Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman

 

Summary (from the publisher): With “incantatory prose” that “sweeps over the reader like a dream,” (Philadelphia Inquirer), Hoffman follows her celebrated bestseller The Probable Future, with an evocative work that traces the lives of the various occupants of an old Massachusetts house over a span of two hundred years.

In a rare and gorgeous departure, beloved novelist Alice Hoffman weaves a web of tales, all set in Blackbird House. This small farm on the outer reaches of Cape Cod is a place that is as bewitching and alive as the characters we meet: Violet, a brilliant girl who is in love with books and with a man destined to betray her; Lysander Wynn, attacked by a halibut as big as a horse, certain that his life is ruined until a boarder wearing red boots arrives to change everything; Maya Cooper, who does not understand the true meaning of the love between her mother and father until it is nearly too late. From the time of the British occupation of Massachusetts to our own modern world, family after family’s lives are inexorably changed, not only by the people they love but by the lives they lead inside Blackbird House.

These interconnected narratives are as intelligent as they are haunting, as luminous as they are unusual. Inside Blackbird House more than a dozen men and women learn how love transforms us and how it is the one lasting element in our lives. The past both dissipates and remains contained inside the rooms of Blackbird House, where there are terrible secrets, inspired beauty, and, above all else, a spirit of coming home.

From the writer Time has said tells "truths powerful enough to break a reader’s heart” comes a glorious travelogue through time and fate, through loss and love and survival. Welcome to Blackbird House.

Review: Spanning two hundred years, this work of fiction is a series of interconnected stories all linked by their connection to the same Massachusetts home. In the first chapter, we see the house's origin and the story behind who built it. Subsequent chapters focus on their descendants but also other owners of the house, or those who have married into the family and find themselves in its orbit. 

I loved the idea of a collection of short stories that are all connected and linked. The stories in this collection are in chronological order and Hoffman makes the connection to other characters and the house very clear. Most of the stories are quite sad - the characters are gripped by grief, missed opportunities, and physical restraints. I listened to the audiobook version of this and really liked that each chapter was read by a different narrator, which really helped with the feel that each story was distinct and from a different perspective. 

I always struggle to review story collections because inevitably I enjoy more stories than others and this was no different. I did really like that there was a since of continuation or progression as a result of the stories moving chronologically. I enjoyed these but didn't find any of them particularly memorable. I also thought the house would hold more significance. It is the backdrop and is occasionally referenced but doesn't really loom as large in the tales as I would assume a collection centering it would be. 

Stars: 3