A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) - Blackbird House

I was initially attracted to this book because of the author, and then I thought, what an intriguing title..then I saw the cover and said...hmmm...I've GOT to try this one. I was NOT disappointed!

This series of stories about the different inhabitants of the same house on the Cape is fascinating. Her writing style is, as usual, lyrical! To see so many lives tied to the same plot of land...how their stories intertwined was fascinating. How many people have wondered about the families that lived in their house before them? I'm sure there are many, myself included. The concept of this book hooked me from the start and although these "snipets" of each person or family and time period could have been elaborated upon (and who knows, she may go back and write full stories about these intriguing people someday!)...their being short didn't stop you from being able to feel connected to them immediately. By the end of the book I felt a kinship with all of these characters, and with this delightful farm of light and memories, joy and sorrows.

There is much of real life here...nothing candy coated. Life in its realities...pain and joy all rolled up into one. It is her ability to roll it all up in neat little package that keeps us coming back. Alice Hoffman is a writer that can dish us up a dose of reality and like little Oliver, we always ask for more!

No still lifes or boring portraits.Hoffman is an artist that paints brilliant and lush imagery of her characters and the worlds in which they inhabit. In Blackbird House, the house is the centerpiece of revolving tableaus coherently articulated over a period of its long history.

Love someone able to weave poetics into their writing. This one is full of lyricism, but every word of every page! I'm too much of a realist to appreciate a whole book full of the fantastical. Some peppering of the imagery would have been evocative. This book very quickly becomes nonsensical and fatuous.

LOVED THE STORIES. THE AUTHOR DESCRIBES THE AREA AND THE PEOPLE IN VIVID COLORS. I LIKED THE CONTINUITY OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE WHITE BLACK BIRD, AND THE DESCRIPTION OF HOW THE HOUSE FARED OVER THE CENTURIES. I ENJOYED THE BOOK SO MUCH, I WENT AND GOT ANOTHER BOOK OF HERS FROM THE LIBRARY.

I couldn’t manage to finish the book. I left the last several chapters unread. Not a single character comes alive in the novel; they are a string of short stories that are unrelated and hard to follow. Yes they all tie back to the house and the themes of loss and love, but having this number of characters, all who are rather boring and poorly described, made this book nearly impossible for me to read.

LOVED THE STORIES. THE AUTHOR DESCRIBES THE AREA AND THE PEOPLE IN VIVID COLORS. I LIKED THE CONTINUITY OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE WHITE BLACK BIRD, AND THE DESCRIPTION OF HOW THE HOUSE FARED OVER THE CENTURIES. I ENJOYED THE BOOK SO MUCH, I WENT AND GOT ANOTHER BOOK OF HERS FROM THE LIBRARY.

I couldn’t manage to finish the book. I left the last several chapters unread. Not a single character comes alive in the novel; they are a string of short stories that are unrelated and hard to follow. Yes they all tie back to the house and the themes of loss and love, but having this number of characters, all who are rather boring and poorly described, made this book nearly impossible for me to read.

I absolutely loved this book. Each story was unique, but they all connected. Using a place as the central theme, with the story crossing over many years, was intriguing. I was sorry when I reached the end, wishing it could go on. I love how the author conveys the characters, I could get a very good feel for who I felt they were. I'd highly recommend this book.

I was intrigued by the cover & the theme of the coastal setting. The story was a little strange & you never knew if the story was continuing or if it was going into a different story. Spouse read it & agreed.

I really like Alice Hoffman but this book was not her best. Through out the entire book I kept waiting for something to happen! It just jumped from one character to the next all tied together by this one house. I was able to put this book down, walk away for a couple of days and come back. If this was a $.99 buy its worth it. Nothing more.

I became a fan of Alice Hoffman after I read The Dovekeepers. This story, however, did not live up to my expectations. It shows people living on this one piece of property through many generations. Once in a while it was interesting when I saw a connection between people "click" in my mind. But the tale didn't really go anywhere. I didn't take much away from the individual stories.

Very disappointed. I've read a few of Alice Hoffman's books and enjoyed them. And although this started off interesting, it took a downward turn about half way through and I stopped reading it. Personally, I don't like fairy tales, fantasy, witches, ghost blackbirds who turn white, worlds that turn red, magical realism, mythology. But that's just me.

Great Alice Hoffman writing. Story of one house on Cape Cod through two centuries of inhabitants, unrelated to each other until the eerie history of the house itself starts to pull them together. A fascinating story.

When I received this book the first thing I noticed was that the dust cover had been glued to the book. While this was odd it wasn't until I started reading the book that I realized that it was not a new book (which I thought I was buying) but a used book. At the end of the first chapter the page was dog-eared--as if someone had turned it as a bookmark. So I rifled through the book and came upon more turned pages--but the coup-de-gras was on page 52--what appears to be spaghetti sauce smeared on the page! Although over all the book is in excellent shape--it is not a new book--it is pre-read and should have been sold as such.

I love Alice Hoffman's books and this one did not disappoint. It is a bit different but the story wove together very intricate lives and painted very vivid images. I am in love with the Blackbird House!

I have read several other works of fiction by Ms. Hoffman and enjoyed them. However, I was disappointed in the "cobbled together" collection found under the title: BlACKBIRD HOUSE. Magical realism can be very enjoyable but it requires some actual "meat on the bones" to sustain it. Hoffman usually has a deft touch with this suspension of reality but these tales seemed to be little more than fragmented ideas for longer, more fully-realized stories that she just couldn't flesh out. The house as central theme drew me in (as I am always most attracted to old houses with rich histories that can captivate the imagination).This so-called novel barely skimmed the surface and left me feeling cheated...I wanted something more substantive. Hungry for a loaf of bread I found only breadcrumbs, instead.
Alice, I know you can do better.

