaughter Stella has a mental window on the future—a future that she might not want to see.

In The Probable Future this vivid and intriguing cast of characters confronts a haunting past—and a very current murder—against the evocative backdrop of small-town New England. By turns chilling and enchanting, The Probable Future chronicles the Sparrows’s legacy as young Stella struggles to cope with her disturbing clairvoyance. Her potential to ruin or redeem becomes unbearable when one of her premonitions puts her father in jail, wrongly accused of homicide. Yet this ordeal also leads Stella to the grandmother she was forbidden to meet and to a historic family home full of talismans from her ancestors.

Poignant, arresting, unsettling, The Probable Future showcases the lavish literary gifts that have made Alice Hoffman one of America’s most treasured writers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Magic is once again knitted into the fabric of a Hoffman novel, this one revolving around a New England family living with the legacy of witchcraft. In colonial Unity, Mass., Rebecca Sparrow was tried as a witch and drowned because of her physical inability to feel pain. Her present-day descendants possess extraordinary gifts. Elinor, the dying matriarch of the Sparrow family, has the ability to discern liars. Her estranged daughter, Jenny Avery, can divine other people's dreams. And Jenny's 13-year-old daughter, Stella, knows how and when people will die. Jenny is recently divorced from Will Avery, a charming but erratic and hard-drinking music teacher; she and Stella live in Boston, where Stella is a charity case at the exclusive Rabbit School for girls. Brainy and unpopular, Stella chafes at her mother's invasive omniscience while trying to make sense of her own powers. When Stella asks her father, Will, to try to prevent a death, he ends up becoming a murder suspect, and her mother sends her to live with Elinor at Cake House, her home in Unity, until the scandal dies down. Jenny and Will soon join her, as does Will's brother, Matt, a reclusive scholar, and Stella's best friend, the audacious, jaded Juliet Aronson. Matt is studying the life of Rebecca Sparrow, and his research reveals strange echoes of Rebecca's story in the lives of her descendants. Subplots are numerous: Brock Stewart, Elinor's doctor, has been secretly in love with Elinor for years; his teenage grandson, Hap, meets the Sparrows and develops a crush on Juliet; and Will becomes close with Liza, an old high school classmate of Jenny's. The plot is crowded, and readers will wish for more time with each of the full-bodied, wholly absorbing characters, but few will complain: Hoffman's storytelling is as spellbinding as ever.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Hoffman has perfected her very own entrancing style of magic realism and mystical romance anchored to the moody, history-laden Massachusetts countryside. In an astonishing run of 16 dazzling novels of family strife, crimes of passion, and the sort of love that induces a person to walk through fire, plunge to the bottom of a cold, dark lake, or promise anything to the gods, Hoffman has gently lifted the veil between the ordinary and the supernatural and made of human desire a force of nature. In this bewitching tale, three living generations of Sparrow women confront their strange and challenging heritage. It all begins in 1697 when a strange girl who can't feel physical pain walks out of the woods surrounding the tiny settlement of Unity, and unnerves the witch-fearing townsfolk. Each of her descendents, all female and all born in the volatile month of March, possesses a similarly troublesome gift. Elinor can recognize a liar at 100 paces, although her husband still betrays her. Jenny, her daughter, dreams other people's dreams. And her daughter, Stella, can see people's deaths, a burden that at first wreaks havoc when her feckless father is accused of a murder she foresees but later becomes a boon. Hoffman's newest cast of characters is unfailingly magnetic, from her eye-rolling teenagers to her wryly in-love seniors to her suddenly aflame fortysomethings, and the story she tells is as lush as it is suspenseful, as rich in earthy and sensuous detail as it is sweet and hopeful. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Random House Large Print; Lrg edition (June 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375432167
• ISBN-13: 978-0375432163
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,569,068 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

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Back to form, October 23, 2003

By 

L. Blumenthal "lynn" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Probable Future (Hardcover)

Alice Hoffman's PRACTICAL MAGIC is easily her most popular title, yet she hasn't written anything similar to that book in many years, much to the dismay of her many fans. Subsequent books have ranged from disturbing to unfulfilling, as she tackled such powerful themes as spousal abuse, hazing and identity change.

But this book returns her to the genre that suits her best: magical realism. The wonderful book spins the tale of a family of magical women, who pass psychic gifts from generation to generation. It's up the the latest of the Sparrow women, a rebellious teenager, to trace the disturbing history of this haunted family. Meanwhile, her mother, unhappily married and attempting to turn her back on the Sparrow gifts, learns from her daughter the terrible truth of the original Sparrow "witch."

It's glorious reading and done in the lush style that Hoffman wears like a kid glove. Any Hoffman fan who has been disappointed in recent years will love this book, as will newcomers to Hoffman's work.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Storyteller, October 1, 2003

By 

Kelly A. fuller "certified book nut" (Pennsville, New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Probable Future (Hardcover)

Alice Hoffman is utterly amazing. Her books are magical, and I'm not just refering to the storylines. Alice Hoffman's writing seems to take on a surreal quality. Her words take you places. As a reader, you are drawn into the lives of her characters. You can feel their heartache, their happiness and their frustrations. But her talent doesn't stop there. Alice Hoffman's ability to describe surroundings, smells, tastes and textures is truly magical. The Probable Future is just one shining example oh how talented she is.

The story is set in the small town of Unity, Massachussets. Unity may be slight in terms of population and shopping malls, but it's history is massive. Many of Unity's families carry with them a dark past. Their ancesters took part in the murder of a young girl. Although centuries have past since the incident, Unity is still filled with regret, loss and mystery.

The Sparrow women have been an intregal part of Unity's history for hundred's of years. Each woman is given a "special gift" on her thirteenth birthday. A magical, although sometimes practical, ability is given to each young girl. Eleanor Sparrown can spot a liar. Jenny Sparrow is plagued with the dreams of others, and Stella Sparrow is able to view death before it occurs. The Sparrow women are special, although they may not enjoy their talents. This is the story of how these woman live with each other, and discover the magic of their family history.

The Probable Future is a unbelievable book. You will relish in the sights and sounds of Unity and feel the emotions of each and every character as clearly as if you were a Unity resident yourself. Alice Hoffman's ability to stimulate your senses will allow you to sniff the sweet scent of lake water, touch the old oak trees and taste the culinary delights of Hull's Teahouse. When you finish you feel the history of this small town and understand why those Sparrown women are such an intregal part of it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars possible good read marred by some clumsy plotting/characters, July 24, 2004

By 

B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Probable Future (Hardcover)

Probable Future had a future. The premise, a family history of girls (the only ones born into the family) coming into a "gift" at thirteen set up as prelude to some family dysfunction has a lot of promise. There are a few very strong characters and some wonderful passages, especially in the latter part. Unfortunately, the story never really lives up to its premise. Stella, newly come into her gifts of seeing people's "probably futures" (seemingly their deaths only), is daughter to Jenny whose own gift of being able to dream other people's dreams led her into an unhappy marriage which has recently ended. She in turn is daughter to Elinor, the stern matriarch whose gift of always being able to spot a lie hasn't prevented her from missing certain truths and has left her, along with some family tragedy, alone and bitter. All three of them are "Sparrow girls" descended from Rebecca Sparrow who long ago was drowned as a witch and who passed on the legacy of a single gift at thirteen. Had Hoffman stopped there and explored the family dynamics she could have had a great tale. Unfortunately, she feels the need to spice it up with some more urgent drama.

The drama comes when Stella tells her dad Will, (a charming man of absolutely no responsibility we are told again and again) that a girl will have her throat slit and asks him to try to prevent it. When it happens anyway he becomes the target of the ensuing investigation due to his strange foreknowledge. The killer then tries to track Stella down to prevent him from being uncovered.

This is by far the weakest part of the plot. The killer's actions make very little sense, the police and judicial systems are implausible at best in their own actions, Will is far too dim, and the way in which the killer pops up and gets resolved is just very awkwardly handled. All of this from a plot arc that is really unnecessary.

The gifts themselves are handled in clumsy fashion and with a slapdash sort of fashion. Stella sees preventable deaths but only of some people. She knows when they'll die, but only for some people. The visions are metaphorical, except when they're literal. Elinor can spot a lie which she takes as meaning she can spot a liar (I'm not clear on if this is her flaw or Hoffman's), but not always. The gifts conveniently occur for plot movement. They are seemingly never discussed among the women yet somehow there is shared information--either an inconsistency or a section the reader should have seen. The biggest oversight with regard to the gifts is the way in which Stella's seems to have almost no emotional impact on her. A thirteen-year-old girl surrounded by people whose deaths she sees who seems to experience little to no emotion? Thirteen-year-old girls have emotional responses to the new paint on their lockers. The impact of her gift was just too easily glossed over.

There are further flaws of too easy resolutions, too shallow characterization, and repetitive imagery where Hoffman batters the reader a bit too much to make a point or simply doesn't trust the reader to catch an allusion or thematic lead. And then there are simply throwaway lines like a character getting into Harvard due only to their SAT's. Harvard turns down kids with perfect scores; nobody gets in based on their SAT's.

Interestingly, by far the strongest characters are also the oldest--Elinor and her doctor. His characterization stands out for its richness and depth, while hers is not as strong but still a highlight of the book. The doctor's son Hap is not drawn as fully but the details are rich and human. The others are weakly portrayed with some being only two-dimensional.

The historical sections are some of the strongest writing and one wishes there could have been more. Just as one wishes Hoffman could have focused more on the relationships among the three generations without the distraction of the murder or a "bad-boy" dispute between mom and daughter that seldom rises above sitcom fare.

People who like Hoffman will probably still enjoy the book despite its flaws. It's more a frustratingly weak book than a bad book. But those looking for an introduction to her work probably want to start elsewhere.