Blackbird House

This book piqued my interest because all the stories are connected to a place and the house that stands there. Anita Shreve also used a house that recurred in several of her novels. I loved that house and came to view it as a character. Alice Hoffman’s house in these stories also became a character for me - it changes and it plays a role in changing those who live there. The individual tales are captivating and although for me the book is not really a novel, but rather a collection of related short stories, it does in many ways function as a novel. Each story, however, I think could easily stand on its own but by collecting them all in one book Ms. Hoffman helped the house/location become a character in its own right.

Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman is the story of a farm house built in the outermost reaches of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1778. Beginning with its construction and taking us right up until the present day, each chapter contains the story of another generation of inhabitants who live at the farm house. The writing style often reads like a fairytale or fable with interconnected short stories that manage to convey much meaning.

At the beginning of each chapter we meet the next generation of occupants, quite often related or connected to the previous character/s. For instance Violet - a greedy and self-described ugly young girl who reads books as though she were eating apples, core and all - from the previous story becomes the mother in the show more next one and so on.

The reader notices the shifting times, with events like the first automobile to arrive in town in 1908. The driver was honking the horn so loudly that sea fowl and hunting dogs took up the racket, apples tumbled from the trees and milkweed was blown off its stalks.

I enjoyed the stories of how each of the incumbents found the house, and many of them felt like destiny or fate:

"People buy houses for all sorts of reasons, for shelter, for solace, for love, for investment. Katherine and Sam bought their summer house because they were drowning, and this was the first solid ground they thought they might be able to hold on to." Page 187

The author's description of the farm added to the narrative, and I could easily imagine the turnips, sweet peas, peach trees and summer raspberries growing on the farm; although I had to strain to imagine the red pear tree but won't forget it in a hurry.

Blackbirds - and a white one in particular - keep cropping up throughout the book and they take on different meanings for different characters. For Maya they were bad luck:

"Everyone knows a white blackbird is nothing more than a ghost, a shadow of what it ought to be." Page 154

The ramshackle farm is a welcome refuge for some, but takes on a darker meaning for the locals who believed it's haunted; and maybe it is. The house has witnessed births and tragedies over the generations and some years it even sits vacant. But eventually new owners and occupants arrive who overlook the outdoor toilet and leaking roof and decide to put down roots and establish a home there.

Set over a span of more than 200 years, Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman is surprisingly short at only 225 pages, but highly recommended for readers of historical fiction who enjoy feel good stories where the house is the main character. The overarching narrative explores themes of love and loss while also acknowledging the passage of time. show less

Is it a novel or a book of short stories? Surprisingly, it isn't always easy to tell.

Take Elizabeth Strout's “Olive Kitteridge,” for example, or “Mister Monkey” by Francine Prose. Both consist of stories that could stand alone, yet they have characters and a few other points of reference in common. It helps when the author makes it clear what it is, as Edward Rutherfurd does when he tells the history of places like London, Paris and New York in a series of stories, some of which may take place decades or even centuries apart. He calls his books novels, so that is what they are. Other writers aren't as helpful.

I started reading Alice Hoffman's “Blackbird House” (2004) under the impression it was a novel. Soon I was not so show more sure. Some editions of the book identify it as a novel. Mine does not. Neither the paperback cover nor the copyright page makes it clear. Then I skipped ahead to a conversation with the author at the end of the book, where Hoffman refers to her "stories." So let's call it that, yet her book actually has much in common with Rutherfurd's. While Rutherfurd tells the history of a certain place with related, sometimes reoccurring characters, Hoffman does the same thing, but her place is a fictional New England house. Her "history" tells of the occupants of that house over a couple of centuries.

These stories are beautifully written in that lyrical style Hoffman does so well in her best work. Some end tragically, as with sailors lost at sea, a murder or a suicide, while others paint more positive pictures. As for painting pictures, the most important color on Hoffman's palette is red. In these stories we find red hair, red skin, red pears, red oaks, red-winged blackbirds and so on. There is the more common blackbird in the first story, "The Edge of the World," but after that it is a white blackbird that flies through the stories, as if it were the ghost of that original bird. Some characters view it as an omen, but whether it brings good luck or bad varies from story to story.

Hoffman says in the conversation at the end that “Blackbird House” began with a short story she was asked to write for the Boston Globe. That story, "The Summer Kitchen," inspired the rest.

I love this book, whatever it is. show less

This is a collection of vignettes, spanning two-plus centuries, all set in the same house / farm on the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. beginning when the area was still a British colony and ending in the early 21st century.

There is something magical about the property, starting with the snow-white blackbird whose appearance frequently portends disaster. Still, couples make it a home, start their families, till the soil, pick the fruit, make pies, and jam. And each family is changed by their time at Blackbird House.

I found these stories enchanting and mesmerizing, though I’m hard pressed to say what exactly it was about them that so charmed me. Maybe that is the magic of Hoffman’s storytelling.

If you love Cape Cod, old houses, or historical fiction you will love Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman. Each chapter is a short story that could stand on its own, but they are all linked to a single farm house on Cape Cod. Beginning in the Colonial period, the stories continue into contemporary times. In addition to the house itself, there are motifs that constantly reappear, some of them edging on magical realism, such as the white blackbird that was the pet of a young boy who died at sea in the first chapter. Each story is expertly crafted, with characters you instantly care for, each facing a life crisis that makes for engrossing reading. These stories are like a string of pearls!

Alice Hoffman has long been one of my favorite authors, but I'm afraid this collection fell short for me. As gorgeous as Hoffman's language is--and it is worth falling into in this collection, just as it always is--the stories here didn't, for the most part, pull me in or make me glad to have picked up the book. My favorite stories were the first and the last, and although I suppose the (tenuous) thread connecting all of these stories was meant to provide some additional elevation to the work, the overwhelming feeling I got from the collection was one of despair and struggle. The drama was tough to wade through, to be honest, because without the depth Hoffman normally brings to her characters, the stories relied on plot and theme to show more pull a reader a long, and there just wasn't enough nuance or tension to anything but the language for that.

As ever, Hoffman's characters and language are brilliant, but I think what I so love about her work is lost when it comes to short-form writing. I'm still a devoted fan, but I may skip any other short story collections she produces. show less

Blackbird House is simply wonderful. This book was absolutely beatifully drawn with such attention to detail of the human condition, it's interconnectedness to others and most importantly, to a certain place.

Blackbird House is the most unique collection of short stories I've ever read. It's not just a story here and there comprised of different characters and settings with the only common demoninator being that of the author, instead there's a common thread woven throughout: the House, it's history and the type of inhabitants it attracts. And the writing...! Alice Hoffman is such an eloquent writer. Her prose is simple but evocative, mystical but magical, detailed by not flowery.

The stories are phenomonal, too. And some I will have to show more go back to re-read because I think I may have missed some of the tradmark Alice Hoffman-isms of magical realism. I can hardly believe it is 200 pages. I devoured it so quickly and was so sad it was over. The concept of connected stories of the folks that moved through the Blackbird House just works so well, and there are very few writers who can tell a story like Alice Hoffman. Being immersed in her books is like sitting by a campfire with a great storyteller and just being carried away. Needless to say, I have a lot of catching up to do on her books - and catch up I will. Alice Hoffman always reminds me of why I enjoy reading so much.

My only complaint of Blackbird House is that some stories tend to end a little abruptly, like without much resolution, making us wonder what really happened. In the end, I wanted things to come more full-circle, explictly tying every story and every generation together, but it didn't, not really. Not for me.

4 happy stars. Read this novel soon! show less