The River King

To truly experience Alice Hoffman's work, you need the ability to suspend all rational thought for a bit. Hoffman's tales are conjured with both a writer's voice and a magician's wand. She is never boring.In THE RIVER KING, Ms. Hoffman tells the story of a small town in Massachusetts...she divides the town into the haves and the have nots. An elite private school adds to the class distinctions.When one of Haddan School's students is found drowned in the troubled Haddan River, city and students alike are effected.Haddan School's own troubled past becomes part of Hoffman's tapestry. The fragrance of roses appears in the middle of winter. Fish appear out of nowhere. The dead boy's image shows up in photographs. Bees swarm in October. Mysterious illness strikes students. No one rests until the mystery is solved. THE RIVER KING is one of Hoffman's best efforts. It is not light, easy, summertime reading. It is to be savored and will linger with you long after you've finished. Like Hoffman's past work, some mysteries are solved. Some will never be.That's what it's like to read a good Alice Hoffman story.Enjoy!

Maybe it's my age and maybe it's Alice Hoffman, but I continue to be deeply moved by her stories as they stay with me long after I've read the last page, closed the book, logged its title into my book list and found a proper place for it on one of my shelves. When I read a book by Alice Hoffman I am transported into the world of which she writes. THE RIVER KING was no exception. I could smell the roses that grew on the grounds of the Haddan School, feel the pain of Gus and Carlin, of Betsy and Abel, of Helen Davis and her false love. When you read an Alice Hoffman novel you are never left behind. Her words invite you into the story and as you settle comfortably into place you are amazed and dismayed when you realize there are only a few pages left to read. THE RIVER KING is magical in a way only Alice Hoffman can create magic. Her ability to spin a tale of love and mystery and sadness and joy is unmatched.

The combination of mythic tone and down-to-earth characterizations make Alice Hoffman's fourteenth novel a beguiling read that lingers in the mind long after the last page is turned.Set in fictional Haddan, Mass., the story revolves around the divide between a snooty private boarding school and the town itself. The Haddan School was built on the banks of the muddy Haddan River in 1858, the year of a horrific storm which flooded the town and the new school worst of all so that: "To this day, frogs can be found in the plumbing; linens and clothes stored in closets have a distinctly weedy odor, as if each article had been washed in river water and never thoroughly dried."Each five-mile trek to the nearest public high school in "weather so cold the badgers kept to their dens" increased the locals' animosity toward the boarding school, "a small bump on the skin of ill will ready to rupture at the slightest contact." But over the years town and gown have reached an accommodation. The school gives money and the town stays out of school affairs.Into this atmosphere come two new students, poor but strikingly beautiful Carlin Leander, and quirky, brilliant misfit August Pierce. Long desperate to escape her rural Florida home, Carlin has gained admittance on a swimming scholarship and has high hopes that Haddan will be the start of her new and better life. August has no such illusions. For him, this is just the latest in a misery of schools, though he hopes to stick it out for his father's sake.But Carlin fits in no better than August who has been admitted to the moldiest and most exclusive of the dorms by dint of his on-paper accomplishments. While Carlin discovers that her clothes are impossible and her roommates don't even speak the same language, August's housemates band together against him. An unlikely duo, drawn together by despair, the two become best friends until Carlin, flattered, begins dating the most popular, most handsome boy on campus, August's chief enemy, a boy of easy charm and loathsomeness.Vaguely aware of the emotional maelstrom ever brewing among their students are new teacher Betsy Chase, who supervises Carlin's dorm, (St. Anne's, so called because a beautiful local girl, who married an esteemed headmaster, hung herself in its attic) and her fiancé, Eric Herman, an aloof, ambitious sort who supervises August's dorm.When a student drowns, the Haddan Police Department quickly accedes to the school's wishes and closes the case. Except for one detective, Abel Grey, whose brother committed suicide at about the same age and whose lonely life has been haunted and emotionally arid ever since. Investigating at the school, Abel meets Betsy and it's love at first sight, though Betsy remains committed to her wedding plans.As Abel's investigation gathers momentum, the various characters are forced to take sides. Their decisions and actions reveal inner cores of weakness or strength. The story moves toward a

Alice Hoffman has a command of the written word that is equaled by very few authors. Her exquisite prose employs all five senses, and when the reader opens one of her novels magic happens. Sights and smells subtlely drift from the pages; the sounds of a summer night and the taste of icy winter air, the caress of a breeze; all entice you to enter her world. As with her other novels, The River King allows the reader to see into the hearts and souls of her characters. Love is the thing that drives us and makes us human, Ms. Hoffman tells us. But be careful about whom and how you love, and about who loves you - while love defines us, it can also destroy us. Alice Hoffman's skills as a writer are at their finest in two of her earlier works, Turtle Moon and Practical Magic, but each of her novels, including The River King, are pleasures that a fiction lover should not miss. I would caution you to be careful when you enter her worlds - you may never want to leave.

If you have not read any of Alice Hoffman's books yet, I urge you to do so. This novel about the mystery surrounding a boarding school in Massachusetts is an excellent place to begin. When the Haddon School's headmaster marries a local girl, thus begins a history of sorrow that invades the school & carries on for many years, touching everyone in some way or another. As in her other books, life is never ordinary, and magic is everywhere. As usual, Ms. Hoffman writes with extraordinary talent and a touch of magic in her pen. This is the reason Alice Hoffman is my absolute favorite author. Please, do yourself a favor and buy this book.