Red Garden (Hoffman)

Book Reviews
Hoffman has developed her own brand of magical realism. Lulling and thought-provoking, she conjures soothing places where readers, like the children to whom we tell fairy tales, can learn with pleasure…"A story can still entrance people even while the world is falling apart," Hoffman writes in "The Fisherman's Wife," a story about gossip during the Depression. These tall tales, with their tight, soft focus on America, cast their own spell.
Anne Trubek - Washington Post


Hoffman brings us 200 years in the history of Blackwell, a small town in rural Massachusetts, in her insightful latest.... The result is a certain ethereal detachment as Hoffman's deft magical realism ties one woman's story to the next even when they themselves are not aware of the connection. The prose is beautiful, the characters drawn sparsely but with great compassion.
Publishers Weekly


This collection of interrelated stories from the talented Hoffman chronicles the 300-year history of Blackwell, MA, a mythical town tucked deep in the Berkshire Mountains.... Hoffman has done it again, crafting a poignant, compelling collection of fairy tales suffused with pathos and brightened by flashes of magic. Her fans, as well as those of magical realism in general, will be enchanted. —Jeanne Bogino, New Lebanon Lib., NY
Library Journal


According to the critics, The Red Garden is among Alice Hoffman’s recent best. She can occasionally be melodramatic, her stories overrun by fairy tale syntax. Although the magical abounds here—women become eels—there is little, if anything, that is overdone.
Bookmarks Magazine


(Starred review.) In gloriously sensuous, suspenseful, mystical, tragic, and redemptive episodes, Hoffman subtly alters her language, from an almost biblical voice to increasingly nuanced and intricate prose reflecting the burgeoning social and psychological complexities her passionate and searching characters face in an ever-changing world. —Donna Seaman
Booklist


In 14 freestanding but consecutive stories, Hoffman traces the life of the town of Blackwell, Mass., from its founding in 1750 up to the present as the founders' descendents connect to the land and each other.... Fans of Hoffman's brand of mystical whimsy will find this paean to New England one of her most satisfying.
Kirkus Reviews