FANTASY NOVELISTS.vp

by Rollyson, Carl E.

  short stories. Gifford attempts to balance what he sees as anti-Heinlein rant (Alexei

  Panshin) and Heinlein chauvinism (Spider Robinson).

  Heinlein, Robert A. Grumbles from the Grave. Edited by Virginia Heinlein. New York: Del Rey, 1989. Heinlein’s letters are helpful not only for biographical background but

  also critical comment on Heinlein’s own fiction.

  Olander, Joseph D., and Martin Harry Greenberg. Robert A. Heinlein. New York:

  Taplinger, 1978. This collection includes critical articles that vary in quality. Jack Wil-liamson’s article on Heinlein’s juvenile articles and Ivor A. Rogers’s study of

  Heinlein’s work through the spectrum of folklore are of particular interest.

  Panshin, Alexei. Heinlein in Dimension. Chicago: Advent, 1968. Now dated, and marred by Panshin’s love-hate relationship with Heinlein’s fiction, this book-length study of

  Heinlein’s works nevertheless has some value for the perspective of a fellow science-

  fiction writer (Panshin won a Hugo Award in 1967).

  Patterson, William H., Jr., and Andrew Thornton. The Martian Named Smith: Critical

  Perspectives on Robert A. Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land.” Sacramento, Calif.: Nitrosyncretic Press, 2001. Criticism of Heinlein’s well-known novel, as well as a thorough study of his works overall.

  Stover, Leon E. Robert Heinlein. Boston: Twayne, 1987. A volume in a standard series of U.S. authors, this is an ideal starting point for most research. Fans have criticized its supposed inaccuracies, but these are all addressed by James Gifford (2000). Includes a

  helpful annotated bibliography.

  122

  ALICE HOFFMAN

  Born: New York, New York; March 16, 1952

  Principal long fiction

  Property Of, 1977

  The Drowning Season, 1979

  Angel Landing, 1980

  White Horses, 1982

  Fortune’s Daughter, 1985

  Illumination Night, 1987

  At Risk, 1988

  Seventh Heaven, 1990

  Turtle Moon, 1992

  Second Nature, 1994

  Practical Magic, 1995

  Here on Earth, 1997

  Local Girls, 1999

  The River King, 2000

  Blue Diary, 2001

  The Probable Future, 2003

  The Ice Queen, 2005

  Skylight Confessions, 2007

  The Third Angel, 2008

  Other literary forms

  Alice Hoffman’s short stories and nonfiction have appeared in such notable publica-

  tions as The New York Times, Boston Globe magazine, Kenyon Review, Boulevard, Architectural Digest, Gourmet, Premier, Self, Southwestern Review, and Redbook. Her work also has been published in the anthologies Family, Thirty-Three Things Every Girl Should Know, and Cape Cod Stories. In addition, she has written novels for young adults as well as children’s books.

  Achievements

  Alice Hoffman’s novels have been recognized as notable books of the year by The New

  York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People magazine. In 2007, her teen novel Incantation won the Massachusetts Book Award. A number of her works have been adapted for film, and she was the original screenwriter for the film Independence Day (1983). Her 1997 novel Here on Earth was selected for Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club, which helped her gain more readers as well as international acclaim. Her books have been 123

  Hoffman, Alice

  Critical Survey of Long Fiction

  translated into more than twenty languages. Her 1988 novel At Risk is included as required reading on many academic reading lists. After successful treatment for breast cancer in

  1998, she established the Hoffman Breast Center at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cam-

  bridge, Massachusetts.

  Biography

  Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952, and grew up on Long

  Island. Her mother was a teacher and social worker, and her father was a real estate agent.

  Though her parents divorced when she was eight years old, her father remained a constant in her life because he had left her his vast collection of fantasy and science-fiction magazines and novels, including the works of Robert A. Heinlein and Ray Bradbury. She be-

  came an insatiable reader. She loved fairy tales and myths, which she later deemed the inspiration for all literature to follow. The dark, scary tales by the Grimm brothers appealed to her more than the lighter offerings of Mother Goose and Hans Christian Andersen.

