Seventh Heaven

In usual fashion, Alice Hoffman writes characters so well that you feel you actually might know them. This story tells about life at the very end of the 1950s and the very beginning of the 1960s in suburban New York. Every home is exactly the same and, on the surface, so is every family. But as someone moves into the "perfect neighborhood" who isn't quite the round peg that fits right in, things appear to begin to change. Of course, the changes were already there, the differences in the "perfect families" already existed but now the new person shines a light and the facade is starting to fade, the surface is starting to crack, and people are seeing what was always there all along. The times are changing and so are the people. This is a show more rather dark look at life at that moment in time and in those quintessentially perfect American suburban neighborhoods. I found some of the book rather disturbing but that just means that, as I said in the first line, in usual fashion, the author writes true characters ... and true characters can be somewhat disturbing. show less

Nora and her children move after her divorce to a Long Island suburb in 1959, and encounter the suspicions of the day. That almost put me off the story, but continuing, I found it a terrific evocation of that era, and of the various people who lived in these South Shore suburbs where and when I grew up. How she perseveres, surrounded by fireflies, teenage angst and local tragedy, turns into a very real portrait of time and place. (There's a little bit of clairvoyance and magic in the story, but not enough to put me off.)

I bought Seventh Heaven on a whim, after searching high and low for a book that came out 25 years ago, required by my 2015 reading challenge. I looked in the New York Times book review archives. I checked Goodreads best-of lists. I asked family and friends if they knew of anything that had been published in 1990 that was good. In the end, I picked a book at random off a list, bought a used copy online, and absolutely devoured it.

I was entranced by this book from the first page. For one, I absolutely love the writing style. It's mystical, realistic but not, and flows so beautifully. It reminded me of a Tim Burton film.

Another reason I really loved this book, though, was Nora. Nora, the only divorced woman on her block, or maybe in her show more whole town, who just wants a friend. Nora, who doesn't understand why nobody will befriend her son, or why the other mothers don't want to have lunch, or why her American Dream of a cute house in the suburbs just isn't working out the way she wanted it to.

In fact, I really loved almost all of the characters in this book. Sure, some of them are terrible people. But they all have entrancing stories to tell. All of their stories are interconnected. All of their stories are important. Nora has such an impact on all of them.

I may have picked this book up on a whim, but I will definitely seek out more of Hoffman's books. show less

This was my first Alice Hoffman novel and I think I would like to read more of her work. I'm giving it a favorable review but not sure what genre to classify this one. It's not a mystery. It's not chick lit. It's not serious literature or a classic. Just a snapshot of typical suburbia in 1959/1960 in a small community in the United States.

Seventh Heaven centers around a community on Long Island in the late 1950's time period. The small town had been built up on a former potato field, all houses identical as if made in an assembly line. In the beginning of the book it mentioned how men would come home from work and wander into the wrong home, looking around perplexed as they clapped eyes on their neighbor's wife and unfamiliar sofas. show more Then back out to find their own place and dinner waiting to be served by apron wearing stay-at-home moms. Cookie cutter perfect.

The book explores relationships in the late 50's suburbs of several families. Nora Silk, one of the main characters, shakes things up without trying, simply by being divorced with two children and moving into the vacant house on Hemlock Street . The other wives, in their almost daily gathering to drink coffee, swap gossip and talk about their children, regard Nora from the safety of their living room gathering place. Nora is on a ladder cleaning the windows of her new home. The sharp-eyed married ladies note she isn't wearing a wedding ring and this sets you up for how
Nora will be treated. More like how she won't be treated as she is basically ignored. Certainly it didn't help that Nora wore stretch pants and spike heels (not while she's on the ladder cleaning !) - yet Nora is the kindest of the lot.

Besides the story weaving around Nora and her children being the outcasts of the neighborhood, the story revolves around other families..... such as the McCarthy boys, Ace and Jackie, and their patient father dubbed "the saint" by his sons. Jackie gets into trouble with a surprising twist to his character transformation. The Hennessy family - Ellen and her cop husband Joe, who live across the street from Nora. Joe starts reevaluating the twin beds and his relationship with his wife Ellen after watching Nora Silk as she walks, mows her own grass and does chores. Their son Stevie makes it his job to torture Nora's son, Billy, in and out of school.