Ms. Denise in Virginia

Story 4 was no better than story 1,2, or 3. I am very disappointed in this book and this author, as I had read The Dovekeepers and really liked it. Blackbird House is a collection of short stories that supposedly are connected through location, although I could barely connect the stories. There was a thread of the white blackbird running through each story, albeit sometimes just the mention of it "a white blackbird flew overhead." I felt the first four stories were tragic in nature, very depressing and there was no conclusion in any of the stories, at the end they just dropped off or quit and were never finished. At first, I thought that my Kindle version had some pages or some chapters missing, but to my disappointment, they were all there. This book comes highly reviewed but evidently I just don't "get" it!

Enjoy Hoffman's writing style very much. This was a series of short stories about a house and I don't enjoy short stories that much. It seemed disjointed and without enough about the specific characters. But for those fans who like short stories they will probably love this book. It does follow the history of the house and that's interesting in itself.

I was drawn to this book by its title, I love Blackbirds.
The beginning drew me in wonderfully.
I found the book was disjointed as the house moved through new families.
I ended up speed reading it by the time I was halfway through and I felt
disappointed. Blackbird

I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. Magic realism is just so horrid and this book is a perfect example. Let's be honest about this genre...it's just a way for an author to do any old thing they want without having to make the setting or characters obey the rules of physics or storytelling.

If you are neither an English professor nor a graduate in an English department, don't bother with this. If you are one of those things, have at it. Pretend you cared about what was going on and pretend it had some sort of deep meaning. This is just boring swill.

This series of related short stories was so much better than I anticipated. I love the continuity created with the use of the color red, the sweet peas, and the white bird. Plus, this isn't the first time I've felt that one of Hoffman's characters was a house (think "Practical Magic"). I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed this format - I really haven't been a short story reader since my children were little. Of course, I'm a die-hard Alice Hoffman fan.

Simply put, this is a beautiful book. It's dazzling with its prisms of colors and kaleidoscopes of dreams and all of the stories of the inhabitants of a single house over time which sits on the top of a hill almost at the edge of the world.

Blackbird House is near the ocean in Cape Cod and its got a huge history. From the original owners to present day, each family who has lived there has a story and Alice Hoffman spins her web of enchantment in each tale. Stories run from incredibly sad to inspiringly hopeful. Children, adults and old people inhabit the house and all have seen the strange white, blackbird and its descendants through the years. It all started when John Hadley had a dream of a beautiful home for his wife, Coral. But when the sea called, he took his two sons to it, though Coral had her doubts about the voyage and begged for her youngest to be left behind, but he wasn't. Coral never gave up hope that they lived through the May gale. She labored on her farm alone and planted Sweet Pea that would last for ages, but her hopes and dreams were dashed.

There is an old pond on the property where an elderly woman, who refuses to have the house updated, retrieves ice from the frozen pond. Boys fish it and once it was rumored that a sea serpent had crawled from the ocean and made the pond its home. And all throughout time, the blackbird can be seen hovering somewhere. The bird is a descendant of the original owner's pet. A bird that left black, but came home white, a sign to Coral that something terrible had happened. This sets the stage for all of the inhabitants of Blackbird House, a house that is filled with so much hope each time someone moves in and then life takes over.

The stories about Blackbird House are also stories of the times people lived through. Each generation has their own battles and triumphs and there are characters that come to life within the pages of this book. Bewitching and inspiring, this book is a treasure.

This was one of those rare snow day marathon reads. It’s been a while since I was inspired to read an entire book in one day, however short. I'm a pretty busy girl!

Some reviewers have called this a book of short stories. I didn't exactly see it that way. There's one overarching element--the house itself. A few little pieces of the tale keep recurring. I think it's one story told in several different scenes, interwoven with the individual stories of many characters.

Blackbird House is the name of a fictional farm in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In the last year, I moved to an older home with a past that I wonder about. I feel that my home has lived many lives, and my husband and I are just links in its chain. In reading about Blackbird House and its dozen different tales, I felt that I’d lived many lives there, too.

The story that will probably stick with me the longest is the one of the 14-year-old boy who plans to shovel the neighbors’ drive for them… but ends up helping the wife with something else entirely.

The ending could have been much sadder. I’m glad the farm found its way into someone’s care in the end. It really could have been a forgotten, haunted place at the edge of the world. At the end, Hoffman chose to breathe new life into Blackbird House.

I loved this book. Back in the days before ebooks I read just about any Alice Hoffman books that I could get my hands on, but then along come kindles and ebooks and I quit going to bookstores and somehow she fell by the wayside for me. Well - that was a big mistake. This book is wonderful. 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.

The main character is a place and each chapter is a story of people who dwelt there. Through the years the place changes but still enchants. Some books can be eaten with a spoon, full of beautiful imagery and soulful flavors. This is such a book.

Who wouldn't like Alice Hoffman? She wrote "Practical Magic," one of my favorite movies of all time. But - oh. The book is very different from the movie. So I went on to "Blackbird House," which seemed exactly my kind of book. Hoffman writes beautifully. Her stories are entrancing. However, 2/3 of the way through this book, I realized, "this is DEPRESSING!" And I didn't finish it.
I will absolutely keep trying Hoffman's books, hoping for one that becomes my favorite book of all time.
I'm sure it's out there.

Prior to reading Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman, the only other work of Hoffman I had read is her recent memoir, Survival Lessons. I didn't know what to expect but I knew I wanted to read more of this author's writing.

Blackbird House is filled with many character, but the main character is actually a house sitting near the ocean in a small fishing village in Massachusetts. Over the years, the people who inhabit the house come and go, and the chapters Hoffman has written tell the stories of the house and these people as their comings and goings evolve.

The style is enchanting and evocative. Hoffman's use of language so artistic as to paint with her word choices as an artist paints with his brush. You can feel the salt air, you can smell the fish, you feel the nettles and thorny berry bushes, and you hear the birds.

Hoffman takes her reader on a journey of place, people, emotions and time in a way I've not read before. I loved reading this book. I was sad when I had turned the last page.

Loved it! Wonderful stories, I was engrossed from the start. Great character development, consistency, and lovingly told.
Anxious to read more by this author.
My thanks and appreciation, thoroughly enjoyed the read.

It took me a while to catch on to what the author was doing. This is a series of stories told chronologically, each sharing a bit or piece (usually a house) from earlier stories. Each story can stand on its own, but by the end of the book I was captivated by the spell it had woven, by the bittersweet rhythm of life and love and loss.

Alice Hoffman is a conjurer of prose. She understands human frailty, vulnerability, self-conscious loathing of birth abnormalities, the need for feeling love, and other acts of living. She writes about New England as well as anyone writing today - her pages are filled with visual stimuli that hang so closely to the retina that though they are often repeated (the color red as embodied by pears, berries, blood, leather, etc.), each repetition serves only to magnify the original richness of impulse. BLACKBIRD HOUSE spans 200 odd years of life on Cape Cod, and while many are calling the chapters 'essays' or 'short stories', they seem more like a cohesive novel about the land and the endurance of the sea and time than anything so disjointed as individual stories. Each of the chapters is connected and it is this connection of odd characters and their progeny that propels the reader nonstop from the early days of the colonies to the present. Hoffman creates dark characters: pain, bruise, emotional devastation and fate are woven like a continuing tapestry, passed from generation to generation. The seeds of all the characters, no matter from where they may be speaking (from the Cape, Boston, London, etc) all are firmly planted in the sweet peas, nettles and bramble that surround the sturdy house that makes the title. Here are witching, blackbirds that become white like ghosts, the ocean, and every type of family dysfunctional unit imaginable. BLACKBIRD HOUSE is not unlike the magical realism of our Latin American writers, but with a thoroughly American twist that makes it even more delicious! An excellent book, this!

Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite authors mainly because her work has resonance. When you read an Alice Hoffman book, you cannot help but be moved by the characters, by the situation, and even by the setting. Blackbird House is no different.

The novel weaves the stories of the successive inhabitants of a house in Massachusetts with great skill. The prose is wonderful. While the novel does not have a story or defined plot to speak of, the reader is ensnared by the power of the house and by a genuine interest for all of the inhabitants. Hoffman even makes references to the early generations of the house through the new tenants.

Hoffman makes you believe that we leave a part of ourselves in our homes, and when we move into a house that has been lived in before, the presence of the previous owner's spirit can still be felt. When the book concludes, the reader knows that 5, 10, maybe even 50 years from then, a new person will be living in the house. The house and the lives of those who lived there can never truly be erased.

It's hard to really review this book because its best feature is practically indescribable. It affects you. You read the book, and you are moved by it. Its stories haunt you, and that's why I enjoyed it so much. It definitely is a 5 star rating.

Because I think I have.

If you're looking for a book with a well-defined plot and clear-cut characters, this isn't it.

BLACKBIRD HOUSE has no sharp edges. Rather, it's about blurred boundaries between water and land, organs and skin, love and hate, life and death, conscious and subconscious. The inner and the outer. Seeming contradictions that come to make perfect sense.

It's about different ways people can be lost (`at sea'), find home (even if they've been there all along), shape their lives or let circumstance take over, love, die, be wounded, heal.

Alice Hoffman skillfully maneuvers a thin line, finding a balance between the limited part of existence about which our senses inform us, and what lies beyond ordinary senses. She's created a place where everything has meaning, though that's not necessarily a comforting thing; it's simply what is.

Although it has what may seem to be fantastical touches, BH is not a fantasy, nor is it a New Age-y, feel-good read. It's about aspects of reality some shrug off as imagination, a trick of light or last night's bad clams.

If you give BLACKBIRD HOUSE half a chance, you'll find its truth and beauty -- the type of truth and beauty that are as likely to prick as they are to placate.

Threads of metaphor abound: red and red-related colors, black, fish, birds, snow, cold, feet, cows, milk. And of course the blackbird (which isn't, really).

On Cape Cod sits a white house surrounded by Massachusetts vegetation and farm land. It could be any New England home, but if you look closely this home is the setting for Alice Hoffman's newest book, Blackbird House.As a long time reader of Alice Hoffman's books, I looked forward to her latest title with much anticipation. And now that I've read this book, I found it to be another one of Alice Hoffman's best books.

