Publisher: Random House Audio
Publish Date: March 4, 2011
Format: Audio
Discs: 6
ISBN: 978 0307877772
In exquisite
prose, Hoffman offers a transforming glimpse of small-town America, presenting
us with some three hundred years of passion, dark secrets, loyalty, and
redemption in a web of tales where characters’ lives are intertwined by fate
and by their own actions.
From the towns
founder, a brave young woman from England who has no fear of blizzards or bears,
to the young man who runs away to New York City with only his dog for company,
the characters in The Red Garden are extraordinary and vivid: a young wounded
Civil War soldier who is saved by a passionate neighbour, a woman who meets a fiercely
human historical character, a poet who falls in love with a blind man, a
mysterious traveler who comes to town in the year when summer never arrives.
At the center of
everyone’s life is a mysterious garden where only red plants can grow, and
where the truth can be found by those who dare to look.
My Thoughts
Well I didn't love it, but I didn't all together hate it either. This was my first book by Alice Hoffman and I listened to it on audio. While I really enjoyed the narration (done by Nancy Travis from Last Man Standing) I found the story as a whole to be very choppy and wish it would have been classified as a collection of short stories. I found it had to develop an emotional connection to any character because once I got into a story line it ended and went on to the next chapter. I often felt robbed when all I wanted was more.
I wish the author would have stuck with Hallie Brady as the main focal point of the story as I found myself very interested in her but as soon as the years and stories progressed my mind would wander and the previous story would be lost.
Although I did enjoy some of the stories, such as the Fisherman's wife, I found others to drag on and unimportant to the overall story and history of Blackwell. I also didn't quite buy into the "magical red garden" and for it supposedly being the main focus of the overall tone of the novel I found it lacking interest.
I feel like I'm ripping this one apart, but like I said, I didn't hate it, it was just different and left me with mixed feelings. Mixed feeling reviews are always the hardest to write. I'm defiantly willing to read more from Alice Hoffman.
My Rating: «««
The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor. I do this for the love of books.
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