title: Here on Earth
author: Alice Hoffman
genre: fiction
published: 1997
source: purchased copy
pages: 309
first line: Tonight, the hay in the fields is already brittle with frost, especially to the west of Fox Hill, where the pastures shine like stars.
rated: 3 1/2 out of 4
Here on Earth is one of those books that I enjoyed reading but disliked most of the characters within the story. It is also reminiscent of Bronte's Wuthering Heights.
March Murray returns to her hometown in New England with her fifteen year old daughter Gwen. Her childhood housekeeper and nanny Judith, has passed away and March comes back to her hometown for the funeral and to get Judith's affairs in order.
March's scientist husband Richard, who is from the same hometown, stays behind in California unable to come on the trip due to his work.
When she arrives at her childhood home, old memories resurface and March begins to think about her first love, Hollis. She wonders if she will see him again now that she is back in town.
As a child, Hollis was rescued by March's father and brought to live with her family. Hollis was destitute and March's family became his own. However, Hollis was always withdrawn and sullen, only getting along with March and her father and becoming enemies with March's bother, Alan.
As time passes, Hollis and March fall in love.
Jealously and resentment mostly on Hollis' part, broke the two up when March was just eighteen and Hollis ended up leaving town with no word on his whereabouts. He left March depressed and heartbroken, often staring out her bedroom window in hopes of seeing Hollis return. The two never forgot each other. Three years later, Hollis returns to town a wealthy man, but March has already married Richard and moved to California. Hollis winds up marrying Richard's sister.
Does it remind you of Wuthering Heights yet?
Now that March is back in town she is desperate to see Hollis. And when she does, old flames reignite and the two are once again inseperable.
Like I said I enjoyed reading Here on Earth. It's got an interesting storyline, and Hoffman's writing is lyrical as usual. The sleepy town in New England almost has a haunting air about it, especially when the author describes the woods and the towns history.
A person could get lost up here. After enough wrong turns he might find himself in the Marshes, and once he was there, a man could wander forever among the minnows and the reeds, his soul struggling to find its way long after his bones had been discovered and buried on the crest of the hill, where the wild blueberries grow.
On the other hand, I couldn't help but be judgemental with the characters choices and thought processes. Hollis, modeled after Heathcliff, was too selfish and sulky for my taste, plus a tad disturbed. He was also very 'full of himself', always expecting March to come looking for him.
There's a part in the story where a very pregnant March calls Hollis on the phone and he insists she leave California and her husband to come back to him. When she tells him she can't he replies,
"If you loved me, you'd do it". People who utter those words need to be smacked. So as soon Hollis said that, he got under my skin.
Another thing is the infidelity within the storyline. The book mostly centers around March's being unfaithful to her husband. I kept wondering if she had completely lost her mind. At one point she even admits that all she cares about is Hollis and nothing else, not even her family. I wonder why Hoffman set out to create these unlikeable main characters? She obviously modeled these people after Catherine and Heathcliff, but when I read Wuthering Heights I didn't dislike them. March and Hollis, on the other hand...
I do think this book would make a great book club selection, there's plenty to discuss within the storyline.
So as I said, I couldn't help but be judgemental with these characters, which in turn made it impossible for me to connect with them while reading.
But then again, love can be screwed up, and people make bad choices, but life goes on. Nothing is black and white. This is what this story was about for me. These two selfish people loved each other for most of their lives, no matter how screwed up that was, they were forever connected. As self-centered as they were, I kept thinking they deserved each other.
I felt bad for March's daughter Gwen who is witness to her mother's infidelity. She watches helplessly as her family is being torn apart by March's poor choices. She plays a central part in the story and I was hoping things would turn out alright for her in the end.
I also felt bad for March's husband Richard, who she simply brushes off like yesterday's news.
One other thing I should mention is that Hoffman leaves the ending open. The reader can come up with their own conclusions.
In the midst of all these screwed up relationships and unlikeable characters, Hoffman's writing had me glued to the page. Here are a few of my favorite tidbits.
March doesn't cry now; she's far too busy for anything like that. Still, there are mornings when she wakes with tears in her eyes. That's when she knows she's been dreaming about him. And although she never remembers her dreams, there's always the scent of grass on her pillow, as if the past were something that could come back to you, if you only wished hard enough, if you were brave enough to call out his name.
p. 30
It is sometimes possible to look at a person and see inside, although this happens so rarely it's always a shock, like a form of electricity traveling from one soul to another. It can only be glimpsed for an instant, but in that instant you can see the core of a person...
p.125
Unfinished business always comes back to haunt you, and a man who swears he'll love you forever isn't finished with you until he's done.
p. 132
There is no measuring love, other than all or nothing or that space in between. This is all, she sees that in him. This is more than everything. Could she live without this, what he's offering to her? Could she turn away and settle for anything less?
p. 164
Here on Earth was an Oprah's Book Club selection in 1998. I'd also like to mention there is explicit language and a few sex scenes in the book, not that it was overly done, but I know some readers would like to know if it's in there. It is.
And on a final note, I'm re-reading Wuthering Heights as we speak. It was a favorite of mine when I first read it years ago, I wonder how I'll feel about it the second time around.
And if you add in another factor: that the Republicans have repudiated all minorities, then you may have a very solid opposition that will take them to the cleaners come next election; particularly if they continue to obstruct and delay legislation in the next two years as they have done in the last two.