Blackbird House is a series of interconnected short stories. While they can surely be read one at a time, if they are read together loosely as a novel they will provide most readers with another of Ms. Hoffman's books steeped in wonderful characterizations and magic realism. Every sense is awakened as one digests her flowing words. We feel her characters joys and losses, revel in her descriptions of nature and animals and hope for a good outcome for her characters lives as they unfold before our eyes. With the house as a backdrop and one of her most endearing characters, Ms. Hoffman provides her readers with pages filled with unusual people, magical places and events which challenge the emotions of the human heart. So entranced was I by some of the passages and stories, I was forced to close the book for a few minutes and take deep breaths before I could go on to read more..

As we read we come to learn of the history of Blackbird House from over 200 years ago. We first meet the builder of the house John Hadley, a fisherman during Revolutionary times who builds the house as a monument to the endearing love he has for his wife. When he goes off to sea with his two young sons, a blackbird, the youngest son's pet accompanies them and returns to the house now totally white after disaster strikes. This blackbird and its other white descendants seem to hover around the house at other times during the tales as if a witness to everything which happens both to the hoseu and the people who occupy it. In another story we meet Lysander who lost his leg to a giant halibut but finds love and courage with a woman thought to be the witch of Truro. In turn we read story after story of succeeding families who inhabit the house. Violet, who is betrayed by her lover, but then learns to love the local boy and gives birth to seven children eventually traveling to England to bring her orphaned grandson home. And then we meet this grandson all grown home who meets a German Jewish survivor in Germany during WWII and bring her home to meet Violet. How these two very different women come to terms with loving the same man provides readers with a wonderful story of love and jealousy. Finally we meet Emma, a 30 year old who rather lost after her divorce returns to her family's vacation home which she inherits from her parents. But of all of the stories I think it was the story India which rally captivated me the most as a young woman learns about the love her parents had for one another in a rather unusual household during the 60's.

At one time almost every Hoffman book I read I considered a favorite. But recently, being a bit more critical, I came up with the following list which includes Fortune's Daughter, Practical Magic, Seventh Heaven, Green Angel and Turtle Moon. Now to this list I add Blackbird House which takes its rightful place along with the other titles mentioned. If you are reading this review I hope it will encourage you to read Blackbird House or at the very least some of the other titles I have loved. As I often say an even so so book by Alice Hoffman is better than most. And while Blackbird is at times sad and overwhelming there is also much joy and lessons to be learned from within the pages of this book.

From Revolutionary times to the present-day, the lives of inhabitants of a Massachusetts house are examined with compelling awareness. Alice Hoffman weaves tales of acute happiness and profound sorrow, each rewarding in its own right. Together, they combine for a loosely-constructed novel of the changing events in the life of a house. Vivid images of blackbirds, pear trees, sweet peas, the color red and more unite these stories with an undeniable charm.

"The Edge of the World", a tale of seaman John Hadley who originally built the house in the 1700's as a gift for his wife Coral. The sailor and his two sons are lost at sea and the grieving widow and mother slogs on with only her field of sweet peas and the ghost of her son's pet blackbird to sustain her.

"The Witch of Truro," a lyrical story of red boots, pear trees, and a love story that is one-of a kind. After a horrifying event, Ruth Declan becomes a charity case for neighbors who sell her into servitude to a blacksmith named Lysander.

"The Token," features Garnet, one of the book's most endearing characters. Her love for her sister Ruby and even for her seemingly uncaring mother, Ruth of the previous story, is heartwarming and uplifting.

"Insulting the Angels" introduces Larkin, another lovable character who finds fatherhood in a most unusual way.

"Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair" acquaints the reader with Violet, a physically scarred young woman who falls in love with a professor. She carries his child while he falls in love with her sister.

"Lionheart" picks up with Violet, now a mother of seven, living in Blackbird House and doting on her firstborn son, Lion. His life is charmed and, as the author tells us, he was not like anyone else and he never would be.

"The Conjurer's Handbook" is the story of Lion, Jr. who is raised at Blackbird House by his grandmother and takes a Jewish wife while abroad. Can the granddaughter-in-law ever win the love of Violet and will Violet ever accept her? This reads like a fairy tale, a wonderful, magical happy-ever-after story to cherish.

"The Wedding of Snow and Ice" is set in 1957 and televisions and canned soup have appeared as staples at Blackbird House. Grace Farrell is caught in the crossfire of impending women's liberation but it is her son Jamie whose visit to the next door neighbor's to shovel the sidewalk and deliver homemade soup that is the focal point of this haunting tale.

"India" is set in the 1960's and 1970's when a young hippie couple purchase the house and raise their two children, Kalkin and Maya. The very back-to-nature parents have given birth to children who have no interest in their mother-earth upbringing but prefer to woof down hamburgers and watch "Dallas" on tv. How one escapes and one comes to terms with her roots makes for a riveting read.

"The Pear Tree" is the story of the Stanley family. Unlike the families before, they only use the home as a summer getaway. For that reason, they never fit in with the community and their son Dean is a loner whose tragic life plays out at Blackbird House.

"The Summer Kitchen" is the story of the family of Katherine and Sam, a couple drowning in sorrow. Their lives are centered around Emma, a young daughter dying of leukemia. Their son Walker is jealous of the attention lavished on Emma and rebels in typical ten-year-old fashion.

"Wish You Were Here," the final story is perhaps the weakest. It picks up the tale of Emma more than twenty years later when she inherits Blackbird House from her parents. Emma has had an empty and unhappy life, but can she find happiness at last? Readers will also be treated to what Walker has accomplished with his life.

