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Title: Capriciousness, not justice
Review: Alice Hoffman is an incredible writer. Reading her prose is like snacking on strawberry shortcake. Each bite is rich, sweet, packed with unbelievable taste. I marvel at her abilities...However, this book has such a bleak point of view. It deals with incredibly weighty issues of sin, forgiveness, revenge, punishment...and it does it without redemption, forgivness, resurrection or even justice. There is an air of capriciousness about Hoffman's universe. The main couple in this book are "punished" because they love each other too much, apparently. It's like a Greek tragedy without the fatal flaw. One keeps reading, pulled in by the skill of the author, hoping vainly that something good will come of this tragedy.Some will protest that this is just like Real Life, and to some extent it is. However, most of us read fiction to escape Real Life, not to reaffirm it. We want stories that lift us from the muck and mire of the everyday...not plunge us neck deep into it.
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