Hofman, Alice Local Girls ISBN 13: 9780425174340

Local Girls - Softcover

9780425174340: Local Girls
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From the "New York Times" best-selling author of "The Dovekeepers," Alice Hoffman is at her haunting, thought-provoking best with these interconnected stories about a Long Island family, the Samuelsons, and the lessons in survival and transformation that life brings to every family..."Pulls the reader in effortlessly...Hoffman has the power to make you really laugh and really cry." --USA Today"Moving and deadpan funny...Epiphanies about passion, pain, and resiliency induce smiles and shivers in equal measure." --Entertainment Weekly

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Review:
More than a collection of short stories, yet not quite a novel, Local Girls occupies an undefined territory between these two forms. The local girls in question are Gretel Samuelson, her best friend, Jill, her mother, Franny, and Franny's cousin Margot--four characters who weave in and out of each of the 15 related stories that chronicle the rocky years of Gretel's adolescence. That hers will be a tough row to hoe is immediately apparent in the first story, "Dear Diary", in which Alice Hoffman introduces the Samuelson family just as they are being swallowed up by the fissures that have cracked them apart. "Long before the plane touched down in Miami we could hear our parents arguing," Gretel tells us of a family vacation to Florida; "and at the hotel room they locked themselves in their room. If you ask me, working so hard at being married can backfire." It is the end of the marriage that has lasting ramifications, however, as we discover in later stories: Gretel's brilliant older brother, Jason, becomes a drug addict; their mother must battle cancer alone; and Gretel becomes involved in a destructive relationship with a drug dealer. All pretty depressing plot points, to be sure, yet Hoffman's luminous prose combined with Gretel's tart and funny perspective keeps the reader eagerly turning the pages until the very end.

In fact, Gretel and her family and friends are so compelling, so endearing, that the reader wishes Hoffman had chosen to give the Samuelsons a novel instead of this series of stories. In reading about Jason's descent from A student with an acceptance letter from Harvard to working in the produce section at the local supermarket and shooting heroin, for example, one can't help but feel that a lot of his motivations happen between stories; and Gretel's difficult relationship (or lack thereof) with her father and new stepmother functions mainly as a plot device, leaving the reader wanting so much more. And yet, if one is to judge the success of a book by the reader's reluctance to be done with it, then Local Girls is successful, for Hoffman has created a world so enticing that one is willing to overlook the minor flaws. At the end of the title story, as the now-grown Gretel and Jill discuss two teenage girls in the neighbourhood who recently committed suicide, Jill remarks: "They should have just waited. That's all they had to do. They would have grown up and everything would have been all right." The same might be said of reading Local Girls. -- Alix Wilber

Review:
Praise for Local Girls
Named by School Library Journal as one of the
Top Five Adult Fiction Books for Young Adults

"Moving and illuminative...a fine piece of literary magic."--USA Today

"Moving and deadpan funny...Epiphanies about passion, pain, and resiliency induce smiles and shivers in equal measure."--Entertainment Weekly

"Wonderfully sly and unforgettable scenes...Hoffman gets it just right."--The Boston Globe

"Disarming wit...she balances the down-to-earth and the ethereal, and indicates that the human spirit can survive despite the cruel workings of fate."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Hoffman evokes the intimacy of close attachments--mother, brother, aunt, friend, neighbor, classmate--with tender humor and deceptively simple language."--Richmond Times-Dispatch

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  • PublisherPenguin
  • Publication date2000
  • ISBN 10 0425174344
  • ISBN 13 9780425174340
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages208
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780399145070: Local Girls

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ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780399145070
Publisher: Putnam Pub Group, 1999
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    Vintage, 2011
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  • 9780099283980: Local Girls

    Vintage, 2000
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  • 9780786220090: Local Girls (Thorndike Press Large Print Americana Series)

    Thornd..., 1999
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  • 9780786220106: Local Girls (Thorndike Large Print General Series)

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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic is at her haunting, thought-provoking best with these interconnected stories about a Long Island family.Alice Hoffman casts her spell over a neighborhood filled with dreamers and dreams as she evokes the world of the Samuelsons, a family torn apart by tragedy and bound together by devotion. As Gretel grows up, she is witness to the breakup of her parents' marriage, the ups and downs of her cousin Margot's search for love, the deterioration of a brother who passes up Harvard for a job at the Food Star, and emotional explosions that shatter the suburban quiet. Hoffman is at her haunting, thought-provoking best with these interconnected stories about a Long Island family, the Samuelsons, and the lessons in survival and transformation that life brings to every family. "Moving and deadpan funny. . . . Epiphanies about passion, pain, and resiliency induce smiles and shivers in equal measure."--"Entertainment Weekly." Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780425174340

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