The Shapiro kids - Danny who could get into any college he wants due to his good grades and financial ability; he drifts into another world after discovering marijuana. His sister Rickie is on the fulcrum of duty and desire when it comes to
life and boyfriend choices.

Donna Durgin, who walks out on her young children and husband because her life feels too empty. And the tragic death of a character in the very beginning that helps shape the personalities of some of the youth who knew her.

The way the characters are portrayed are some true to life examples of this time period. Some issues are never resolved. Yet I found it a satisfying ending - a snapshot of a year in the life of the families on Hemlock Street .

If you grew up in this time period or you were an adult in 1960 I think it will strike a chord of authenticity. One or two of the characters are bound to remind you of one of your neighbors. Growing up in a similar small suburb outside Philadelphia , I find some of this rings true.

Nice work Alice Hoffman!

Now to the food…………

Reading about the past made me think of plain old foodstuff….the kind you might find in any of the houses on the street where I grew up.

Let your nose led the senses as you walk in the back door and smell sweet onions and peppers cooking in olive oil. You round the corner to the kitchen and your eyes clap onto locally produced smoked sausages. They sit on the sideline waiting to join the softening veggies. Polenta has been prepared and sliced into rounds.

Plain food…….good food. Memories of walking into any of my childhood friends’ homes in Brookhaven Pennsylvania . No recipes needed for this one as it’s self explanatory. show less

It's 1959 on Long Island and a single mother moves onto a street in a Leavittown-like community and causes a stir. Nora Silk's appearance on Hemlock Street sets into motion some major changes for her neighbors, from rebellious children, to dutiful wives, to dissatisfied husbands. Nora herself isn't the catalyst - rather it's the *idea* of her: a woman raising two children on her own, holding down a job, and maintaining her lawn. This is not what people are used to or expect. Like much of Hoffman's early work, this book contains threads of magical realism that are lightly woven into the story. I struggled with the slow start of the book which is a bit disjointed, but there are some lovely passages in it, and I did love Nora as a show more character.

3 stars show less

Seventh Heaven is Alice Hoffman’s 9th stand-alone novel and tells the story of when attractive divorcee Nora Silk came to live in Hemlock Street, Long Island with 8 year-old Billy and baby James. Set in the late ‘50s, it captures the dispiriting feeling of suburbia. As a divorced woman, Nora found her presence posed a threat and prevented her from being part of the community. The story is told from several different characters’ perspectives. Hoffman gives us beautiful prose and evocative descriptions that bring the reader right into the moment, even if it is occasionally not such a pleasant one. When Hoffman writes, the reader feels all the anxiety, fear, frustration, joy, sorrow and wonder that her characters feel. I really show more enjoyed the incongruity of a brilliant butterfly like Nora selling Tupperware to the oppressed moths of suburbia. I loved this novel. show less

Hoffman always writes of the ghosts that haunt people's lives. This book is no exception. However, the more interesting aspect of this book is how well Hoffman has drawn a character that so accurately illustrates the Aphrodite Goddess-type written about by Jane Shiboda Bolen in her book, The Goddess in Every Woman. Aphrodite archetypes are women who, without any conscious knowledge, set off reactions in others for which the Aphrodite-type is often cursed. Aphrodite is called by Shiboda-Bolen the "Alchemical Goddess", the woman who has an inherent sexual charge to her nature, who spurs the unspoken desires in men and the often unacknowledged fears or desires in other women.

The setting of this book is the early-1950s in America, where the show more first housing subdivisions are being built. Conformity is the Rule of the Day, especially the demand for female conformity. In this era, women were tightly controlled and their sexuality was deeply feared. The housing subdivision was a metaphor for the sameness, the standardization of behavior, of looks, of hopes and dreams that were held as the American Ideal of the day.

Into this world of houses that all look the same and people who never go outside the boldly delineated lines of social expectation that were drawn for them moves Rita, a divorcee with two young children at a time when divorce was still considered scandalous.

Rita sets off a chain of reactions among the residents of the subdivision that transforms each of them. show less