I've read four or five of Hoffman's books and seem to each one a little less than the one before. Her stories are well crafted but there's a sameness and repetition to them that makes them predictable. "Skylight Confessions" packed no emotional punch for me and that, after all, is what Hoffman is all about. ( )

Wonderfully told story of a dysfunctional family. It was a heartbreaking story that a small bit of hope remained interwoven throughout the tragedy. It starts will a wish or prediction... that the next man Arlyn was to meet she would marry. The man she met was John Moody and so began the rest of her life. This meeting would begin a chain reaction that would affect generations to come.
Enchanting story that I just wanted to know the end to. ( )

Hoffman opens the book with Arlyn Singer right after her father's death, determined to marry the first man who comes down the street. That was John Moody, and the poor guy only stopped to ask for directions. Arlyn is very persistent, and John seems annoyed and uninterested after their initial meeting, but they eventually marry. Obviously, their marriage isn't a happy one, but Arlyn occupies her time caring for their troubled son, Sam. The family moves into John's parents' glass house, and Arlyn soon begins an affair with one of the laborers hired to clean the home's many windows. I nearly cried reading how Arlyn discovers the breast lump in the shower and how she immediately knows she will meet the same tragic fate as her mother. When she dies in the arms of her lover, the whole family is thrown into chaos. Sam is even more screwed up than before, Arlyn's lover is left to watch their daughter Blanca grow up from afar, and John remarries and is haunted by Arlyn's ghost. This was an interesting family saga, but it started off a bit slow (I actually put down the book when Arlyn got sick and only picked it up again when I was bored on the train and had nothing else to read) and left me wanting more of a ghost story. The wife haunting husband bit is what intrigued me enough to pick up the book in the first place, and while Hoffman did a good job at capturing Arlyn's hold over the family, it still wasn't enough for me. The characters were all a bit sad, but it was hard for me to feel sorry for Arlyn's unhappiness when she was the cause, having thrown herself at John despite his initial objections. But aren't we all responsible for our own fates in one way or another? ( )

Another enchanting and magical, yet poignantly bittersweet, novel from Hoffman. John and Arlie fall in love in a misguided haze of youth. After a spell trapped in an increasingly meaningless marriage Arlie rebels against the way her life has turned out, then tragically falls ill. With Arlie gone life spirals downwards for those who surrounded her: John is haunted by the memory of his beautiful wife, his son Sam is going off the rails and little Blanca is just tripping along trying to make sense of everything. Then Meredith enters their lives, strangely drawn into their problems and determined to rescue them from themselves. A few years later, the children are grown and life has moved on yet again…

In the same vein as 'Blackbird House', the novel's poignancy lies in its beautiful observations of life through the generations, as characters we come to care deeply about grow, live, love, and die. Folklore and magic weave through the storyline but never grow cloying, as this spirituality lies twisted within the experiences of the characters rather than being thrown in our faces as a narrative element.

In short, another wonderful novel - my second favourite Hoffman so far, after the masterpiece that is 'The Ice Queen'. Highly recommended! ( )

I loved this book...I just wish it didn't end so quick. ( )