Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Seventh Heaven

Seventh Heaven
Seventh Heaven
Author: Alice Hoffman
"SEVENTH HEAVEN confirms her place as one of the finest writers of her generation." — NEWSWEEK — Nora 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 be...  more »
Info icon
ISBN-13: 9780399135354
ISBN-10: 0399135359
Publication Date: 8/17/1990
Pages: 256
Rating:
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
 20

3.3 stars, based on 20 ratings
Publisher: Putnam Pub Group (T)
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Seventh Heaven on
Helpful Score: 3
Whenever I see an Alice Hoffman book, I think to the time I read the book and always get inspired to read it again. She has a way with words that just transport you into the heart of the story. I was an Army brat and grew up in a variety of different places. I would always make up stories about my neighbors and sometimes, I would even share that with them. One day, living in VA, I came across a woman, in her mid-thirties, that everyone in town was just drawn to. She helped everyone that came into her path. There really was something magical about her and she encouraged me to keep writing stories about the things that I witnessed, day in and day out. Eventally, we moved away and I always wondered what happened to Lily. When this book came out, I was immediatly brought back to that time in my life and I kept thinking, OMG, Alice Hoffman knows Lily! I know this is probably not the best review or if it even qualifies as a review, but reviews are not always just about what happens in a book. It's why a person can identify with the book that is importnant.
reviewed Seventh Heaven on + 86 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I read this in a literature class years ago, read the whole story over a weekend. It was a very easy read, and interesting, too. Then when class resumed the following week, my instructor delved into the details, such as Hoffman's use of symbolism, which I initially TOTALLY missed! This is the one that opened the door to other Hoffman novels for me - now I look at her work in a different light and it is captivating.
toni avatar reviewed Seventh Heaven on + 351 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This story takes place in the late 50s in a community on Long Island, a former potato field where all the houses look so much alike that sometimes women wander around for hours trying to find their houses. Into this cookie-cutter community of stay-at-home mothers with perfect homes arrives Nora Silk, divorced from her magician husband, with two small boys. The house she moves into is reputed to be haunted and is slowly disintegrating.

Nora is not welcomed by the other mothers, as they have never known anyone who is divorced and they are suspicious of her (and afraid of what their husbands will do). One look at Nora in her stretch pants and spike heels and you know what the husbands thought! Her son Billy is shunned at school--it does not help that he can read others' thoughts. All Nora wants is to be accepted, grow flowers, and have some friends.

But to her credit, she never succumbs to artifice in this quest. Instead of acceptance, Nora is labelled as a witch and Billy fails every subject except penmanship. As for the rest of her life, she "crossed her fingers and waited, she thought good thoughts and experimented with casseroles that contained olive loaf and hoped that would be enough."

There is some of Hoffman's magical realiam woven into the story, but so adroitly that the reader hardly realizes it and must go back and re-read the passage. Hoffman's character descriptions are subtle and spare, but draw a complete picture of this neighborhood.

Another great book by this author!
reviewed Seventh Heaven on + 16 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Hoffman is always good; this book is no exception. I love the way magic is so commonplace in her novels.
reviewed Seventh Heaven on + 29 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Did you ever walk through a subdivision and wonder about the lives that go on inside the houses? Alice Hoffman does at giving us a peek.She masterfully intertwines lives of people living in a subdivision where the houses and the people appear to be cookie cutter same on the outside(except for one newcomer),but what goes on behind closed doors is very different.Very well written and kept my interest all the way through. Hard to put down.
Read All 16 Book Reviews of "Seventh Heaven"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

grrrgirl avatar reviewed Seventh Heaven on + 9 more book reviews
classic Hoffman. A wild man and his "redemption" into society. Oh, and, of course, love.
reviewed Seventh Heaven on + 4 more book reviews
Single mother is a typical suburban community (1950's)raising two children willing to take love where she finds it.
reviewed Seventh Heaven on + 16 more book reviews
Great book..Classic Alice Hoffman
reviewed Seventh Heaven on + 136 more book reviews
Kind of boring and slow moving.
sharyn avatar reviewed Seventh Heaven on + 6 more book reviews
I loved this book - the characters, the emotions, the excitement, everything made it a great read that changes you.
reviewed Seventh Heaven on + 54 more book reviews
Fabulous book. Alice Hoffman has a true gift for bringing characters to life!


Genres: