Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club) (Paperback)

by Alice Hoffman (Author) "TONIGHT, THE HAY IN THE FIELDS IS already brittle with frost, especially to the west of Fox Hill, where the pastures shine like stars..." (more)
Key Phrases: Fox Hill, Judith Dale, Ken Helm (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Oprah Book Club® Selection, March 1998: Here on Earth is set in motion when March Murray and her teenage daughter travel from their California home to New England. Their stay is to be brief. Judith Dale, her childhood housekeeper-cum-foster mother, has died, and March must set things to right and get out of gloomy Jenkintown as quickly as possible. "Five days tops," she reassures her scientist husband. Instead, she is pulled back into the arms of Hollis, her first love--an avaricious, Heathcliff-like individual who radiates sulfur and cruelty. "She left and didn't come back, not even when he called her, and yet here she is, on this dark night; here and no place else." In this deep fable of loss and control, love and fear, Alice Hoffman allows us into her characters' cores and makes us wish their fortunes were happier. Here on Earth is filled with wisdom, what-ifs, and animals who seem, if not to know more than human beings, at least to know how to shy from danger.

From Library Journal
As this novel opens, March Murray Cooper returns to her hometown, ostensibly to bury the woman who raised her but needing to resolve the unfinished business of her youthful love for Hollis, from whom she has been separated for years. Hollis has now grown into a man embittered by loneliness. He has learned neither to forgive nor to forget, and March must discover whether he can ever learn to love. Hoffman (Practical Magic, LJ 12/94) takes great care here to examine the many facets of love and relationships, turning them like a prism to reflect on March and Hollis. Hoffman's evocative language and her lyrical descriptions of place contrast sharply with the emotional scars that her characters must uncover and bear. Her novel is a haunting tale of a woman lost in and to love; it will enthrall the reader from beginning to end. Highly recommended.
-?Caroline M. Hallsworth, Cambrian Coll., Sudbury, Ontario
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade; 1st THUS edition (March 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425167313
• ISBN-13: 978-0425167311
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (488 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #408,621 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 14 in The Oprah's Book Club Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction to author..., March 31, 2003

By	Dianna Johnston "Compulsive Reader" (Joplin, MO) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I have never read anything by Alice Hoffman before, so I am very pleased that Here on Earth ended up being such a good introduction. The writing was extremely well done, and the storyline was surprisingly page-turning.

Here on Earth tells the story of March Murray and her 19-year-absence from her hometown in Massachusetts. After living in California with her husband, Richard, and 15-year-old daughter, Gwen, March is called home for the funeral of Judith Dale, the woman who took care of her as a child. Accompanied by Gwen, March is thrust back into her old life -- her friends and her old house. But something worse haunts her heart -- March's childhood sweetheart, Hollis, is still in town and is just as much a magnet to her as he was before. Before she knows what hits her, March and Hollis rekindle their romance -- but this time things are very, very different.

I was very surprised at the direction this story took, but I loved the twists! I started out with my feelings for certain characters pretty much set, then all these secrets start coming out of the woodwork and my emotions do a 180. I believe that when an author can evoke such reactions out of a reader, that is the hallmark of a talented writer. Here on Earth also had a fantastic supporting cast that carried the story well. Alice Hoffman surpassed my expectations, and I'll be sure to read another of her novels soon.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This had some great potential, January 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club) (Paperback)

I just finished "Here on Earth", and am usually an avid fan of Oprah's Book Club (Stones from the River is by far her best pick). Having never read anything by Alice Hoffman, I wasn't sure what to expect here. She's a very descriptive writer, which can be enjoyable, however, her character development was virtually non existent. Yes, I hated Hollis, and was REALLY frustrated and disgusted by March - but it would have made all the difference if the author gave us SOME insight as to why these people behaved the way they did. The ending left TOO much to the imagination...am I the only one hoping that someone would take poor Hank to California with them? What happened to March, Gwen, Sister, Tarot? Any clue would help.. All in all, "Here On Earth" had some real potential to be an outstanding novel.. but it just left me feeling totally empty. Its almost as though Hoffman got tired of writing and just ended the book abruptly. It was a page turner, I must admit...I just really wanted to like this book a lot more than I did.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and spellbinding, February 14, 2000

By	"yankee76" (Oregon) - See all my reviews

I originally read this book because it was an Oprah Book Club selection. After reading it, though, I've become a big fan of Alice Hoffman, who, in this novel, has spun a dark tale about love, rebellion, passion, violence, control and domination in this book. When March Murray returns to her hometown with her teenage daughter for the funeral of her old friend and housekeeper, she reunites with her first love, a man named Hollis. It's a story one too many of us can relate to. In the marshlands of Massachusetts, we helplessly watch March sink deep into her lover's world, until there's nearly nothing left of her.

Alice Hoffman writes in the present tense, with an omniscient point of view-two qualities that I generally dislike. But Hoffman handles it beautifully, gliding from one character to the next in this story that captures the strands of each person's web, and ties them all together.

It would do all women good to read this story, because most of us have known a Hollis, and some of us have been a March.