Quirky Review of “Here on Earth” by Alice Hoffman…
And a side trip on writing memoir
Before you read this “rather odd” review (what some might call “self centered”), I want to call attention to the 5 stars I gave it. Any negatives in this review have more to do with what I look for in novels on a personal level, rather than the quality of the book as a whole, on its own merits.
A fair warning: I do not say anything here…even minimally…about the plot, except for the ending, which merely hints in a quite vague way as to what is likely to follow. This is me: I want more than a hint at future direction. I want it to be definite. But that is my own quirky desire and apparently is not shared by a wide variety of authors, editors, publishers, and readers. But hey…nothing says my review has to take up “universals.”
The one “legitimate” (as in “not personal”) criticism I have is that too many plot twists (perhaps “turns” is a better word) have insufficient transitioning into the “new” — twists/turns that figure into the core of the story, but in my view are dealt with too swiftly. Especially compared with how fully those changes affect the characters’ lives. I find that swiftness of change characteristic of several of the many Hoffman novels I have explored (and currently re-explore) before.