  After graduating from high school, Hoffman entered the workforce, but a single morn-

  ing in the factory of Doubleday convinced her that she was not suited for supervised eight-hour days and restroom passes; she quit that job at noon. Though she had not considered

  herself college material, she enrolled at Adelphi University, graduating with a degree in English and anthropology in 1973. She was awarded a Mirrellees Fellowship and studied

  at Stanford University, earning her master of arts degree in 1975.

  Hoffman attributes her motivation to become a writer to her mentor and professor, Al-

  bert J. Guerard, and to Maclin Bocock Guerard, both accomplished authors who encour-

  aged her to publish her first short story. Her first novel, Property Of, was published in 1977. From then on, aside from establishing a home and raising two children with husband Ted Martin, writing has been her life.

  Neither her breast-cancer diagnosis in 1998 nor the yearlong radiation treatments

  could interfere with Hoffman’s will to keep writing. She has said that when she was too

  sick to sit at her desk, she would move to her office futon, switching from one to the other throughout the day while she explored plot ideas and characters. Hoffman has said that

  she is not always comfortable in the world, often feeling horrified and adrift, like an outsider looking in, a state that helps her powers of observation when studying people as potential characters. Having struggled with phobias, panic attacks, a lingering fear of bridge crossings, as well as a natural cynicism and fatalism, she has always considered writing a means of healing. She believes that in giving life to inner terrors, she can help readers recognize the truth of emotional illness.

  Analysis

  Alice Hoffman writes for a wide audience of adults, teenagers, and children. Her

  works grow from her belief that the greatest reality is in fiction, that all lives contain elements of fantasy. She finds the stuff of fairy tales in everyday life. Monsters and compas-124

  Fantasy Novelists

  Hoffman, Alice

  sionate people live side by side. The woods hold mysteries, if only of the mind. Some

  dwellings might as well be palaces, in their distancing of ordinary folks. Animals have

  distinct personalities and can communicate with humans. Children are abused by wicked

  adults and sometimes rescued by forces of good. Partners and loved ones are abandoned,

  and people die. Dreams and other images can be haunting, and sounds and smells can

  evoke memories that seem otherworldly.

  Hoffman bases some of her works on fairy tales because she appreciates their emo-

  tional truths; the lessons they teach about human nature, love, and hatred. Though a witch may not wait before an open fire for Hansel and Gretel, there are purveyors of evil in the world and sometimes a long-toothed slathering wolf will drape himself in the coat of a

  kindly sheep.

  Hoffman often lulls readers by beginning her stories simply, with characters seeming

  to live perfect lives; but the asp is in the garden, ready to change things. Children, the most vulnerable of creatures, die or are kidnapped; old people wither into death; people divorce, drink, philander, take drugs, commit suicide, abuse the less powerful, murder, engage in incest, and succumb to mental illness. Women give in to their attractions to bad me
n. They suffer. Some evolve, some never recover. Many need to sink to the depths of

  darkness before they can emerge into the light.

  Hoffman’s method of introducing otherworldly themes in her narrative is so subtle, so

  natural, that even readers who prefer straight-on fiction often overlook what they would otherwise consider lapses. Her stories are true psychologically. Who, on occasion, has not sensed the identity of the caller on a ringing phone or had a dream become a life event?

  Hoffman uses recurring themes that follow familiar patterns, mainly because, she

  notes, there are just so many variations on what can happen to people. The key, she says, is in the voice, how the writer makes basic plots seem new and exciting. One of her favorite devices is having a mysterious stranger enter the scene, upsetting the lives of otherwise unremarkable people in their undistinguished towns. Readers recognize and appreciate

  these elements of her fiction because of the familiarity, and then they wait to find the twists or new ways of expressing old truths.

  In many of Hoffman’s novels, nature has magic properties, casting a spell that makes it

  almost another character. Growing things seem to respond to human actions. In one novel, a garden begins producing poisonous blooms with evil names, such as black nightshade,

  hemlock, and thorn apple.

  Hoffman notes that all of her characters contain a bit of herself, that she writes emo-

  tional autobiography rather than using actual events in her life. Her depiction of a woman whose simmering sense of dread leads to full-fledged panic attacks, brain-chemistry disorders that strike randomly, will ring true to readers who suffer the same condition. The

  “Force,” as Hoffman labels it, may lead a character to narrow her realm of experience until she is no longer able to leave the house (the disorder is called agoraphobia).

  Hoffman’s novels always include outsiders, people who do not fit easily into the

  125

  Hoffman, Alice

  Critical Survey of Long Fiction

  greater world: the lonely, the frightened, and the socially inept; sometimes the scar-faced, leather-jacketed hoods; girls of easy virtue; junkies; and scholastic achievers who must downplay their intelligence to fit in. Hoffman’s love of folk tales has led her to create such characters as an eight-foot-tall man, a child of possible stunted growth, and assorted

  women trapped like princesses in towers, who also have to rescue themselves.

  At Risk

  At Risk details the impact of AIDS on a family of four, and on the people of the town in which they live. Eleven-year-old Amanda, an accomplished gymnast and possible Olym-pics contender, is infected with the virus that causes the disease after getting a blood trans-fusion. The blamelessness of the child and the waste of a life would make this novel un-

  bearably sad were it not for the greater story of people of indomitable spirit who adjust to a situation that can only be endured. Hoffman also brings to light an alternate reality: the anger people have at the disease, and also at the victim, the all-too-real feeling of blaming the one who is afflicted.

  Amanda is not simply a sweet, curly-haired cherub. Eleven-year-olds, including

  Amanda, can be willful, manipulative, nasty, unthinking, demanding, and bratty. Her

  mother understands this, but is constrained by her adored daughter’s impending death and becomes tired of always putting the situation in its proper perspective. What difference does it make if Amanda snaps at her, given that one day she will not be there to snap? Her mother is wracked with guilt and sapped by her impatience.

  Eight-year-old Charlie can be a typical bratty younger brother, but he loves his sister.

  Now he is hateful, resentful, and jealous of the attention she is getting. There is much self-recrimination in the novel, with characters appalled at their thoughts, attempting to deny their uncharitable feelings. Added to this situation are the fears of the community that lead to the family’s isolation.

  Here on Earth

  Here on Earth has many of the elements of one of Hoffman’s favorite authors, Emily Brontë, and of her novel Wuthering Heights (1847). Here on Earth is similar with its dramatic landscape and clearly defined characters. The location is a small town outside

  Boston, where nature looms as a constant backdrop with stygian nights and exploding

  August heat.

  The heroine, March Murray, returns to her childhood home after twenty years to attend

  the funeral of Judith Dale, her beloved housekeeper. She brings her snarly daughter Gwen and leaves behind the man she had married when Hollis, the boy she loved as a youth, had abandoned her. A foundling, Hollis is now wealthy and in the process of buying up the

  whole town. He, too, had married, but his wife died under mysterious circumstances. He is determined to claim March. His allure is so great that she allows her world to be subverted, her friends hurt. Hoffman uses this plot angle frequently to show the ramifications of fol-126

  Fantasy Novelists

  Hoffman, Alice

  lowing the heart instead of the head and to portray women who find the strength to rise

  from the depths of destructive obsessions.

  As the plot unfolds, March learns a great deal about her past. Her brother became an in-

  capacitated alcoholic who now lives in a shack deep in the woods. Hollis was a hired horse killer who helped owners collect insurance money on their prize winners by making the

  deaths seem natural or necessary. Judith Dale has her own secrets.

  March soon moves in with Hollis, and Gwen develops a fondness for both Hollis’s

  farm help, Jody, and his nearly wild horse. The horse responds to her soft words. Gwen’s powers seem magical. Jody is torn between his allegiance to the man who gave him a job

  and a place to live and the woman he has come to love. Hoffman’s common plot elements

  are here: deception, mental and physical abuse, dysfunctional relationships, alcoholism, obsession, mental illness, people unwise in love, alienation, and despair.

