Comment: I had already heard of Alice Hoffman before starting this book but had never tried to look for her work. I knew she was the author of the book which the movie Practical Magic was based upon. I knew her style was more along the lines of "magical realism" and someone I know has liked all the books by her she has tried. I finally gave in when I saw this book at my local library and thought it would be a good idea to finally try something by her.
In this book - which seems to be generally seen as a version of Wuthering Heights (WH)- we meet March and her daughter Gwen when they return to the childhood hometown of March, where they will attend a funeral of a woman who helped her family and who was well liked by everyone.
March was nervous about going back because despite being married, having a daughter and a life in California, she has never forgotten her first love, Hollis. He was a boy her father sort of "adopted" but his fame wasn't a good one and he was both intimidating and bullied by others so he grew up to be a very vindictive man, not caring much abut anything beyond the things he can own, thus making anyone else dependent on him, in a way he was as a child.
The two had a close relationship while teenagers, they were always together and there was an attraction and chemistry between them which was difficult to erase. Only time and distance had made it possible for both to move on with their lives. But now March is back and with that, the closer proximity. Would she do the right thing and avoid Hollis and al the negative emotions he represents?
I must say reading this was not a very entertaining experience. This is not an easy book, the story is hard and there isn't any of that suffocating atmosphere the original has. In turn, there are some magical realism elements to give the vibe something odd happens which isn't that easy to solve as one would try in a simple contemporary setting.
Another thing I found that wasn't very appealing was how the POV (always third person but from the POV of different characters) would change between sentences without any graphic space to make it obvious different people would be the narrators. Sure, paying attention would solve this but it can get quite tiring to adjust the mind frame all the time from character to character, for obviously each one has a different way of thinking and of acting on whatever was happening.
March is the main character, a new version of Catherine. However, the personalities of the original characters weren't fully transplanted into this book and March isn't feisty nor a little mean as Catherine used to be. The same applies to other characters' traits in relation to the original book. I can't be bothered to really make a full comparison (other readers in Goodreads, for instance, have done so in a very detailed manner) but in general, I think it can be said the author did try to give her own mark to the story, in her own way. It's not that it was a bad version - after all, it's a version - but I don't know if I was convinced about what the characters were going through as inevitable, as any sort of fateful destiny which, sometimes could be understood as such in WH.
March has an attitude of so much...concession to what Hollis determined that it felt as if she was spellbound by him and his will. I can see why the author chose to make March such a complicit to this situation but it certainly didn't allow for a very interesting read. It was more disturbing than special, to be honest and I could not easily separate between what was intended and what should be the character's path. I suppose I'd have liked her to be more aware of what was happening.
The secondary characters did follow what was expected of them, always with the weird sense some kind of fateful element was playing tricks on everyone.
However, all things considered, I think what I disliked about this book is that nothing seems to have had any purpose except to advice people how not to pursue lost loves who no longer mean the same if you don't really love them anymore. The relationship between March and Hollis was not healthy by any means despite their youthful connection and how confidants of one another they were. Besides, there's no real "lesson" to take from here, non of the characters really evolved from where they were in the beginning so the ending, the "left things in the air" style, felt like an easy out for a situation that had no real definition. Sometimes this works with odd books but I didn't have that vibe here.
I might try another book by the author, one more universally liked and with an original idea by the author, so I can compare and see if it was this book or if it is this author that didn't fully work for me.
Grade: 6/10
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