Customer Reviews

Property of

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It is not very often that I find a book that leaves me wanting more. I lost myself in Hoffman's words and the world she created. This is by far one of the top books I have ever, and most likely will ever, read.

I've owned this book for many years. It's one of my all time favorites. It mirrors real life, and has a very haunting quality about it. I looked up this book not expecting to find it. I'm glad it's out there for when my copy falls apart completely.

The only books I've read by Alice Hoffman are 'Property Of' and 'Practical Magic'. I hope they never make a movie of 'Property Of', thereby ruining it. Potential Readers: Try and ignore the naysayers. Why pick apart things you don't like when all the things put together make the novel what Ms. Hoffman intended it to be? True, heroin and gangs suck in real life. Just because you might never have wanted to belong so badly doesn't make the book a bad one. I still have my original copy from 78? 79? and it's coming apart. I'm buying another copy because I want to pass this one on...This is a great book. Dark, yes, depressing at times, yes. But very realistic to falling in love with a guy who doesn't know what love is.

Sorry Alice, you are my favorite author but this is the worst book you have ever written! This book is basically about a post Vietnam war gangster scene and a girl who will do anything to belong. However, not only was the portrayal of violence swayed toward dark comedy. Many questions were left unanswered. Consequently, the scene is drab and never changes and always refers to the street or the gangster's club house. I wanted more! I wanted to know who the main character's family was, and who MckKay really was. This book was very disappointing and although I love Alice Hoffman's books I would have to say you are better off to skip this one.

Alice Hoffman has became my favorite author over the years but upon rereading this one, I found it to not have the character development and detail that I enjoy in her later books. The unnamed protagonist-narrator seems much too bright and together to fall into the trap of drugs and gangs. This book would not be out of place among the young adult fiction of authors such as S.E. Hinton. A good cautionary tale for dissassociated teens.

I really enjoyed reading this book, though it was not all happy and joyful through the whole thing. If anyone has ever fallen for a guy from the wrong side of the tracks, and had thier heart broken, this is the book for you. It gets down deep into the heart of this particular woman, and you grow up with her from a teeny bopper to a strong individual. I would recommend this book to anyone. It has a lot of insight. It was a wonderful book and I could not put it down.

Alice Hoffman's first novel contains some of her best writing--fascinating and well-developed characters, phrasing that will remain etched in your memory for a long time. The emphasis on drug use may be off-putting to some, but if this won't bother you, this is the book to start with if you're new to Hoffman's writings--or to get posthaste if you like her work and have somehow missed it.

Whenever I am disillusioned by books I turn to Alice Hoffman to get me back on track. This book, Property Of, is no exception. I first read it as a teenager, half my life ago, and it still is as powerful now as it was then.

It's a story of a lonely girl who wants the Leader of the local gang to be hers. She wins him and all his problems, becomes his conscience, and through the bad times, his only friend.

When she tries to take him away from his gang and turf she begins to realise that she will never have him on this own, the way she wants him. He will always be part of the scene she is ready to escape. Powerful, insightful stuff on how relationships can wither until you can't recognise them anymore.

I still prefer Foxfire, by Joyce Carol Oates, a much better book dealing with girl gangs. However, Alice Hoffman didn't do a bad job portraying why some girls gravitate towards gangs. The sense of belonging and importance that they obtained when they officially became The Property was something that they probably had not experienced ever before. The nameless protagonist, who is also the narrator, is a very mature 17 year old who is simply looking to connect with someone. The object of her affection is McKay, the leader of the gang. McKay is the epitome of the bad boy, and we all know how attractive a bad boy can be to a teenager. McKay is mysterious, powerful, and a junkie. Sure, this book contains some graphic violence, drugs, sex, the works. This is what the novel is about. Don't expect to find a fairy tale, please!

The silver lining in this novel is that the protagonist eventually comes of age. The process is very painful, but I loved the hopeful ending.

This book is in my honest opinion much better than Here on Earth.

I hate to be a dissenter, but I just didn't like this book. Although it was well-written and a realistically grim picture of urban gang life, I just could not like any of the characters. Danny the Sweet was the only quasi-decent one in the bunch. Even though this is trivial, I found the sobriquet "the Sweet" irritating. What bothered me most was the sheer sexism that was not only practiced, but accepted and even welcomed by the female characters. The title itself is very revealing -- women were nothing more than "chattel," or "Property." I didn't like the onstant references to the female characters as "the Property," "Orphan (or Pack) Property." It was a dehumanizing treatment of women and certainly made for some very unsympathetic and unappealing charcters, including the unnamed protagonist. I loved every other book Ms. Hoffman wrote except for this one. I thought "Property of" was for the birds.