Customer Reviews

Seventh Heaven

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just finished re-reading this delightful book of Alice Hoffman's. I have had a hard time finding new fiction which interests me lately, so I went back to some old favorites.

This story takes place in the late 50s in a community on Long Island, a former potato field where all the houses look so much alike that sometimes women wander around for hours trying to find their houses. Into this cookie-cutter community of stay-at-home mothers with perfect homes arrives Nora Silk, divorced from her magician husband, with two small boys. The house she moves into is reputed to be haunted and is slowly disintegrating.

Nora is not welcomed by the other mothers, as they have never known anyone who is divorced and they are suspicious of her (and afraid of what their husbands will do). One look at Nora in her stretch pants and spike heels and you know what the husbands thought! Her son Billy is shunned at school--it does not help that he can read others' thoughts. All Nora wants is to be accepted, grow flowers, and have some friends.

But to her credit, she never succumbs to artifice in this quest. Instead of acceptance, Nora is labelled as a witch and Billy fails every subject except penmanship. As for the rest of her life, she "crossed her fingers and waited, she thought good thoughts and experimented with casseroles that contained olive loaf and hoped that would be enough."

There is some of Hoffman's magical realiam woven into the story, but so adroitly that the reader hardly realizes it and must go back and re-read the passage. Hoffman's character descriptions are subtle and spare, but draw a complete picture of this neighborhood.

Another great book by this author!

Seventh Heaven is the sixth book I have read by writer, Alice Hoffman. I obviously think she is an interesting storyteller, as well as an excellent writer of words, or else I wouldn't keep reading her novels. Some I like better than others, though I haven't come across a horrible book yet (though Here On Earth is still my least favorite thus far).

I noticed one main thing that all of her books have in common, and that's the feeling of wistfulness and despair in her books. Like many of her other works, Seventh Heaven centers around a town -- a community. Nora Silk, who is one of her main characters, but certainly not the only one, moves into this town as the only divorced woman on the block. This book takes place in 1959 where people just stayed married, regardless of whether or not the two people involved are happy in the relationship. Not only is Nora divorced, but she's raising two boys: Billy, an elementary-school aged child, and James, a baby. Billy has problems in school fitting in, and becomes withdrawn to the point where he tries to make himself invisible. Nora is a woman whom the other mothers steer clear from at first. She's a woman who doesn't appear to raise her children in a conventional way. She's also a woman who will take romance regardless of the form when she starts having an affair with a seventeen-year-old neighbor, Ace McCarthy.

This story isn't just about Nora being dejected, as well as her kids, by a whole neighborhood, and then later accepted. No, it's also about the neighbors: The McCarthy boys, Ace and Jackie, who can't seem to stay out of trouble. It's about the cop, Joe Hennessy, who lives across the street from Nora with his wife, Ellen, and boy, Stevie, who likes to torture Nora's son, Billy, in school. It's about the Shapiros, Danny and Rickie, and their parents. Danny, a kid who seems smart enough to get into any college he wants, slowly drifts, and his sister, Rickie, who seems to be confused about her own growing pains and morals. It's also about Donna Durgin, who walks out on her young children and husband because her life feels too empty. One cannot forget that this is also a story about Cathy Corrigan, who gets killed in a car accident and seems to haunt some of her peers from the grave. Like many of Alice Hoffman's books, Seventh Heaven leaves you with a weird, unconnected feeling after you're finished with the book. You may feel that way because that is how her characters are portrayed, as if nothing in the end was ever resolved. This book, much like Turtle Moon, and even Fortune's Daughter, leaves you with that very feeling.

Seventh Heaven is a very full read, with a very involved storyline, and very humble and real characters. It shows how very unique Alice Hoffman is as a writer.

I was recommended Hoffman by my sister and decided to check out what she is about. A smidge of magic realism mixed with a portrayal of a community and the characters that comprise it. As a man who holds some distaste and disdain for my suburban roots, I enjoyed the pinpricks at the balloon of suburban conformity. I was also genuinely surprised by this book at points, especially in the Ace/Nora axis.

I was not fully satisfied with this book, but I feel that any dissatisfaction reflects my own situation more than the authors' failure to achieve her aims. The change agents in this book are women who throw off the shackles of an imprisoning 50s ideal of woman and the children these women have birthed. The men in this book do not grow in the same kind of ways.

I may read more Hoffman to develop a greater understanding of her work. I feel that I have read a good book but I may not be the intended audience for it.

I have read "Seventh Heaven" by Alice Hoffman many times. It's the type of book which leaves a different impression with each read, and I find myself identifying with different characters at different times. There is an element of fantasy in the novel, typical for Alice Hoffman, but while some of her books have a dark and even sinister undertone, "Seventh Heaven" focuses more on redemption and the different types of love we come into contact with in our lives. The characters are complicated and exasperating but by the end of the book you feel connected to at least one of them in an unexpected way. Highly recommended.

"Seventh Heaven" by Alice Hoffman is a most unusual coming-of-age tale. Here, it is not just one youth who matures into self-discovery and understanding, but a whole community of neighbors--children, adolescents, and adults. The catalyst comes in the form of Nora Silk, a vibrant, independent, freethinking divorcee who moves into the neighborhood with her two young sons. Twenty months later, everything and everybody has changed.

