This one left me with a good feeling, though I can't recall anything about it. ( )

"I wrote Seventh Heaven for my mother who I miss every day" AH

DNF, got to 28%

It’s set in suburbia late 1950s. Everyone in the cookie cutter neighborhood conforms to the social norms of the time period (at least their public appearance does) but when single mom Nora moves in, she is nothing like the 1950s normal.

I need a little alt reality vs. realistic fiction. I’m not enjoying myself so I’m going to let it go.

I didn't like the narrator also. Probably a me thing because she has a large body of narrated work.

The premise of having a divorcee move into a "perfect" little 50s neighborhood with matching houses and having the neighbors be disdainful was promising. But Seventh Heaven has too many characters and skips between them too much. There was no humor mixed in to this story. There were some odd mystical things thrown in, like a ghost, and Billy Silk being able to read minds. But these bits were not elaborated on. None of the characters were developed in depth. This book did not make me laugh. It did not make me cry. It just made me wonder when it would end. ( )

Not as good as I was hoping for, but still interesting. Hillary Huber narrated the audiobook. 3 stars. ( )

Somehow I have never read any Alice Hoffman. I found this one at the pool, and it was pretty good. She captures the feeling and longings of inhabitants of a brand new suburb on Long Island. The novel takes place at a crucial time, when women were just starting to feel itchy in their traditional roles. We just watched Outsiders again, and there were elements of the class stryggles in this novel as well. Apparently typical to Hoffman, there were also elements of "magic" as well. You must suspend cynicism and go with the flow! ( )

I bought Seventh Heaven on a whim, after searching high and low for a book that came out 25 years ago, required by my 2015 reading challenge. I looked in the New York Times book review archives. I checked Goodreads best-of lists. I asked family and friends if they knew of anything that had been published in 1990 that was good. In the end, I picked a book at random off a list, bought a used copy online, and absolutely devoured it.

I was entranced by this book from the first page. For one, I absolutely love the writing style. It's mystical, realistic but not, and flows so beautifully. It reminded me of a Tim Burton film.

Another reason I really loved this book, though, was Nora. Nora, the only divorced woman on her block, or maybe in her whole town, who just wants a friend. Nora, who doesn't understand why nobody will befriend her son, or why the other mothers don't want to have lunch, or why her American Dream of a cute house in the suburbs just isn't working out the way she wanted it to.

In fact, I really loved almost all of the characters in this book. Sure, some of them are terrible people. But they all have entrancing stories to tell. All of their stories are interconnected. All of their stories are important. Nora has such an impact on all of them.

I may have picked this book up on a whim, but I will definitely seek out more of Hoffman's books. ( )