"The Museum of Extraordinary Things" set me on a completely unexpected and unplanned journey - introduction to Alice Hoffman. Strangely enough, that particular novel could hardly be described as amongst my favourites - way too many dark & disturbing imagery - but there is something irresistible about the way Hoffman lulls the reader in her own, particular world and she does surprise me every now and than with the affectionate and compassionate insight into human soul, some of her sentences and thoughts are genuinely affecting. So before I knew what hit me, I started doing something that I haven't done in decades - I actually started reading her novels in a row, one after another. "The Museum of Extraordinary Things", "Practical Magic", "Here on Earth" and now "The Probable Future". Last time I felt like this was way back in the high school when for some reason or another I developed passion for Émile Zola and after a while felt as he became old friend whose prose somehow seemed warm and familiar. This is how at the moment I feel about Alice Hoffman - you might say I'm right in the middle of literary infatuation - even though I am perfectly aware that none of her novels so far was actually five star masterpiece but she has that beautifully comforting little world full of nature, women, dogs and magic where I feel perfectly at home and although yes, its true, there is a certain similarity between her works, at this point it just delights me completely and I can hardly wait to finish my day's work to snuggle comfortably with another A.H. novel.
According to my diaries, I have actually read "The Probable Future" long, long time ago and noted how much I enjoyed it. But that was more than two decades ago and now I don't remember anything anymore, except the impression that I liked it and rough idea about the plot, which thankfully I don't recognise at all and in fact feels like I am reading it for the very first time (is this how its going to be? Am I destined to re-read everything because my brain will become like a Swiss cheese?). It looks and feels like a very typical Hoffman, since right now I can tell she has a comfort zone with a small town, eccentric families (always strong women), usually some moody teenagers, lovable dogs and dangerous men. In Alice Hoffman world men = sex = danger. If you have read few of her novels, there is psychologically intriguing common thread somewhere in there that some psychoanalyst might find fascinating, but I chose to take it lightly and just note it with amusement - mothers, daughters, scoundrel husbands, kitchen, adorable dogs, magic. Fine by me. It is a wonderfully sweet and comforting literature that guarantees to put a smile on your face and her trademark out of the blue beautiful sentences never fail to surprise and thrill me.
In "The Probable Future" Hoffman is again in her familiar territory - little town with picturesque, lovable characters, family of strong women (descending from a long line of Sparrow women with their supernatural powers), lovers, dogs, cooking recipes, a magic that appears so natural that nobody even pays attention, a bit of thriller thrown somewhere in there, but nothing really scary or disturbing, Hoffman is intentionally more concerned about humanity and interactions between people. Almost everybody is at first paired with a wrong person, until the right combination takes place naturally. Probably the most intriguing is the carefully camouflaged statement that every woman in the family, from Rebecca Sparrow onwards, had a hard time with town's male authority who openly opposed any female independence - the easiest way to punish them was to outcast these women as witches, because women who can't be controlled were perceived as dangerous. That the latest of Sparrow women brings piece and harmony to town comes as long awaited and deserved truce.
No comments:
Post a Comment