1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I have enjoyed almost all of the Alice Hoffman books, and this one is no exception. Arlyn is 17 when her father passes away. She tells herself the next man to walk down the street will become her lover and she will marry him. John is lost while driving to a party and stops at Arlyn's house to ask for directions. John tries to leaves three days later, and Arlyn follows him back to college. Eventually they do get married, but it is obvious that John really wants nothing to do with her. They have a son, whom John never interacts with. John is an architect that does a lot of travelling. Arlyn falls in love with the window washer that comes to wash the windows every week in their infamous glass house. She and the window washer, George, become lovers and a daughter is born from the connection. Arlyn breaks off the relationship. She then gets cancer and dies three months after the daughter is born. The son, Sam, is six and from then on is unreachable. John gets remarried but keeps seeing Arlyn wherever he goes. I have already gone into too much detail and hope not to spoil it. It was a really wonderful book that I read in an afternoon. I recommend this book to all Alice Hoffman fans.

Wendy C. (
Froggie) wrote on 3/24/2009...
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I just finished this book and was very dissappointed in the ending. Hoffman knows how to spin a tale for sure. I found myself not really liking any of the characters in this book yet I was having a hard time putting the book down.
Whil the story is quite unusual I found myself very interested. But, there is a point in the book where it fast-forwards about 10-15 years and then from that point the book goes downhill. It is almost like Hoffman got bored with the book and just gave up. The last half of the book could have been written by someone else because the style of writing is different and the ending makes no sense (at least to me).
I don't know what kind of recommendation to even give this book. I think it is worth the read as Hoffman is a very talented writer. But, I don't think this is her best book.