Skylight Confessions

by Alice Hoffman

Book Overview

Writing at the height of her powers, Alice Hoffman conjures three generations of a family haunted by love.

Cool, practical, and deliberate, John is dreamy Arlyn's polar opposite. Yet the two are drawn powerfully together even when it is clear they are bound to bring each other grief. Their difficult marriage leads them and their children to a house made of glass in the Connecticutcountryside, to the avenues ofManhattan, and to the blue...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316017876
• ISBN13: 9780316017879
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Philosopical, Penetrating Prose

As an avid fan of Alice Hoffman and her "magic realism" I order her books hardcover I am so sure of their enjoyment. I know the prose will be a lyrical, colorful, elegant and memorizing while tackling dark issues. I know I will be utterly consumed and unable to read just a bit here and there. I know I will come away pondering and appreciating the read for all it's beauty and ugliness. "Skylight Confessions" did NOT let me down. Based on the premise of do we destine our fate or is it predestined for us, this story starts with Arlyn and John Moody and a marriage that both forced into being. From this union a prodigy of unhappiness, discontentment and violence explodes. Indeed dark subject matter, it is beautifully projected in what may be or not be. Are their specters? If so then is there presence to revenge or guide? Is there true evil? Are the sins of the father visited upon the sons or are the sons excused by the sin? Is destiny fated or do our decisions determine our future? Are we responsible for our actions or are we forced to play them out to their appointed destiny? I read this book in an evening and into the wee hours as I could not put it down. Hoffman's lyrical prose tenderizes the rough grist of a story told with raw realism as well as magical. Her conjectures open the mind of the reader to introspection without imposing her own dogma. A magnificent read that exercises mentally as well as entertains with liquid prose.

True Hoffman

This book was an excellent example of true Alice Hoffman work. I have read all of her books and love every one of them. She tells a story of people's lives with an otherworldly quality that is mesmerizing. I was immediately enthralled with the characters and the story line. It is a tale of fate, destiny and faith in yourself. Her characters, although very much flawed, are the type of people you root for and want good things for. I would recommend this to anyone who is capable of suspending disbelief and who likes to be drawn into another world for a time.

The next person Arlyn meets will be her destiny

Reviewed by Kelli Glesige for Reader Views (1/07) A tale spanning three generations, "Skylight Confessions" is the story of an unfortunate family whose destiny seems to be unhappiness, tragedy, and ultimate destruction. When Arlyn's father dies, John Moody is the first person she next meets, and Arlyn knows it is the plan that she should marry this man. John soon feels trapped by the dreamy Arlyn when she follows him until he too realizes it is destiny for them to wed. Sam is the offspring born shortly thereafter, and it is at this point that problems begin to occur. Both John and Arlyn realize they have made some incorrect decisions by being together. Sam is a very different and odd child, John becomes distant and works long hours, and Arlyn has an affair with the window washer, George Stone, who comes weekly to care for the windows of the glass house where John and Arlyn live. A few years later, a daughter Blanca is born, but only Arlyn knows for certain who the father is. At this point, real tragedy occurs, and Arlyn is given the same destiny as her mother. In a gripping moment, the window washer George realizes how much Arlyn cares for him, for she has been wearing a very special pearl necklace intended as a gift from George to Arlyn, but which he was never formally able to present to her. The pearls are unique because they change color. The special pearls are later given to Sam for safekeeping and then to Blanca to wear as a memory of her mother. Blanca also wears the pearls with the same passion Arlyn did. "Skylight Confessions" is unlike any book I have ever read. Its message is unfortunate and sad, and it left me thinking about a number of circumstances and the way they sometimes work out. For example, John believes he feels relief when Arlyn dies, but when Arlyn's ghost lingers with John for many years later, he realizes he had unsettled and strong feelings for Arlyn. However, this novel is captivating, riveting, and quite unpredictable. It is so gripping; I found the book hard to put down. Many of the characters seem to be on a path of destruction due to their unhappiness, and it was just rather sad to see what unhappiness can cause a person to become. "Skylight Confessions" will keep you reading with anticipation. Hoffman is an interesting storyteller who creates visuals that are unique and very real, especially when she describes the beautiful views of nature from within the Moody's glass house. "Skylight Confessions" is a story about searching, family, and finding one's identity. This one will leave you thinking. It is for adult readers who want to read a story that will not soon be forgotten.

A haunting mythical tale

On his way to a house party on Long Island, Yale architecture student John Moody loses his bearings. When he stops at an anonymous house to ask for directions, he has no idea that it is a house in mourning --- or that the young woman he meets there is destined to haunt him for the rest of his life. Arlyn Singer is 17, unconventionally beautiful with long red hair and freckles that blanket her luminous skin. The night John Moody arrives, Arlyn is grieving the recent death of her father, waiting for what comes next: "She had convinced herself that her future would arrive on the street where she'd lived her whole life if only she'd wait long enough. If she trusted in fate." Trusting, waiting, expecting --- when John Moody pulls up and asks for directions, he has no idea of the weight of Arlyn's expectations for him, or the extent to which this one chance encounter will shape his future. That night, though, utterly convinced that John Moody is her destiny, Arlyn seduces the pragmatic young man. And the rest, as they say, is history. Family history, that is, as the two inevitably marry and have a son, Sam, a troublingly morose child whose odd obsessions disturb everyone except Sam's doting mother. As for John, he grows increasingly distant from Arlyn and Sam, throwing himself into his work, convinced that Arlyn, a woman so unlike whom he had always imagined for himself, has somehow bewitched him into a life he was never meant to have. Soon, Arlyn is also convinced that her belief in destiny was wrong, and she finds comfort in the arms of another man. However, Arlyn's brief taste of true love is not to last. In her mid-20s, having just given birth to her second child, Arlyn develops breast cancer and dies. Her death is particularly hard on Sam, who grows more and more despondent, identifying with the mythical Icarus and fixating on his mother's story about a race of winged men. Descending into drug addiction even as he dreams of ascending into the heights, Sam is soon lost to the rest of his family. John himself moves forward almost obsessively, remarrying quickly and remaining visibly unmoved by Arlyn's death. In secret, though, John is haunted by visions of his late wife, whose ghostly presence refuses to leave him despite his professed desire for a new life. Why do the dead haunt us? Alice Hoffman asks. Is it that they have unfinished business here, or is it that the living refuse to let them go? In her typical style, Hoffman mingles magical realism with a three-generational family saga in SKYLIGHT CONFESSIONS. Ghosts appear and disappear, pearls change color depending on their wearer's mood, birds congregate, dishes break and ashes gather --- all without explanation. Hoffman also distills her narrative through evocative images that will haunt the reader long after the novel's close. A central image, of course, is the family's home, an architectural showplace called the Glass Slipper. In Hoffman's skillful hands, the Glass Slipper comes to repr

Stunning work by Hoffman

Once again, Alice Hoffman manages to create an otherworldly reality that feels completely grounded, with characters so touching and authentic they got right under my skin and stayed there. Other reviewers have done a good job of summarizing the plot, so I'll just say that this book has an unusual structure in that the protagonist changes somewhere in the middle, and it works. This is, more anything, a story that explores the idea of destiny, and asks questions about love along the way. Of course, Hoffman pulls all of this off with language so precise and beautiful my heart melted in my chest. --Ellen Meister, author of Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA