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15th out of 36 books
—
183 voters
Seventh Heaven
Nora Silk doesn’t really fit in on Hemlock Street, where every house looks the same. She's divorced. She wears a charm bracelet and high heels and red toreador pants. And the way she raises her kids is a scandal. But as time passes, the neighbors start having second thoughts about Nora. The women’s apprehension evolves into admiration. The men’s lust evolves into awe. The...more
Paperback, 272 pages
Published
April 1st 2003
by Berkley Trade
(first published August 17th 1990)
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Alice Hoffman being one of my favorite authors was the main reason for me to pick up this book. I must say that it is one of my least favorites of her catatlog.
The story starts out interesting, slating the story in a small town during a time in America when women are supposed to stay in the kitchen and raise the children.
When the character Nora Silk is introduced, she is the antithesis of the other female characters. She dresses in black, wears pants and hoop earings and makeup. The whole point...more
The story starts out interesting, slating the story in a small town during a time in America when women are supposed to stay in the kitchen and raise the children.
When the character Nora Silk is introduced, she is the antithesis of the other female characters. She dresses in black, wears pants and hoop earings and makeup. The whole point...more
My favorite Alice Hoffman, this book uses its setting and characters very effectively to show how the looks of the American dream can be deceiving. When the main character moves to 1960s suburban American, her very presence makes life less perfect and yet somehow more real for the other people who live there. Like most Hoffman, this includes elements of magical realism, including a ghost who haunts not her killer, but his brother, and a mother who uses old spells to keep her child save at school...more
This book really was NOT what I expected. I had never read anything Alice Hoffman before, and based on the reviews I had read of this book, I expected something beautifully real, magically simplistic. Unfortunately what I got was a motley crew of characters with whom I couldn't relate living what seemed to me to be awful lives and doing awfully stupid things.
This story is, overall, about a woman named Nora, a divorcee with two children who moves onto a street of married ladies who seem to think...more
This story is, overall, about a woman named Nora, a divorcee with two children who moves onto a street of married ladies who seem to think...more
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 i...more
This was my first Alice Hoffman novel and I think I would like to read more of her work. I'm giving it a favorable review but not sure what genre to classify this one. It's not a mystery. It's not chick lit. It's not serious literature or a classic. Just a snapshot of typical suburbia in 1959/1960 in a small community in the United States.
Seventh Heaven centers around a community on Long Island in the late 1950's time period. The small town had been built up on a former potato field, all houses...more
Seventh Heaven centers around a community on Long Island in the late 1950's time period. The small town had been built up on a former potato field, all houses...more
An entirely satisfying story from a master storyteller. Like many authors Alice Hoffman details the minutiae of her characters' lives, but unlike most she does it for good reason: things connect. Details weave together & become much more than the sum of their parts.
Seventh Heaven is set on Long Island in 1959/1960, in a 6 year old housing development near the Southern State. It was written long before Mad Men was born or thought of, but fans of Mad Men should love this story, though it is m...more
Seventh Heaven is set on Long Island in 1959/1960, in a 6 year old housing development near the Southern State. It was written long before Mad Men was born or thought of, but fans of Mad Men should love this story, though it is m...more
Despite my great love of Alice Hoffman's writing, when I read the description for Seventh Heaven, I couldn't imagine having any desire to read about the stilted lives of people living during the 1950s, in a small town on Long Island. Yet, my love for Alice's magical prose won me over, and I'm glad it did.
Alice manages to weave a bit of mystery of the supernatural kind in each of her books, without her work actually being deemed supernatural. It's like magic is as common as bread; although, not...more
Alice manages to weave a bit of mystery of the supernatural kind in each of her books, without her work actually being deemed supernatural. It's like magic is as common as bread; although, not...more
In the late 1950s in suburban America, women stayed at home and tended their children and husbands. Brand new houses were built all the same in a cookie-cutter fashion. When Nora Silk moves into one of these neighbourhoods and she has no visible husband and dresses provocatively, she is looked upon with suspicion and ignored. But what happens is the street is turned upside down.
Other families on the street include: the McCarthys, boys, Ace and Jackie, and their patient father dubbed "the saint"...more
Other families on the street include: the McCarthys, boys, Ace and Jackie, and their patient father dubbed "the saint"...more
I have a confession to make. I got mad at this book. Have you ever done that? There is a violent scene in the midst of the story that upset me, angered me, and I put the book down. It's not the first time I've done that, but it's been a while. I also popped a three star review on the book here and forgot about it for a bit.
But I could not stay away. And, boy, and I glad I came back. In many ways, this is a book about prejudice and stereotypes, and one has a very real sense of the characters' per...more
But I could not stay away. And, boy, and I glad I came back. In many ways, this is a book about prejudice and stereotypes, and one has a very real sense of the characters' per...more
The story takes place in a 1959 respectable suburb, where everything is 'right' until a divorced woman named Nora Silk moves in with her eight year old clairvoyant son and his baby brother. As the book progresses the whole street slowly unravels -- all the secrets, everything kept under wraps, starts to seep out into the open.
