 Short stories for those who do not like short stories, 2005-10-09
Alice Hoffman wrote the stories in this book over several years, yet they weave together more as a novel in this book. I felt she really gives you an impression, a feeling of the place, that I have briefly visited. It's a book that you think about after you've read it.
 A treat for the mind, the senses, the heart, 2008-12-16
A captivating collection of short stories revolving around a little wooden farmhouse on the coast near Boston. The book opens with a fisherman who builds the house for his beloved wife before heading out on the annual fishing trip with his sons. But a terrible storm blows up, taking them by surprise, and Vincent Hadley can only watch as his father and his ten year-old brother Isaac are drowned. Back at the farm, Isaac's pet blackbird arrives home, now mysteriously, completely white.
From there the stories move on through the generations, through the different families who live there and the neighbours who weave around them. There are tales of tragedy, of secrets, of growing up and love and loss. And through all these stories the Blackbird House endures, whispering of tragedies past, of eccentricity and superstition, of salt and sweetpeas and red pears and the ghostly white blackbird who can still be glimpsed flitting through the trees nearby.
Finally Hoffman brings us up to date, with one woman who has already done her losing in life. Emma had cancer as a child and now, turning thirty, she feels ungrateful, a shadow, someone who should feel lucky to be alive but only feels held back by what she went through. She has lost her man, and her childhood chemotherapy has taken away her fertility. When her parents sign the farm on the Cape over to her, she goes back to the land she grew up in and something stirs inside her. The tale ends with hope and optimism for the future, with a new lick of paint and a man and child in the field helping her clear the debris from her home and her life...
Hoffman is a unique writer, weaving enchantment and hope and magic and love and sorrow around each other in a poignant and compelling web. Her poetic and lyrical prose is a joy to read and savour, telling tales that cut to the heart of humanity - but Hoffman never shies away from holding up a mirror to our hidden truths, our worst attributes, or driving in a knife of tragedy with a suddenness that made my stomach contract horribly and brought tears to my eyes more than once. I'd highly recommend it - and if you like it, try The Ice Queen which is maybe, just maybe, even better!
Beautiful, dreamy and haunting all at the same time!, 2006-10-10
I am a huge Alice Hoffman fan and this novel was one of my favourites.
Filled to the brim with her beautiful, metaphoric style of writing and her endless ability to enrapture each of the senses, Blackbird house is packed with sensitivity and detail about its characters and in this instance those who each have had the experience of living in the titled house.
Pick it up, read and put it down. It's as simple as that. You will enjoy this book if you have already read the Probable Future, Here on Earth and/or Turtle Moon. Similarly, if you haven't read them and you like this book, try those next before you move onto the heavier novels such as the Ice Queen or Property of.
Not quite like Alice Hoffman!, 2004-11-08
Whereas most of Hoffman's books follow a family full of emotions over many years and generations, this new book takes a completely different view. Instead, Hoffman takes this opportunity to tell us the story of a house, taking each chapter in turn to introduce us to a new occupier, from the first family up to those in the present day. I cannot say this story flows as well as Hoffman's other books. It is certainly not the type of book you want to sit and finish in one sitting as it reads more as a collection of short stories with the house as the common ground to bind it all together. However, it does have some merits and probably ended up having more of an effect on me than Hoffman's usual emotionally charged books - you will certainly stop and think about your home surroundings more than you did before! So, do I recommend it? Well yes, I do. It might not have the 'feel' of the other Hoffman books and will not appeal at first glance to those fans of her other works (myself included), but is a brave attempt to tell a very different type of story which will ultimately satisfy both dedicated Hoffman fans and a much wider audience beyond.
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