Rating: 
Summary: Interesting characters but skittish storyline
Review: This was my first Alice Hoffman. The book had too many undeveloped characters running through it. I found it hard to believe that is was set in the 1950's. It was as if Alice Hoffman knew a selected few things about life in the 50's and intermingled them throughout the story, ie, references to Elvis music and car models. The story flitted between too many characters in each chapter. Before you realized it, the next paragraph was referring to someone new. Too many metaphors in her writing. The story needed more meat and less people. I generally love character filled novels but this was too much. I have yet to read Turtle Moon. Hopefully, it's better.
Rating: 
Summary: Magical
Review: This was the first Alice Hoffman book I've read, and I did so last week. It was a breath of fresh air. Beautifuly written, without being 'over-written', and almost magical. It is a story centered around a time where things were rapidly changing..the late 50's. I can easily say it is one of the best books I've read this year. Some of her prose were so lyrical I almost had the urge to haul out a highlighter. It certainly won't be the last Hoffman book I read.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome to 1950s America
Review: Welcome to 1950s America. The story centers on a cast of characters all living in a newly built subdivision. All the families have lived there for the past six years and from the outside they all appear the same. Fathers work, mothers keep house and children never talk back to their parents.
D-I-V-O-R-C-E is a bad word that no one dares to speak until Nora moves in with her two children minus a husband. Things begin to change for them all as Nora and her children struggle to become accpeted in the neighborhood, and we realize that nothing is ever the way it seems.
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