‘The Invisible Hour’ by Alice Hoffman

Quite likely, most readers know Alice Hoffman through her “Practical Magic” series as well as The Dove Keepers. There’s such a variety in her work, that one might wonder if there are multiple Alice Hoffmans out there crafting her thirty novels. If so, her latest book The Invisible Hour, released on August 15th, which may or may not come from yet “another” Hoffman is a tempting treat.

From the Publisher

“From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and the Practical Magic series comes an enchanting novel about love, heartbreak, self-discovery, and the enduring magic of books.

“One brilliant June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her. The Scarlet Letter was written almost two hundred years earlier, but it seems to tell the story of Mia’s mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community—an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden, and books are considered evil. But how could this be? How could Nathaniel Hawthorne have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that Mia carries inside her?

“Through a journey of heartbreak, love, and time, Mia must abandon the rules she was raised with at the Community. As she does, she realizes that reading can transport you to other worlds or bring them to you, and that readers and writers affect one another in mysterious ways. She learns that time is more fluid than she can imagine, and that love is stronger than any chains that bind you.

“As a girl Mia fell in love with a book. Now as a young woman she falls in love with a brilliant writer as she makes her way back in time. But what if Nathaniel Hawthorne never wrote The Scarlet Letter? And what if Mia Jacob never found it on the day she planned to die?

“Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote: “A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.”

“This is the story of one woman’s dream. For a little while it came true.”

Reviews

Kirkus says that it’s “Not one of Hoffman’s best, but it may spark a desire to reread Hawthorne.” The Washington Post writes, “Alice Hoffman’s ‘The Invisible Hour’ is the latest fervent tribute to the power of literature and libraries.” The New York Journal of Books says, “With a truly imaginative structure, Alice Hoffman delves into what has become her trademark theme of magic. The Invisible Hour asks a grand ‘What if?’ Not so much the question posed on the book’s jacket: What if Mia Jacob never found the library or The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne? The larger question the novel contemplates is whether a young woman can escape so deeply into a book, and fall so deeply in love with its author that she time travels to 1837 to be with him? “

Even though the reviews are a bit mixed, Hoffman fans care what they think, not what the critics think. Having read most of her work, that’s my approach to The Invisible Hour.

–Malcolm