Seventh Heaven
Seventh Heaven book cover

Seventh Heaven

by
Price
$5.23
Format
Paperback
Pages
288
Publisher
Fawcett
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0449220184
Dimensions
4.25 x 0.75 x 7 inches
Weight
4.8 ounces

Description

It is 1959, in a Long Island suburb. Hemlock Street consists of identical houses, all six years old. Everyone is married, has the same values, thinks the same thoughts. Into this community comes Nora Silk - wearing black stretch pants when all the mothers wear Bermuda shorts, bringing with her a son who reads people's minds, a baby, and no husband. Maybe she is a witch; certainly she is not a regular mother. Her idea of cooking revolves around Twinkies and food coloring, even if she does love her children. As the reality of Nora slowly but irresistibly opens the eyes of the neighborhood to the limitations of their own lives and values, marriages begins to show their cracks and hidden strains become visible for the first time. Potentially, Seventh Heaven could have been a horribly depressing book. Abused children kill their parents; teenagers die in accidents; mothers walk out the door in the middle of the night and do not return. Yet Alice Hoffman makes the opening of eyes a good and worthwhile thing. Not everyone survives, not everyone is happy. But there is a feeling - embodied in Nora - that happiness, and even unhappiness, is better than marriages with no love, or houses that all look alike. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14 . -- From 500 Great Books by Women ; review by Erica Bauermeister From the Inside Flap H HEAVEN confirms her place as one of the finest writers of her generation."NEWSWEEKNora is ahead of her time. A single mother in 1950s suburbia, she's strong, sexy, passionate, and mysterious. Everyone in town is touched by her, and in the mirror of her magnetism, people see themselves as never before. With Nora's courageous image before them, they begin to ask themselves questions they had never asked--finding answers they had never dared to imagine...."Brilliant and astonishing...Suffused with magic."COSMOPOLITAN

Features & Highlights

  • "SEVENTH HEAVEN confirms her place as one of the finest writers of her generation."NEWSWEEKNora is ahead of her time. A single mother in 1950s suburbia, she's strong, sexy, passionate, and mysterious. Everyone in town is touched by her, and in the mirror of her magnetism, people see themselves as never before. With Nora's courageous image before them, they begin to ask themselves questions they had never asked--finding answers they had never dared to imagine...."Brilliant and astonishing...Suffused with magic."COSMOPOLITAN

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(1K)
★★★★
25%
(858)
★★★
15%
(515)
★★
7%
(240)
★
23%
(789)

Most Helpful Reviews

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What kind of heroine is this?

This is my first experience with Alice Hoffman, and what a disappointment. She has a lovely, easy style. But the characters? It's not that I don't sympathize with divorced, single mothers, lonely teenagers, unfulfilled women, et al. Am I supposed to empathize with or like Nora Silk, who refuses to adequately provide what her obviously emotionally needy and lonely son requires, and who shamelessly capitalizes on her neighbor's offers of assistance while she secretly sleeps with the neighbor's 17-year-old son? Am I supposed to empathize with or like the Saint, who may be genuinely concerned about neighborhood children but largely ignores his own? Or poor little Donna, who would rather run away and be thin than to stay at home and face her challenge of repairing a marriage and raising her children? I understand Hoffman's desire to de-mythologize the '50s suburban experience, but to foist Nora Silk onto her readers as some kind of positive, liberating harbinger of the decade to come is naive and even condescending.
13 people found this helpful
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A turn of the decade novel with typical Hoffman wonder.

This is another fantastic book from the author of 'Practical Magic,' 'Blue Diary,' and 'The Probable Future.' Nora Silk is not the typical woman of 1959 Long Island. She's divorced, has two children, and never seems to care if they get dirty while they play. She wears high heels and black stretch pants, and her nails are always done in bright colours. Her eldest son, Billy, tends to pick stray thoughts out of the minds of people around him, and James, only months-old, eats anything he can find in one chubby cute hand. When they move onto the street where the norm is two parents, two children, and nothing unexpected, Nora Silk is ostracized, Billy is bullied, and it seems that the status quo will always regain its balance.

But the men start to notice Nora's distinct grace with more than a bit of lust, and Nora's comments and advice to the women start to break cracks in the veneer of "we should do what we have always done." Sparks fly, a trace of magic is in the air, and before long, 1959 is going to roll over into the sixties, and Nora Silk's influence will be felt by all.

I adored this book - much as I adored the previously mentioned Hoffman titles I listed above - and had that trademarked Hoffman lump in my throat when the book was drawing to a close. As always, it's the characters - and the level of empathy you feel for all of them - that keep you going, and Hoffman's deft touch with a trace of the supernatural always leaves you charmed. A ghost here, a clairvoyant there, and a tangled thread of folk remedies throughout, there's something magical in how she writes, and how the reader feels while watching her worlds.

'Nathan
5 people found this helpful
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Not Her Best

I have read just about every Alice Hoffman book that there is, and I have to say that this one was definitley not one of my favorites. I finished the book thinking, what was the point? There is no real story about any one character, just a bunch of stories of each person's lives in the comunity. I kept thinking that she was eventually going to center around Nora Silk, but she really never did. I think if she had done that, then there would have been more of a storyline. Unfortunatley, I would not recommend this book.
5 people found this helpful
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Magical

This was the first Alice Hoffman book I've read, and I did so last week. It was a breath of fresh air. Beautifuly written, without being 'over-written', and almost magical. It is a story centered around a time where things were rapidly changing..the late 50's. I can easily say it is one of the best books I've read this year.
Some of her prose were so lyrical I almost had the urge to haul out a highlighter. It certainly won't be the last Hoffman book I read.
5 people found this helpful
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A quick read that doesn't reveal any mysteries of life

Nora longs to fit into a neighborhood, to become a respected member of the community, but she is rejected because she is so different from her neighbors. Divorce makes her different; none of the other Hemlock Street mothers even know a divorced person. There is an unspoken fear that accepting her will accept the change that is certain to happen in the neighborhood. We assume that life was tidy in the '50s. This book reveals what we know is really true. Life never moves unendingly on the same track. Change is always a part of life. Even though the '50s were sedate, change happened throughout the entire decade. The Hemlock Street neighbors fought unsuccessfully against the threat of change that they perceived Nora would bring. In truth, they each formed a monumental change in their own lives and, of course, in the life of the neighborhood.
1 people found this helpful
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seventh heaven

This book's story about people was good, but the content was so slow, and the ending was less than I figured it would be.

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