I'm not a book reporter person at all, but I read a lot and I know when I love a book or not. I had a hard time putting the book down. Blackbird House is made up of interconnected narratives about the Cape Cod farmhouse over the course of generations. The house feels magical, a bit haunted, but not haunted in a scary evil way. The stories are full of symbolism and essence. It's timeline prose takes you into the persona of the New England lifestyle, the inhabitants symbolic and sometimes almost magical roles, and the things they held most important.

I find Alice Hoffman to be completely unique because her world is a multi-layered, intertwined place where the fish in the pond, the birds and stars in the sky, the leaves on the trees and the people that inhabit the spaces between them make up a landscape that I cannot compare to anything else I have read. This book takes her sensibility and uses it in a new way.

Writing teachers always try to get you to tie up loose ends which I think is not always real. In this book, Alice Hoffman ties up some loose ends and leaves others hanging in an extremely intriguing way. I like this quality because it is more true to life. The book tells the stories of the many who have lived in one house over a period of close to 200 years. Some of the characters of Blackbird House intersect and conclude. Others, as in real life, are left open ended. Each character is original and intriguing. The writing is evocative, rich and unique to the gifts of one of the few modern writers that has carved out a place where no one else has gone. Blackbird House is a quick, satisfying, rich read. Don't miss it.

This book tells short stories of each family that inhabited the same home on Cape Cod. Blackbird House was built by a loving husband who spent much of his time on the ocean supporting his family as a fisherman. This family is followed by many others who seem to be bewitched by the house at first sight. They all experience love and heartbreak.

BLACKBIRD HOUSE - by Alice Hoffman

In the 1770s John Hadley & his wife Coral and their two sons had lived in a hollow away from the beach in CapeCod, MA. John made his living as a sailor and used his earnings to purchase an area to set down roots for his family. The younger son came upon a blackbird that was injured and nursed it back to health. He took the blackbird with him on his voyage. Then in May he took his sons with him to sail leaving Coral behind to tend the garden of sweet peas and turnip and their cows and horse. A northeaster had come and claimed the lives of the many men that were aboard their ships. Coral refused to believe that her husband and sons were lost at sea until she saw a white blackbird flying in her yard. Twelve years later the older son had returned to his mother and told her of the tale of what had become of him and his brother and father.

With each generation a new family has a new story to tell of their stay at Blackbird house. They have all claimed to have seen the White Blackbird. Some say it's the spirits of the sailor and his son that were lost at sea.

This was an easy read and very engaging with each family that stayed in that home. Their stories and the rich history that was past from one homeowner to the next.

If I could, I would give this a 2.8. I looked forward to reading this book because I was thinking it would be something along the lines of If These Walls Could Talk because it tells the story of a house that is 200 years old, and of all the people who have lived in the house. It is a very good premise for a novel, however, it seemed to me as if all the characters were flawed and the stories were very dark. The writing was good, but I really didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped I would.

I'm a big fan of Alice Hoffman's work, her book The Ice Queen is one of my favorites. I really had no idea what this book was about. After reading it I have some mixed thoughts on it. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. It didn't grab me, I found I had to push myself to read it and finish it.

The book is a collection of short stories based on people who lived in a farmhouse in Cape Cod called Blackbird House. The stories vary from different times and events. From a mother whose sons and husband are lost at sea, to a woman who loses the man she loves to her more beautiful sister, to a pair of brothers whose only wish is to leave the small town and move on to better things. The stories are all intertwined in some way. The writing was wonderful as usual Alice Hoffman style.

A schooner and its passengers encounter a horrible storm in the first story of this collection by Alice Hoffman, author of the Oprah Book Club selection, Here on Earth, as well as almost two dozen other novels. It's hard to find fault with Hoffman's Blackbird House, either in its writing (good) or its plot (great). The well-thought out connections between successive stories create an ordered web about life in and around rural Massachusettes. My favorite, The Conjurer's Handbook, is about a man who falls in love with a Jewish interpreter and guide named Dorey while touring a camp in Germany. The interactions between strong, capable, Dorey and her love's stubbornly independent grandmother, during a visit of less than a day, are marvelous. Those few pages, along with the recurring links between characters and stories, make this a wonderful choice both for those who love short stories and for anyone who hasn't yet given short stories a try. Those who enjoy these short stories, will probably also like those of authors Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood.

This excellent novel is a series of short stories following the occupants of a house, from it's building when Cape Cod is the 'edge of the world' and a British colony, to the present. Built by a sea going fisherman, the stories begin with his family. Some of the occupants are families, some loners, are all needing something that can be found only at the edge of the world. As usual, Alice Hoffman paints word pictures that stay with you long after the book is finished.

Hoffman has written a number of fine novels but not so much recently. Her penultimate novel, The Probable Future, was better than anything she's published in years; and it gave hope. Blackbird House is so fine. I read it in a single sitting, stuck to the chair, didn't move until I'd finished the book.

I never know what to say about Hoffman because there's so much around her writing that I tend to sniff at, to abjure. But, as with others of her best books, she drew me in with this one and I cannot do more than writhe with a certain contenment, with satisfaction, with a sense of history embedded deeply by Hoffman. I think she does that, like a tick sort of, with most of her readers.