  Illumination Night

  Illumination Night takes place in Martha’s Vineyard, where once a year the townspeo-ple gather in the town square, which has been illuminated with candles. The central characters, Andre and Vonny, are worried about their four-year-old son Simon because he is

  short in stature. He is often mistaken for a much younger child and refuses to celebrate another birthday until he grows more. The elderly woman next door, in a literal flight of

  fancy, flaps her arms out of an upper-story window, leading her sixteen-year-old grand-

  daughter Jody to monitor her behavior. Jody finds her neighbors fascinating and begins

  babysitting for Simon and flirting with Andre. Emotional conflicts and hostility arise, as do resolution, love, and acceptance.

  Jody and her grandmother have always found themselves outside the realm of ordinary

  interactions, Andre has always been too close-lipped to attract serious friends, and Vonny has fallen into a pattern of agoraphobia that threatens her own existence, her ability to even walk out her front door in comfort.

  Add to this mix Ed, the giant of a man who lives just outside the town, mostly isolated

  from those who fear him. The reader sees seemingly ordinary people experiencing self-

  doubt, isolation, deception, guilt, and terror, a whole range of common human emotions.

  Gay Pitman Zieger

  Other major works

  short fiction: Blackbird House, 2004.

  screenplay: Independence Day, 1983.

  children’s/young adult literature: Fireflies, 1997; Horsefly, 2000; Aquama-rine, 2001; Indigo, 2002; Green Angel, 2003; The Foretelling, 2005; Incantation, 2006.

  Bibliography

  Aguiar, Sarah Appleton. The Bitch Is Back: Wicked Women in Literature. Carbondale: 127

  Hoffman, Alice

  Critical Survey of Long Fiction


  Southern Illinois University Press, 2001. Examination of the presence of the arche-

  typal “bitch” character in modern fiction includes brief discussion of Hoffman’s novel

  Here on Earth.

  Brown-Davidson, Terri. “‘To Build Is to Dwell’: The Beautiful, Strange Architectures of

  Alice Hoffman’s Novels.” Hollins Critic 33, no. 5 (December, 1996). Provides an extensive literary critique of Hoffman’s work. Brown-Davidson tends to incorporate her

  own rather vast awareness of literature, sometimes filling her prose with references

  that may be obscure to general readers.

  Hoffman, Alice. “At Home with Alice Hoffman: A Writer Set Free by Magic.” Interview

  by Ruth Reichl. The New York Times, February 10, 1994. Hoffman answers penetrat-

  ing questions, dealing frankly with her life and work.

  128

  E. T. A. HOFFMANN

  Born: Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia); January 24, 1776

  Died: Berlin, Prussia (now in Germany); June 25, 1822

  Also known as: Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann

  Principal long fiction

  Die Elixiere des Teufels: Nachgelassene Papiere des Bruders Medardus, eines

  Kapuziners, 1815-1816 ( The Devil’s Elixirs: From the Posthumous Papers of

  Brother Medardus, a Capuchin Friar, 1824)

  Lebensansichten des Katers Murr, nebst fragmentarischer Biographie des

  Kapellmeisters Johannes Kreisler in zufälligen Makulaturblättern, 1819-

  1821 ( The Life and Opinions of Kater Murr, with the Fragmentary Biography

  of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler on Random Sheets of Scrap Paper, 1969;

  also known as The Educated Cat)

  Other literary forms

  For most of his life, E. T. A. Hoffmann (HAWF-mahn) cherished the hope that he

  would one day be remembered as a composer, and it was only late in his career as an artist that literary preoccupations began to outweigh his interest in music. By the time of his death, Hoffmann had nevertheless produced a considerable literary oeuvre that included

  two novels and more than seventy tales. Hoffmann gathered most of the tales into three