Something To Think About

What do you do when your life is turned upside down and inside out? How do you go on when your world is shattered? These questions are at the heart of "Blue Diary", the latest novel by Alice Hoffman.

"Blue Diary" centers around Jorie Ford, a woman living a life of quiet peace and beauty in a small Massachusetts town. Jorie has a beautiful home and a generous garden that produces delicious vegetables. She has a gentle, loving son named Collie. And most of all, she has a handsome, adoring husband named Ethan, who still makes her stomach flutter after 13 years of marriage. When she contemplates the many ways in which she has been blessed, Jorie thinks she must be the luckiest woman in the entire world. Jorie's world is shattered, however, when Ethan is arrested for a brutal murder that has remained unsolved for 15 years. As the truth of Ethan's past is revealed, Jorie is forced to decide how she will carry on in a world turned upside down.

What makes this book special, in my opinion, is that Jorie is not the only person trying to deal with a devastating series of events. Several other characters also struggle with life-shattering events, and we see the many ways in which people respond to tragedy. What could have been just a book about a woman in crisis becomes instead a book about what it means to be human.

Alice Hoffman is a wonderful writer. Her prose is so beautiful it makes me think of poetry, and yet it isn't fluffy or overblown. Her characters are very realistic and are carefully developed so they always seem like real people and not cardboard cut-outs or cliches. Her pacing may seem slow to some readers, but I think the story unfolds at just the right pace, giving the reader time to think about each new development.