Rating: 
Summary: A quick read that doesn't reveal any mysteries of life
Review: Nora longs to fit into a neighborhood, to become a respected member of the community, but she is rejected because she is so different from her neighbors. Divorce makes her different; none of the other Hemlock Street mothers even know a divorced person. There is an unspoken fear that accepting her will accept the change that is certain to happen in the neighborhood. We assume that life was tidy in the '50s. This book reveals what we know is really true. Life never moves unendingly on the same track. Change is always a part of life. Even though the '50s were sedate, change happened throughout the entire decade. The Hemlock Street neighbors fought unsuccessfully against the threat of change that they perceived Nora would bring. In truth, they each formed a monumental change in their own lives and, of course, in the life of the neighborhood.
Rating: 
Summary: writing style over content
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Involved story . . .
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: I was expecting far more from such a renowed writer.
Review: There was no real strong connecting bonds between the characters. Far too many characters were continuously introduced and consquently it was difficult to feel that you got to know any of them in depth. There was no real theme that you could get a hold of and the ending followed suit as I found it rather meaningless. Also she didn't really have a good handle on what the late 50's were really like. Heck I was a teenage babysitter in the late 60's and all I got was 25 cents an hour....I was absolutely amazed that Nora's teenage babysitter got paid 4x that amount!! This was the first Alice Hoffman book I have read and it was a let down.
Rating: 
Summary: Hoffman at her Best
Review: This book shows Alice Hoffman at her zenith. I haven't enjoyed any of her subsequent novels as purely as I did Seventh Heaven. Enchanting!
Rating:
Summary: really really good!!!
Review: This book was so entertaining it was hard to put down. I couldn't wait to pick it back up again and start reading, I didn't want it to end!!
Rating:
Summary: Good choice for first time Hoffman readers
Review: This is a nice, easy, enjoyable Hoffman read, complete with interesting characters, the surprising twists and turns that their life paths take, and a couple ghost appearances thrown in for good measure. A great look at finding meaning in our lives and relationshiops in the late 50's suburbs.
Rating:
Summary: A turn of the decade novel with typical Hoffman wonder.
Review: This is another fantastic book from the author of 'Practical Magic,' 'Blue Diary,' and 'The Probable Future.' Nora Silk is not the typical woman of 1959 Long Island. She's divorced, has two children, and never seems to care if they get dirty while they play. She wears high heels and black stretch pants, and her nails are always done in bright colours. Her eldest son, Billy, tends to pick stray thoughts out of the minds of people around him, and James, only months-old, eats anything he can find in one chubby cute hand. When they move onto the street where the norm is two parents, two children, and nothing unexpected, Nora Silk is ostracized, Billy is bullied, and it seems that the status quo will always regain its balance.
But the men start to notice Nora's distinct grace with more than a bit of lust, and Nora's comments and advice to the women start to break cracks in the veneer of "we should do what we have always done." Sparks fly, a trace of magic is in the air, and before long, 1959 is going to roll over into the sixties, and Nora Silk's influence will be felt by all.
I adored this book - much as I adored the previously mentioned Hoffman titles I listed above - and had that trademarked Hoffman lump in my throat when the book was drawing to a close. As always, it's the characters - and the level of empathy you feel for all of them - that keep you going, and Hoffman's deft touch with a trace of the supernatural always leaves you charmed. A ghost here, a clairvoyant there, and a tangled thread of folk remedies throughout, there's something magical in how she writes, and how the reader feels while watching her worlds.
'Nathan
Rating:
Summary: What kind of heroine is this?
Review: This is my first experience with Alice Hoffman, and what a disappointment. She has a lovely, easy style. But the characters? It's not that I don't sympathize with divorced, single mothers, lonely teenagers, unfulfilled women, et al. Am I supposed to empathize with or like Nora Silk, who refuses to adequately provide what her obviously emotionally needy and lonely son requires, and who shamelessly capitalizes on her neighbor's offers of assistance while she secretly sleeps with the neighbor's 17-year-old son? Am I supposed to empathize with or like the Saint, who may be genuinely concerned about neighborhood children but largely ignores his own? Or poor little Donna, who would rather run away and be thin than to stay at home and face her challenge of repairing a marriage and raising her children? I understand Hoffman's desire to de-mythologize the '50s suburban experience, but to foist Nora Silk onto her readers as some kind of positive, liberating harbinger of the decade to come is naive and even condescending.
Rating:
Summary: A good first choice
Review: 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.
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