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Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman Recommendation: ••••
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Unlocked Alice Hoffman’s new novel, Blue Diary, is delightful on so many levels. Her language evokes mood, time and place with precision and care. Readers thrive inside the atmosphere she creates. Her characters capture human nature and behave in ways that resonate with readers. When faced with the unthinkable, protagonist Jorie Ford, takes one numb step at a time, trying to make sense out what has changed in her life. Here’s an excerpt: “They shake hands when they reach the Black Horse Hotel. Under different circumstances they might have become friends, or perhaps they would have passed each other by entirely; now they will also have this walk they shared, under the blue sky, up to the second hill, where Rachel Morris is buried. When Jorie goes to her room in the hotel, she takes off her clothes and lies on the bed between the clean sheets. At last, she can cry in peace. The room is glassy with heat, and by the time Jorie is done weeping, her face is splotchy, her eyes red. She used to cry over foolish things, movies and books, stubbed toes, stories of children rescued by their mothers, suddenly strong beyond human limitations in the face of danger. Now she cries for herself, and she’s shocked by how much salt water there is contained within her. She could collect buckets of it, wash her clothes in it, boil a sour teary tea that could bring grief to the drinker with a single sip. She goes into the bathroom, naked, then steps into the shower and runs cold water over herself, streams off it hitting her hot, dusty skin, grateful that the racket of the faucet stops her from thinking, at least for now. Some things, however, are true, no matter how hard you might try to block them out, and a lie is always a lie, no matter how prettily told. Jorie thinks about Rachel Morris’s bedroom; some doors, once they’re opened, can never be closed again, just as some trust, once it’s been lost, can never be won back. The past thirteen years feel less real to Jorie than do the last twenty-four hours. She sleeps with dreams of blackbirds and rose mallows, and when she wakes, she notices that her pillow is faintly red, as though she’s been crying blood and not tears. It’s the dust that collected on her skin, granules that remain even though she’s washed carefully.” (p. 214-5) Emotions are unlocked; relationships are changed; things will never again be the same. It was sad to close the last page of this book and have to wait for Alice Hoffman to write again. I highly recommend her new novel, Blue Diary. Steve Hopkins, September 5, 2001
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