Don't expect detailed character development--there are far too many characters in this novel for that. This work is more like a collection of interlocking short stories than a traditional novel. But this is Alice Hoffman writing so, trust me, you will not feel shortchanged. Her characters are spot-on perfect--so credible, they practically bleed off the page. With just a few deft words, she can capture an emotion, a life, emptiness, a dream, and make you feel that person's essence. It's uncanny, magical--it's Alice Hoffman. Clearly, I love this author!

The whole plot takes place in a mere 20 months. It is 1959 in the suburbs of New Jersey. This is a time way before the women's movement. This is like Pleasantville, U.S.A. From the first moment they see her, the neighbors know that Nora Silk doesn't fit in. She wears tight pants and high heel shoes. Her house is untidy, her kids unkempt. She runs her household, holds down a job, and does all the manly fix-it jobs around the house...and she acts as if all this were perfectly normal. From the very beginning, all the mothers in the neighborhood give her the cold shoulder, but the husbands can't keep their eyes off of her. Naturally, this doesn't help the situation. The children take cues from their mothers and start taunting and bullying Nora's third grade son, Billy. All poor Billy can do in response is to try and learn as much as he can about Houdini so he can become invisible.

But there is magic working on Hemlock Street--subtle, believable magic. The magic is Nora's authenticity. It makes all the neighbors who come in contact with her eventually question their own sanitized lives. One-by-one, the facades that each neighbor has constructed to obfuscate their inner selves begin to melt. Lives change. People get hurt, then recover, then go on to become better, more complete, and self-aware human beings...and all because of Nora.

This novel isn't for everyone. Most of these characters are deeply flawed, and some of the actions they take can be interpreted by some as being highly immoral. But, they are people who are true to their inner natures, and that's what makes them real. See if this book doesn't help you love these people for themselves, without judgment. Then perhaps you'll find it easier to love yourself and those special people in your life also without judgment. We know we should, but most of us still find this so difficult.

The above book description just about says it all, and there's not much I can add except to say that I enjoyed this book very much! Deeply developed characters, a familiar setting, and very detailed (and seemingly accurate) glimpse into what neighborhood life was like on suburban Long Island 45 years ago, and how it compares to my own lifestyle here now. I definitely felt drawn into the community and related to the characters as though they were my own neighbors.

This is the fourth book I've read by Alice Hoffman. I have also read 'At Risk', 'Turtle Moon' and 'Second Nature.' If you haven't read Alice Hoffman before, I highly recommened you start with this one. She tends to write about slightly odd things. Seventh Heaven (and I have no idea why it's called that,) is a story of a small community where every house is the same and everyone is married with children and everybody is happy (or at least pretends to be) and everything is perfect. Then Nora Silk and her two boys move in. Nora is divorced and is raising her children by herself. In all the other families, the man works and the woman stays home but because Nora is on her own, she works.

Nora is treated harshly because she's different. Her kids aren't always spotless and they don't get the most nutritious meal but she does the best she can. As time goes on, things change in the community, everything is a little off.

Seventh Heaven has some adult material and so I wouldn't recommended it for young teenagers or kids. It has sex and one instance of murder in it.

Seventh Heaven is a book that bleeds reality. The reality doesn't stem from knowing every single detail of what life was like in the 50's, it comes from knowing how we feel, how we react, how we yearn and then putting that knowledge on paper. Alice doesn't give us surface details about the 50's era, she digs deep and unveils the core of those who lived in that era. Alice's writing style is so intense and so real that any potholes you find in the story are easily endurable because of her literary style. There were times when the characters became crowded and hard to distinguish. But the confusion didn't last long. Soon Alice was driving us into these character's souls. Being able to step, dance, swim, play, and sleep inside a character's mind is the ultimate climax. Alice has taken us there in this novel. And I'm left panting for more.

In a "Pleasantville"-like suburb set in the fifties, men bring home the bacon, women vacuum in high heels and children play baseball and fall asleep to the sound of late evening lawn mowers. Apart from the infrequent domestic disturbance, all is peaceful, until Nora Silk moves in with her two young sons. Nora is something of a scarlet woman in the community, being divorced, attractive, and an indifferent housekeeper. She tries but continually fails to live up to the standards set by the other women as wives and mothers. Her arrival causes a series of rifts which cannot be easily repaired. An otherwise ordinary housewife leaves her family out of the blue, and other residents explore options and pursue dreams they had never considered before. Although "Seventh Heaven" doesn't have much of a plot, the book is an enjoyable read.

Alice Hoffman takes us along for the ride to witness the jarring shift from the stodgy 50s to the revolutionary 60s. This was my first taste of Alice Hoffman's writing, which I found quite exceptional.

Her narrative shifts direction so subtly, like a gentle breeze lapping at your skin, teasing you into closing your eyes for just one minute, only to open them to darkened skies and a growing lull-before-the-storm electricity in the air. The book opens to the stirrings of unease in a Leave-IT-TO-Beaver, 1959, brand-new, suburban neighborhood. Nicely coiffed wives cook family dinners in Burmuda shorts and Peter Pan collars, no one locks their doors at night, all the mothers belong to the PTA, and everyone keeps a perfect lawn, until crows move into a recently abandoned house, smudging the perfect surface of life in the `burbs.
Then, as now, you just never know what's really going on in the house next door
When a new neighbor moves in--a bit too flashy and weirdly magical--, when a teenager's arrogance explodes into self-destruction, it becomes harder and harder to maintain the neighborhood's comfortable status quo, and all the skeletons in all the family closets begin to rattle - loudly.

Growth is never easy and is rarely without pain! Interesting book.