Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)

by Alice Hoffman

Book Overview

A seductive and mesmerizing story of obsessive love from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic . After nineteen years in California, March Murray returns to the small... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425167313
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: Berkley
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

RIVETING!

No matter how very valid are the cons noted in other reviews, I've just finished this book and feel as though I've read a combo effort of Bronte/King/Koontz/Higgins Clark w/a touch of Steel. Add to that the sensation of intrigue, suspense, "can't put the d*mn thing down," gifted prose-- succinct but filled with clarity & emotion--how could I not rate this 5 stars? Yes, it is a twisted romance melded with horror but at the center is love...and hate. Love right, love wrong, love naive; hate common but often overlooked for the good of the order. Love gone awry & how an innocent can convert to a monster. Make that 2 innocents-which will be revealed when you read the novel. Love transformed to obsessive, love blind, love that metamorphs & mutates until it's twisted, ugly, despicable . Ultimately, no longer love at all. Does it sound familiar in the real world? Maybe not to the majority of readers but some of us might understand an inkling; some more. Thus, the fascination. The reader recognizes this warp, supporting characters do, but not the central figures. As with all suspense, that's what makes it so captivating! We, the reader, initially supportive, then we question, ponder, fret...but they don't...not in time. One reviewer writes of the mirror image of Wuthering Heights premise. Great observation & having just finished this book--feeling spine-tingling anxiety, it only makes me want to digest W. Heights again ASAP! Any book that causes one to yearn for the classics (due to being so moved) is truly a book that's worth reading. This should happen more often. I know...I read 3 books per wk. Some are so dull, I wonder why I've bothered. Not this one! A rare find. My chief & only gripe with Here on Earth is the title. Perhaps the premise could only happen "here on earth???"

Wow

I can't comprehend anyone not falling head over for this book. This is one of a handful I can read every year and have it grab a hold of me even more strongly than the first time. It's a simple message - that love is messy and complicated and that judging someone for falling in or out of it or sticking with someone for no apparent reason is simplistic and naive. Love changes. It grows or withers away or hits you over the head when you least expect it. It can haunt you. Especially touching if you have ever known a damaged soul. March and her father were right not to just dismiss Hollis as a loser as others apparently had his entire life. The only problem was whatever had happened in his past had already done too much damage (as Alan and his friends would continue to do.) It had turned his soul to stone. And as the novel shows a person without a soul can be very dangerous indeed. The fact that Alice Hoffman makes us hate and feel for him at the same time just shows what a wonderful writer she is. One of the best.

Hoffman developed real and deep Characters

In her novel, Here on Earth, Hoffman does an excellent job in creating her characters: March, Holla, Gwen, and Hank. March is a character that most women can relate to at some piont in their life. The long lost love that is rekindled, and although at points I was very frustrated with March's decision to stay with the controlling Hollas, I could understand what was making her stay and how she was thinking. This was her first love, the love that she has been dealing with her whole life. I absolutely love the developement of Gwen, from a rebellious teen to a young women with a lot of self understanding and sense of who she is. Her relationship with Hank was really amazing, where they both helped eachother to grow as individuals. I thought Hoffman wrote this book with a lot of thought and consideration as to really connecting the reader to each character. I walked away from this book feeling like I had been in the same town with them through all of their experiences. A great book!!! Very touching!

A Journey to Melancholia

March and Hollis, the main characters in this novel by Alice Hoffman, exmplify the sometimes all too familiar reality of what becomes of those who find themselves trapped in a memory...a moment which transcends the passage of time. This story speaks to the reader through the errors of human ways, and offers challenges to what is accepted as conventional wisdom and morality. Though this tale possesses a haunting quality of sadness, the key issues are readily identifiable...internalized...personalized. For these reasons, we read on in search of hope. In doing so, we create our own epilogues.

Not a love story -- but a terrific novel!

Reading some of the other reviews, I was disappointed to see that Oprah had billed this as a love story. No wonder that readers expecting a sweet romantic tale were so disappointed!This novel is about love -- its ability both to bring years of happiness and to destroy people utterly. Love often doesn't turn out the way you want, and there are very few happy endings to the relationships in this book. It's no wonder, then, that March's best friend Susie is still unmarried and terrified of actually falling in love and needing someone. Hoffman does an excellent job of intertwining the plots of several relationships, not just the affair between March and Hollis. All of the supporting characters are real, three-dimensional people. Even the adulterous relationships are poles apart in their nature and their consequences.And yes, the book does take a disturbing and unexpected turn. But for me, it just made the book more emotionally gripping as Hollis became more horrifying -- especially since Hoffman presents him in the opening chapters as an object of pity. I thought Hoffman did a great job of presenting the relationship as objectively as possible, allowing the reader to think and draw her own conclusions.All in all, this was one of the most emotionally intense and gratifying novels I have read in quite a few years. If you liked it, I would recommend "The Bone People" by Keri Hulme -- another intense novel, satisfying but not for those who would rather ignore the dark underside of life.