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I had been thinking recently about my high school crush. I hesitate to call him more
than a crush, as love was a concept void of meaning at the time. I run into him once a
year --- usually at the Christmas Eve family service at the church in our hometown in
northern Wisconsin. Our conversations are friendly enough, though somewhat stilted. After
all, we've gone our separate ways. He has been studying engineering at a university in the
Midwest and I have been pursuing my studies in theology and now work in health care
consulting on the East Coast.
But what if we were thrown together for an extended period of time --- a week, a month, or
longer. Would any of that old high school spark rekindle? Or would our conversations
continue to be friendly, but limited? Or would we, perhaps, quickly discover we have
nothing at all in common, and simply go our separate ways though in closer proximity than
before? Alice Hoffman, author of twelve novels, including TURTLE MOON, FORTUNE'S DAUGHTER,
and PRACTICAL MAGIC, writes of just such an encounter in her most recent novel, HERE ON
EARTH.
March Murray returns to her hometown for the funeral of the housekeeper who raised her.
The novel opens with March and her teenage daughter, Gwen, driving from the airport,
through the rain, up the steep, unpaved road leading to her birthplace. During this trip,
Hoffman takes us into the thoughts of March and Gwen. March remembers the superstitions
and folk tales about the woods they are passing through. Gwen complains bitterly to
herself about how terribly unlucky she is to be stuck in this horrible place with her
mother, so far from her friends in the city in California which they left just hours ago
--- all for a funeral for a woman Gwen never knew.
This darkness and dreariness, this folk tale-ish beginning, sets the tone for Hoffman's
melancholy story of an old romance brought back to life. Regrets, hurts, and passion swarm
the pages of HERE ON EARTH as March and Hollis begin their relationship just where it had
ended some twenty years earlier.
Twenty years ago, March's father returned from his business trip in Boston with Hollis, a
young boy living on the streets of Boston --- no money, no family, and a criminal record.
Mr. Murray brought Hollis into the family as his own son, much to the delight of March,
then eight years old, eager to please this new potential playmate and much to the vexation
of Alan, Mr. Murray's adult son --- a young man who dropped out of college and who seems
to lack any motivation to succeed in life.
Upon the untimely death of Mr. Murray, Alan insists that Hollis pay off his debt to the
family (i.e. he is charged for his room and board from the day he walked into the house)
and Hollis is shuffled up to the attic room to live out the rest of his childhood days. By
now, however, March and Hollis are fast friends and a romantic relationship is budding.
Alan's rejection of Hollis draws March closer to her friend and the two make promises, as
young children do, to be together forever. For this method of bringing together
characters, Hoffman's novel has been compared to WUTHERING HEIGHTS. But the similarities
end here.
Once Hollis has paid off his debt to the family, which he accomplishes by working odd jobs
after school, he leaves the town, asking March to leave with him. March is unable to make
a decision in time, and Hollis goes away without her --- not once contacting March to let
her know where he had gone. Had March known it would be more than twenty years before she
saw him again, she may have chosen differently. March is not to see him again until after
the funeral of Judith Dale, the housekeeper who raised her. Hoffman's HERE ON EARTH is a
dark and mystical love story which is not to be missed. Fairy tale or nightmare? Read it
and judge for yourself.
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