Who knows just how a history is held by a house? In a desolate end of the Cape, the story begins as Coral Hadley loses her husband and young son Issac at sea in a storm. Vincent survives and takes 20 years to get home. Issac's pet blackbird flies home somehow and is seen throughout as pure white.
200 years of history and demons are kept in this house. Generations of Crosby, West, Griffon, McGuire stay. Others tarry awhile, but the history is not theirs to carry and they move on. Terrible beauty in this place, joy and terrible sadness. Birth, dead, suicide, mystery and magic, love and relationship. A fabulous piece of writing.

Now, I might be a bit prejudiced because I live with 15 parrots and am a wild-bird watcher, but I find this book wonderful. Reading Alice Hoffman's writing is like gazing through a sun-catcher. As the light moves through the colors, it catches your eye and touches your heart in unexpected ways. Ever since her book PRACTICAL MAGIC, Hoffman has lead this reader into a mystical and magical realm where all things are possible, and although truly sad things happen a heartlift is felt at the end if the tale. Hoffman has a deft touch, neither clobbering the reader with too much explanation, nor failing to inform. What happens to the bird? He isn't always black. Do the lovers get together, why yes, you discover a few pages later when their grandchildren tell their story.

Each of the stories in this little book stands alone, yet all are woven into a fabric which includes the threads of singular lives who within the space of a few pages you come to care about. I have read whole novels and not cared for the protagonist or any of the other characters. How can an author be called anything but magical when she can make you care for many people individually wihtin a few paragraphs?

This is the kind of novel only Hoffman can write, full of mystery and the indelible images of people who spend their short time on earth stepping quietly into the pages of the past, as the years speed forward to embrace the future.
The epicenter of each family who lives there, Blackbird House knows each memory, the good and the bad, etched into time as it hovers at the edge of the earth at the Cape, only a mile from the ocean, in a fertile field of trees, wild berries and wildly growing vegetation. From the first family residing there and their travails, Hoffman never shrinks from the realities of life and death. Rather, the house serves as an impassive witness to the fortunes and misfortunes of a succession of families. In such a harsh part of the world, where many men make their living from the sea, families endure their losses, accepting fate or despairing at life's cruelties.
Blackbird House seems to draw an inordinate amount of unhappiness, many lonely, desperate people; yet, in its quiet solitude, the house is an anchor, overflowing with wild growth as if nature would make up in abundance what people have lost. Certainly, there are omens, such as the return of the blackbird pet of a young boy lost at sea, the bird's once black feathers turned white. But omens are, after all, in the perception of the beholder.
Hoffman is an artist, a writer who cannot exist in a land without ambiguity. Her message is one of healing, no matter the damage and compassion for a world that often seems careless of human feelings. Blackbird House is a place of opposites, hope and despair, sadness and happiness and death and renewal. Years of disappointment witness the passage of time, ushering in a new day with the promise of tomorrow. Luan Gaines/2004.

I am a huge fan of Hoffman's, and although this is a collection of short stories, I found each appealing and beautiful, as expected. They are linked over the course of a hundred years or so, so characters who are children in one story reappear as adults in later stories. Great imagery as Hoffman is famous for!

I quite enjoyed this book by Alice Hoffman. Blackbird House follows families through decades that reside in a particular house in Cape Cod Massachusetts. Being a fishing community we get a glimpse into the lives of the men and women who battled with life married to the sea.

We find love and loss, success and failure all surrounding the lives of those that live in this house. Constant throughout the years is a pure white blackbird that shows itself and becomes part of the lives in these families.

Another enjoyable book by Alice Hoffman.

These intertwined storied beg rereading. There's an elusive depth to many of them, and the aforementioned literary imaging is presented masterfully. This collection is written in differing prose; the earlier years of the house being presented in the formal, careful style of the past and the stories of the more contemporary age reflecting the language of that particular historical time. You'll be introduced to some truly arresting characters, many which will stick with you long after you finish the book. There's much creativity and magic to Hoffman's writing, and she readily suspends disbelief. The perfect book for an enjoyable, rewarding weekend's read.

In a rare and beautiful departure, Hoffman follows her celebrated novel, Probable Future, with 12 lush and evocative stories that trace the lives of various inhabitants of a small Cape Cod farmhouse over the course of generations.

Built during Revolutionary times by a man who tragically dies on his final fishing trip during a British emabargo, Blackbird House is as magical and extraordinary as the characters we meet.

Lysander Wynn, who lost his leg to a giant halibut, finds courage and love with a witch in red boots. Violet Cross, a brilliant girl who loves books and the Harvard scholar who betrayed her, finds love with a local boy. Fourteen-year-old Jamie Farrell becomes a different person when he delivers hot tomato soup to his neighbor on a wintry day. Maya Cooper, the angry daughter of hippies, doesn't understand the love between her parents until it's almost too late.

From colonial times to modern day, Hoffman describes the lives and loves of the farm's inhabitants in lyrical yet melancholic prose that pulls us deep into their history, into the very rooms that shelter secrets and inspire beauty. There are lessons of the heart to be learned inside Blackbird House.

I'm not sure what this book was about. Differences in people, enduring property, the life of a pear tree? I was confused as the chapters unfolded but I thought it would ma!e sense in the conclusion.....not so....still confused.

I loved all the different stories and how the sweat peas figured into every one. I have always driven by old houses and wondered what all they had been through. This book was a brief, beautiful look into a house over many years.

