Blue Diary

by Alice Hoffman

Book Overview

Alice Hoffman, the bestselling author of The Rules of Magic , asks how we can find the courage to face the unthinkable in this compelling New York Times Notable Book. When Ethan Ford fails to show up... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399148027
• ISBN13: 9780399148026
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Length: 303 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

hard to put down...

A delightful read. This was my first book by the author and I hope that it won't be the last. I had to push myself through the first 20 pages but after that it was a breeze to read and rather entertaining. I enjoyed the twists and I enjoyed the character development (especially that of Jorie. She was a strong woman who only got stronger as she went through the the hardship of finding out her husband was not who he once said he was. There was enough drama in this novel to make it interesting and intriguing - propeling me to continue reading it until I was done.

Where Did The Garden of Eden Go?

This novel opens in paradise. Ethan and Jorie Ford are the perfect couple. Married for 13 years and still madly in love we find them surrounded by flowers, trees and a beautiful blue sky. In fact the the number of botanical species described in the first chapter made me think that I had perhaps opened a gardening book by mistake. Short of that I worried that this was a novel that would bury me in literary molasses by page 25. Yet the birds singing outside the Ford's bower on this fine day would soon turn silent in mourning. You see Ms. Hoffman sets it up this way in order that the end of paradise would be more striking.Unknown to anyone Ethan had commited a serious crime before meeting Jorie, and now the police have arrived to take him into custody. From this page on the author takes us on a ride down a dark road where her characters are trudging along looking for the light. Ms. Hoffman really knows how to portray unhappy people; a sister who can't feel for others; a neighbor girl who can't love; a boy who wants simply to disappear; a man who lives in seclusion after a family tragedy many years ago. And the list goes on. Sounds depressing doesn't it. Well, not exactly. The story is an intriguing one, and the characters and their problems are always of interest. Even the bit players make an impression on you. This novel is not a mystery or a police procedural yet you constantly wonder what is going to happen to all of these citizens of Monroe, Massachusetts. Will Ms Hoffman stick more pins in them or will she relent and offer them some sort of peace? I enjoyed the book, and was content with the ending. Highly recommended.

Sad, yet beautiful and uplifting story

When Ethan Ford is arrested for rape and murder, the sleepy town of Monroe, Massachusetts is in a state of shock. He is the ultimate Mr. Good Guy, good neighbor, town hero, model father, and adoring husband. Yet, as the story evolves, it seems that Ethan Ford was someone entirely different. In the hands of any other author, this could have been a trite murder mystery-soap drama. However, this author combines consummate writing skills and vivid imagery with an understanding of the human heart that will keep you turning the pages. Fine writing doesn't get much better than this. I can't believe it has taken me this long to read anything by Alice Hoffman, but I have already run to the library to get more of her books!

What is a good life?

In somewhat of a departure from her more mystical and whimsical books, Hoffman has written a novel of love, courage, and the nature of allegiance. We are left to ponder the question of how well we really know the people whom we love; how well we really know anyone. The author causes the reader to explore the origin, nature, quality, and depth of forgiveness and to question what really constitutes, morally and ethically, a "good life". The book opens on a scene from the good and perfect life of the Fords, Ethan and Jorie. We know it is just too good to last. The make-believe life, the fairy tale, is about to end. Happily-ever-after does not really exist. When the unthinkable happens and Jorie's husband Ethan is arrested for a long-ago and vicious crime, Jorie must face not only her own fears, but those of their son, Collie. She goes through all the stages associated usually associated with a death: grief, denial, despair, and then hope. For she has experienced a death: the death of all her dreams. Jorie endures the pity of the townspeople and then the transference of her husband's guilt to her. Never one to question herself, she now questions everything. Despite the allegiance and love of her friends, especially Charlotte, recently diagnosed with breast cancer, Jorie must ultimately face her husband's betrayal on her own. For "night after night, she has slept with a shadow, an imposter formed out of ashes...." Ethan has lived for years with a terrible secret, but he now knows that "The past stays with a man, sticking to his heels like glue, invisible and heartbreaking and unavoidable, threaded to the future just as surely as day is sewn to night." For he can never escape this past, and no matter how much he has changed, no matter how different he now is, he cannot avoid the consequences of his long-ago actions nor be forgiven for them. Sometimes repentance is just not enough, and having lived a good life does not make atonement for the evil that one has perpetuated in the past. "Blue" is a word sprinkled throughout the book to describe many things, but the blue diary of the title is an unfinished journal left behind by a murdered girl. Hoffman describes it like this: "The diary is a book of hope that has never been finished, a list of dreams left undone." This book is lovingly crafted and polished to a fine patina. It is a joy to read a book which shows that so much care was taken to make each and every word important and relevant to the story as a whole.

A 6! One of he best books I have ever read

The residents of Monroe, Massachusetts believe that Ethan Ford is the most dependable and hardest working person in town. The locals consider Ethan so trustworthy, he has his own keys to many of the homes he is remodeling. Besides being an excellent carpenter, Ethan is a volunteer firefighter and a highly regarded unpaid coach. After thirteen years together, he still loves his wife Jorie and their twelve years old child. One knock on their door ends this perfect world. The police detain Ethan for a murder that occurred before he met Jorie. To add insult to injury, friends who worked along side of Ethan on fire calls read him his rights before arresting him. No one believes that the respectful, revered Ethan could commit this heinous crime, but the evidence that he murdered and raped a teen in Maryland seems overwhelming. The statue begins to fall from its pedestal. Anyone expecting a glib tie the ribbon in a bow ending can forget it with Alice Hoffman's deep character study, BLUE DIARY. Instead, the story line is an astonishing look at the impact of an ugly crime apparently committed by the big fish on the little fish in that pond. The key to the tale is not whether Ethan raped and killed in a previous life. Instead the plot is so good due to the depth of the secondary and tertiary cast members whose reactions to the growing evidence against the local hero follow the pattern of grieving individuals. Ms. Hoffman goes where few writers have traveled before as she provides an intriguing, well-written portrait of the human condition.Harriet Klausner