Local Girls

Rating:
Summary: incredible.... one of my favorites
Review: this is a great book! I'm half-way through it and it's terrific. I definitly reccomend it and it's cheap:)

Rating:
Summary: Wish there had been more
Review: I really desired more in this book. I longed to know Gretel more than she let us. I have loved every book that I have read of Alice Hoffman. I love the way she can make you really feel and believe the characters. I reccomend this book to anyone, especially Hoffman fans.

Rating:
Summary: Magical realism again, and terrific, just different.
Review: I just finished Local Girls and immediately ordered a copy for MY childhood and adolescent friend. No, we did not experience all of the sorrows and joys of the book as Hoffman has telescoped them into ten years, but in thirty years, we have. One could, as others have done, quibble about the episodic nature of connected short storiies in different voices, but that's the way I remember my adolescence and it sure works for me.

Rating:
Summary: Too many snippets, not enough depth!
Review: I do like Alice Hoffman's writing. I was especially enchanted by Practical Magic. However, this story was too abbreviated for me. So many interesting things happen in Gretels's life, yet not enough time was devoted to any one of them to make it memorable.

Rating:
Summary: Another page turner by Alice Hoffman
Review: Here on Earth was better, but both books I put in the category of cant-do-anything-until-I-finish-this-book. I am 45 but it was like visiting an adolescent girls often painful existence for a few hours. The way the author described her falling in love the first time was one of the best examples of how Hoffman can bring the reader into the life of her characters unlike any other modern author.

Rating:
Summary: A welcome return
Review: An interesting little collection from a woman whom along with Ann Tyler and Amy Tan is surely one of the premier female novelists in America.These snipets of the lives of Greta and her family are full of the wonder and realism that fill Hoffman's novels. It is true that the decision not to tidy up the narrative does at times threaten to detract from the overall joy of the book, but in the end it still leaves you with a smile.

Rating:
Summary: Alice Hoffman gives her answer to one of our biggest questio
Review: I said five stars to the "how many stars?" question based on the character Franny's experiences as she neared death and then embraced it. The almost melting, blending of her physical experience of the daily world and of herself within it and beyond it as she experiences and describes its essence while leaving, is some of the most beautiful, honest writing ever done, in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Alice Hoffman has done it again!!
Review: Another great read by Alice Hoffman. Her unique way of writing is captivating. I'm glad I stumbled upon this author years ago when reading "Seventh Heaven". She has a way of making you feel, smell, taste in her writing. I'm looking forward to her next book.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Beautifully written. A story of surviving adversity isn't a new one, yet Ms. Hoffman manages to do so in such refreshingly simple prose. Though divorce and death has the power to crush many a spirit and writing about it is often somber, Ms Hoffman manages to do so w/ realism, grace. More importanly, however, she also manages to realistically heal its characters and that of the reader. Wonderful reading!

Rating:
Summary: A great beach read!
Review: It is always a pleasure to read a good book. Alice Hoffman is a literary "witch" who weaves a little magic into each of her novels. Although this is not one of her best novels (try TURTLE MOON or HERE ON EARTH)---it's really a little too short to explore any of the character's psyche or motivations---Ms. Hoffman has given the reader another pager turner full of glorious prose. She makes ordinary life extraordinary in each of her novels, and she has fast become my favorite author.