I'd most like to comment on the story called, "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair." I find this to be the best most close-up of the stories with a deft interplay of the inner world and fears of Violet and the rich and palpable goings-on around her, wherever she is. For example, a man, a stranger to the area and her, has been watching her from a distance at the shore. She is convinced that, from that great distance, he sees her as beautiful, but the closer the view, the uglier she will look to him. When she is introduced, she hides her purple birthmark in the shade of her sun hat. Her attraction to him is palpable, but she can show only a little of her plain face to him at time. All the while the shoreline setting and the movements of the characters are so realistically drawn that you almost feel yourself taken by the hand to walk with these people. Violet guages the man's reactions to her at every step, stunned to discover, little by little, that he is not repulsed by her face. As long as he has not been scared away by her looks, she contrives ways keep him near her. To say what she does would give away too much of the story. In some of the other stories, I felt more like I was watching the characters from a distance and couldn't get as good a sense of how they experience things inwardly, or if I knew what emotion was there, grief, for example, I couldn't understand why they acted out their grief in the ways that they did. In all the stories, though, the sense of place is fantastic. You would think the author had a time machine that took her to each period in 200-year span this book covers.

Alice Hoffman has yet to disappoint me in the three books I've read by her. This haunting book is a collection of short stories that build upon one another, but could easily be read and appreciated on their own. Hoffman is a master of magical realism, and these tales are filled with white blackbirds, cursed pear trees, the color red, hardy sweet peas, and sadness. And yet, this is not a bleak collection. She somehow imbues every story with a glimmer of hope. Maybe it's the hope that fuels love, and love is central to each of these beautiful, moving stories. Highly recommended. Also, a fast read!

This was such a clever format for a story! The book began in the 1700's and each chapter was about a family or person who lived there in each following generation. The focus was on a life altering moment in their life. Some characters reappeared in the next chapter as an older version of how they appeared in the preceeding chapter. A very interesting perspective on how lifestyles evolved in the coastal community of Cape Cod over the centuries! Excellent!

An absolute favorite of mine. I thought 'how strange' when I first started it but it has become one of my very favorites of hers and I am SUCH an Alice Hoffman fan. Anything I read of hers becomes my 'bible' while I am reading it.
This is a book of short stories. Each story is about someone who lived in the "Blackbird House" in a different time and era.
It is an absolute wonderful book!~!

A modest house on Cape Cod is a backdrop and continuing character to history. The cottage was originally built by a fisherman who wanted to give up the dangerous profession because of the perils of making a living at sea. And the trade became all the more dangerous when the British blockaded access to the sea. Blackbird house became the symbol of freedom from a seagoing livelihood that had no guarantee of a homecoming.

The reader then becomes an audience to the various people who inhabited the house from Revolutionary times to the present. The house goes from pristine to rundown over time and mirrors the ups and downs of the house's various inhabitants. There are other threads that lend continuity to the novel and that is the white blackbird which was originally lost at sea with the cottage's builder, a field of flowers that resurrects each spring, and a pond that becomes a convenient disposal site for a violent, abusing husband.

While it is a clever concept and unrelated lives are woven together over time because the house is both a backdrop and a central character, the book is a pleasant read at best.

I don't usually like short stories but didn't realize that this was a book of them until after I started reading. In a way, the thread that held them all together ( the house) kept me interested enough to finish the book. Surprisingly, the author was somehow able to develop her characters in this short space and make the reader care about them.

I have a back and forth relationship with Alice Hoffman. Sometimes I'm in love with something she's written. Sometimes I'm unsure and indecisive. She rarely works in the short story form, but this is a collection of linked short stories that makes me wish she wrote in the short form more often. This is a series of tales that move through time from the origins of Blackbird House to its present, relating the stories of all those who have inhabited it, loved in it, lost someone they loved in it, haunted it, etc. It's quite magical in an extremely believable way, without any moments of, "Come on, really?" that sometimes occur when I read her books. This one just works.

I've read several of Alice Hoffman's books, and have, for the most part, enjoyed them. BLACKBIRD HOUSE is one of my favorites, mainly because the story is weaved through centuries of history, but also because of the magical element that this mysterious Cape Cod cottage has. In short, it's a fun story to read and dream about a house that has inhabitated all types of fascinating people.

I was in the mood for a short story collection for a change, so I picked this one up. These tales are all set in the same place, a farm in Cape Cod. I especially liked "the Witch of Truro" and the stories centered around Violet. These stories are often strange and depressing, yet the writing style has some original and beautiful devices. And there is an underlying quality in some of the stories that moved my heart's sympathy.

David Rehak

author of "Love and Madness"

I am more of a movie buff, but have recently been spending alot more time reading. I couldn't have found a better book to keep me wanting more.

My favorite concept of The Blackbird House was all the short stories and how each one of them intersected. My only regret was not reading it with a book club. I passed it along to my sister and she can't read it fast enough for me. It was just long enough that I may have to read it again to find details that I missed. This was my first book of Alice Hoffman's and I will surely be reading more.

This book really deserves five stars but I'm giving it four only because it feels more like a story collection than a novel. Is it a novel? The publisher doesn't really say. As far as linked stories go, this is one of the better concepts I've read in a while. All the stories are connected by the life of a house which is, truth be told, the central character. But I've enjoyed so much getting lost in the fluid and transporting prose of Alice Hoffman's novels that I felt at times interrupted in this case. Still, I did enjoy the various pieces very much. My favorite chapter is "India." The sixties era comes alive in this section, where the Cape Cod house might as well be a microcosm of an era. While she seems only to be writing about a house and the simple lives within it, Hoffman in very few pages speaks for whole generations.

