With “incantatory prose” that “sweeps over the reader like a dream,” (Philadelphia Inquirer), Hoffman follows her celebrated bestseller The Probable Future, with an evocative work that traces the lives of the various occupants of an old Massachusetts house over a span of two hundred years.In a rare and gorgeous departure, beloved novelist Alice Hoffman weaves a web of tales, all set in Blackbird … of tales, all set in Blackbird House. This small farm on the outer reaches of Cape Cod is a place that is as bewitching and alive as the characters we meet: Violet, a brilliant girl who is in love with books and with a man destined to betray her; Lysander Wynn, attacked by a halibut as big as a horse, certain that his life is ruined until a boarder wearing red boots arrives to change everything; Maya Cooper, who does not understand the true meaning of the love between her mother and father until it is nearly too late. From the time of the British occupation of Massachusetts to our own modern world, family after family’s lives are inexorably changed, not only by the people they love but by the lives they lead inside Blackbird House.
These interconnected narratives are as intelligent as they are haunting, as luminous as they are unusual. Inside Blackbird House more than a dozen men and women learn how love transforms us and how it is the one lasting element in our lives. The past both dissipates and remains contained inside the rooms of Blackbird House, where there are terrible secrets, inspired beauty, and, above all else, a spirit of coming home.
From the writer Time has said tells “truths powerful enough to break a reader’s heart” comes a glorious travelogue through time and fate, through loss and love and survival. Welcome to Blackbird House.
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I felt like the various stories were well written, but I would have rather had a “whole” story rather than several short stories, even though they were connected.
This is my first Alice Hoffman book and I’m so delighted that I read it. I will be reading more.
The stories about the individual families were somewhat interesting. I kept waiting for the chapters to fall together. Different families lived in the house throughout time. When I finally finished there was no conclusive ending for all the families coming together. The end was disappointing.
Good but not her best
While not exactly cheerful, Blackbird House was entertaining and unexpected. The various owners and occupants were diverse and generally sympathetic. The prose is clear direct and very pretty. I wish they had taken better care of the house. I would like to visit. It covers a broad spectrum of humanity.