Alice hoffman has a beautiful way of illustrating her characters, I was caught up in the different worlds of each house on this street where the story takes place. She eas...more
Alice hoffman has a beautiful way of illustrating her characters, I was caught up in the different worlds of each house on this street where the story takes place. She eas...more
I'm a red wine man. Plain and simple. That's what I like. But every now and then I will try a white. Perhaps I'm at a friends house who only has white, or I strange restaurant, or maybe I've just drunk all the red, it's not important.
Nine times out of 10 (why do newspapers always so that? They always mix numerals and words. Are they simply trying to make the columns all line up or is there something more sinister going on? Cause it freaks me out!) I will reaffirm my preference for red. But every...more
Nine times out of 10 (why do newspapers always so that? They always mix numerals and words. Are they simply trying to make the columns all line up or is there something more sinister going on? Cause it freaks me out!) I will reaffirm my preference for red. But every...more
Seventh Heaven is Alice Hoffman’s 9th stand-alone novel and tells the story of when attractive divorcee Nora Silk came to live in Hemlock Street, Long Island with 8 year-old Billy and baby James. Set in the late ‘50s, it captures the dispiriting feeling of suburbia. As a divorced woman, Nora found her presence posed a threat and prevented her from being part of the community. The story is told from several different characters’ perspectives. Hoffman gives us beautiful prose and evocative descrip...more
My mom found this book when we were at the library book sale and said that she liked the author and said I should read it. She wrote the book Practical Magic, which was made into a movie, so I thought that maybe it would be magical like that.
But it wasn't. Not really. The description implies that when Nora Silk comes to town, that every one's lives change. I suspected this meant that maybe she was a witch and helped them better their lives, but really, and bunch of things that kind of disturbed...more
But it wasn't. Not really. The description implies that when Nora Silk comes to town, that every one's lives change. I suspected this meant that maybe she was a witch and helped them better their lives, but really, and bunch of things that kind of disturbed...more
For me, this was one of Hoffman's less than better novels. I find she's the type of author who writes some really, really great novels, some mediocre and some horrible. I guess I'd put this one into the mediocre category.
From back cover:
"Nora Silk doesn't really fit in on Hemlock Street, where every house looks the same. She's divorced. She wears a charm bracelet and high heels and red toreador pants. And the way she raises her kids is a scandal. But as time passes, the neighbors start having se...more
From back cover:
"Nora Silk doesn't really fit in on Hemlock Street, where every house looks the same. She's divorced. She wears a charm bracelet and high heels and red toreador pants. And the way she raises her kids is a scandal. But as time passes, the neighbors start having se...more
Seventh Heaven was my first fiction selection for 2012. No more Alice Hoffman for me. She was once my favorite author but the last two books have been disappointing for me.
I kept waiting for more from each character and kept waiting for more from the story line. These characters were all sad. In fact, the entire book was sad. Depicting ordinary people in a housing development in 1959 and 1960, Ms. Hoffman left me wishing there was just one small tidbit of happiness in the neighborhood. But every...more
I kept waiting for more from each character and kept waiting for more from the story line. These characters were all sad. In fact, the entire book was sad. Depicting ordinary people in a housing development in 1959 and 1960, Ms. Hoffman left me wishing there was just one small tidbit of happiness in the neighborhood. But every...more
This book is the what the "Abstinence Teacher" might have been if Tom Perotta was a good writer or alternately, if he liked any of the characters in the book besides the one based on him. . . Mean. I'm cranky. . . but I hated that book and loved this one so well. I should read more Alice Hoffman. Her books are so simple and sad and sweet and a little magical. She sometimes gets weirdly lumped into the margins of fantasy, because events in her books are often just a little off kilter. But she sho...more
I'm a fan of Hoffman's later writing (like The Ice Queen and Turtle Moon), when she's really comfortable with incorporating magical realism into her work. Her early, gritty writing (like Property Of...) leaves me cold. Seventh Heaven feels like a transition book to me, one in which there's no "there" there. I got the sense that AH was distracted the whole time she was writing the book. The story meanders, characters wander in and out, and the ending wraps up the different story threads (they are...more
Seventh Heaven by Alice Hoffman 3.5/5 stars
My first book by Hoffman, it was intriguing enough that I may choose another. The story of a "perfect" 1959 Long Island street. Life there is disrupted, though, when Nora, a divorced (gasp) woman with two kids, moves into the house where the old man died. Her presence seems to mock the outward perfection of the street and at the same time draws attention to its imperfection.
There were parts of the story that bordered on the supernatural, but it is not t...more
My first book by Hoffman, it was intriguing enough that I may choose another. The story of a "perfect" 1959 Long Island street. Life there is disrupted, though, when Nora, a divorced (gasp) woman with two kids, moves into the house where the old man died. Her presence seems to mock the outward perfection of the street and at the same time draws attention to its imperfection.
There were parts of the story that bordered on the supernatural, but it is not t...more
This book taught me to expand my horizons in reading. First of all Alice Hoffman is an amazing author, she really luxuriates in her story telling. Before her novels I stuck with books that focused on one main character anything else was to be avoided! After reading this novel I learned there were authors that could manage to successfully include many characters and have you feel connected to each of them. If you like books that are based in reality mixed with a little bit of magic than this will...more
This was one of my ALL TIME favorite books! Now I'm on my fifth book of hers. I loved the characters in this. I loved the story. I loved Nora and how she just chose to be herself and not conform to what others expected even when it would've been easier for her. She refused to pity herself. I do wish her relationship with her oldest son was a little more nurturing but I believed that she deeply loved her 2 boys. Some will not like one of the sexual relationships in here. Maybe in real life, I wou...more
I liked this quite a bit. Set in a new development on Long Island in 1959. The story starts with the shock of a divorcee with two young children moving into the neighborhood. Little by little we learn the stories of what is going on in all of those perfect little houses. There's also a ghost/other-worldly element that I really liked. At first description this could be just another Mad Men/Revolutionary Road story but Hoffman's writing and characters made it something much more than that. I am de...more
Three stars. I can't recommend for everyone because there were some things I didn't like but something that was also very interesting. The book follows a group of people who live in a neighborhood in the 60s. Their paths cross and weaver but their commonality is the fact that they are all struggling with something. We watch them navigate as physical people in the bigger picture of a group, but we also get to see their internal conflict. I definitely liked this book, but I can't exactly put my fi...more
Set in a 1950's Stepford community of apple pie baking stay at home moms and fathers who are the kings of their castles a divorcee with two young boys buys a falling down house and changes the community. The first thing she does when they move in is to bake a batch of cookies. Can you imagine that being your first step on moving in to a new house, before you unpack anything else? Nora's quite the renegade. There's a bit of magic, a little sexuality, confused children, confused parents and a lot...more
This is a hard book to describe. A divorcee with two small children moves into a house in a close-knit neighborhood in the late 1950s. Nora is different, very different, and her presence shakes up the neighborhood.
The book isn't plot-driven at all; it's a study of characters. And the book confirms that we truly never know what goes on behind closed doors. It's beautifully written and I found it uplifting, although not in the normal ways. There's a hint of magical realism also, but not to the ex...more
The book isn't plot-driven at all; it's a study of characters. And the book confirms that we truly never know what goes on behind closed doors. It's beautifully written and I found it uplifting, although not in the normal ways. There's a hint of magical realism also, but not to the ex...more
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 c...more
I really love Alice Hoffman; she tells a good story. This is my third read by her, after Here on Earth and Turtle Moon. Seventh Heaven is a slice-of-life story set on a suburban street in 1959-1960. The houses are practically identical, and life, from the outside, looks idealic. Then Nora Silk moves into one of the houses, and things begin to change. Nora is a single mother (divorced) of two little boys, which was an anomaly in the 50's. She isn't exactly welcomed with open arms, though some of...more
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Eine alleinstehende Mutter zweier Söhne ändert das Leben einer ganzen spießigen Kleinstadt-Siedlung. Nicht immer direkt durch Taten, manchmal kommen andere Ehefrauen allein nur durch Nora's 'Vorbild' auf die Idee ihre Ehe zu ändern oder ganz davon zu laufen. Und auch einigen Männern verdreht sie den Kopf.
Die Geschichte spielt 1959/1960 in Amerika, zu einer Zeit als Scheidung kein Ausweg für unglückliche Ehen war. Sowas tat man einfach nicht. Nora zeigt, dass man Kinder alleine groß ziehen kann u...more
Die Geschichte spielt 1959/1960 in Amerika, zu einer Zeit als Scheidung kein Ausweg für unglückliche Ehen war. Sowas tat man einfach nicht. Nora zeigt, dass man Kinder alleine groß ziehen kann u...more
Mar 27, 2008
Maurean
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Maurean by:
bookring
"Practical Magic" was my first introduction to Alice Hoffman, and I became an instant fan; "Turtle Moon" and "Blackbird House" only served to enrich my admiration, and "The Probable Future" simply solidified my love for all-things Hoffman..I love her carefully crafted, colorful characters that are always empathetic and interesting, and the sense of place she creates that draws me into the exact place and times of her detailed, small-town settings.
Having said that, I must say that "Seventh Heave...more
Having said that, I must say that "Seventh Heave...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cozy Chair Book Club: Seventh Heaven | 6 | 5 | Feb 05, 2013 09:56am | |
| Cozy Chair Book Club: Seventh Heaven | 1 | 3 | Jan 15, 2013 08:57am |
Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952 and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She currently lives in Boston and New York...more
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Feb 16, 2012 06:56am