This is my favorite Alice Hoffman novel. When ever I think upon it I am haunted by her magical realism and that house on the Cape. I loved how she spanned all of American History by using a house to build a story around. This novel has so much depth and offers so much pleasure with its finely drafted prose. This is the ideal novel for any avid reader.

Blackbird House is one of Alice Hoffman's best. Her characters are as real as if they in the same room with you. Hoffman uses images, smells and tastes that allow you to feel as though you are participating in the story! I never thought she would top Turtle Moon, but I give Blackbird House five stars!

I am more of a movie buff, but have recently been spending alot more time reading. I couldn't have found a better book to keep me wanting more.

My favorite concept of The Blackbird House was all the short stories and how each one of them intersected. My only regret was not reading it with a book club. I passed it along to my sister and she can't read it fast enough for me. It was just long enough that I may have to read it again to find details that I missed. This was my first book of Alice Hoffman's and I will surely be reading more.

This book really deserves five stars but I'm giving it four only because it feels more like a story collection than a novel. Is it a novel? The publisher doesn't really say. As far as linked stories go, this is one of the better concepts I've read in a while. All the stories are connected by the life of a house which is, truth be told, the central character. But I've enjoyed so much getting lost in the fluid and transporting prose of Alice Hoffman's novels that I felt at times interrupted in this case. Still, I did enjoy the various pieces very much. My favorite chapter is "India." The sixties era comes alive in this section, where the Cape Cod house might as well be a microcosm of an era. While she seems only to be writing about a house and the simple lives within it, Hoffman in very few pages speaks for whole generations.

This is my favorite Alice Hoffman novel. When ever I think upon it I am haunted by her magical realism and that house on the Cape. I loved how she spanned all of American History by using a house to build a story around. This novel has so much depth and offers so much pleasure with its finely drafted prose. This is the ideal novel for any avid reader.

Blackbird House is one of Alice Hoffman's best. Her characters are as real as if they in the same room with you. Hoffman uses images, smells and tastes that allow you to feel as though you are participating in the story! I never thought she would top Turtle Moon, but I give Blackbird House five stars!

A number of the stories have characters who find love to such a profound compelling way (and far from anything they themselves would ever expect) that they are completely bereft when faced with loss. The grieving person becomes an inconsolable mystery, it seems, to everyone around them. They are single-minded and persistent in acting out their grief in such baffling ways. All the characters interact with the natural phenomena of the Massachusettes shoreland in all its beautiful and painful manifestations, some of which are almost too disturbing to witness, such as the beaching of the blackfish. The lives of the people and the local wildlife and landscape seem mirror one another in wondfully portrayed details that transported me to the scenes completely.

I usually am a huge fan of Alice Hoffman. Her writing is beautiful and I love the way she makes the most seemingly mundane things magical. However, this book left me very disappointed. The disjointed story lines left all but a few characters destinies uncertain. Why invest yourself in a story if you don't find out what happens? The fact that all these characters lived in or near blackbird house seems like a charming idea, but the followthrough isn't very satisfying. I wish she had instead chosen a few characters at a specific time and delved deeply into their lives. If you are unfamiliar with Alice Hoffman's work don't start off with this mediocre work, try Here On Earth or Practical Magic.

Beautiful! My first Alice Hoffman book. I am totally adddicted to her now and am devouring everything she has ever written. Her stories are magic, haunting and mesmerizing. Blackbird House, like the rest of Hoffman's books, deserves to be read slowly so take your time...

Once again, Alice Hoffman writes an amazing novel (I hesitate to call it a novel much like other reviewers since it is a collection of stories, but it is seamless nonetheless). I enjoy her use of color throughout these stories - this seems to be a reoccurring style with Hoffman - it truly adds to the brilliance of each individual tale. Highly recommend - a relatively quick read for those on the go - best part is how rewarding it is!

I have just begun to read Alice Hoffman and am addicted to her writing. I loved this book. The way she takes you through many lives that have all shared one house, is extraordinary. Beautifully done.

I loved this book! It was subtle and quiet, and I felt like I needed a cup of hot cocoa and a burning fire place! I loved the way, one didn't feel to intimate and slightly detached, but nevertheless, enthralled by the stories that I never wanted to end!

I've recently become an Alice Hoffman fan after reading The Probable Future and Practical Magic. Blackbird House is definitely one of the best books I've read all year. While its an easy read, it didn't bore me one bit. I couldnt put it down!

This is one of Ms. Hoffman's best books, a set of interconnected stories about Cape Cod, love, loss, redemption. The prose is beautiful. I re-read this book every summer, to remind myself of the Cape Cod girl I am in my heart, no matter how long I've lived here on a different ocean.

This novel is compelling and very gripping and you really get to feel like you are actually part of the story and know the characters.

I really did not want this to end and have thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would recommend this to anyone who is a book worm!

I have never read one of her books before. After reading this one I'm gonna read some of her others. I loved the book, the only thing I would have maybe done different would have been the ending. I really enjoyed her writing style and her creativity.

I was very excited about this. I've loved the author's books for years, but this is hands-down the worst of them I've read. It is without any direction or intrigue- obvious and unimaginative, and badly put together. I was dissapointed with Alice Hoffman. I could barely believe she worte it after The River King, The Probable Future, and Second Nature, a few of my favorites. Please get them instead, you'll be very happy. I really don't know why this book got so many stars from so many readers. I guess stories are easier to read, but they are really not worth it even so. Besides J.K. Rowling, it's hard to think of an author who writes books easier to get through.