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The novelist chooses classic works of fiction to inspire the writer within.
In novels like Practical Magic and The Red Garden, Alice Hoffman transforms the lives of her characters with a literary sorcery all her own. Her new novel, The Dovekeepers, follows four young women who join an army of Jews fighting Roman rule in the ancient Judean desert. This week, Hoffman offers us a peek at her bookshelf, choosing three favorites that include the inspiration for her 1998 novel Here on Earth.
By Emily Brontë
"The greatest psychological novel ever written, a book that changes every time you read it, as brutal and raw as it is mystical. Wuthering Heights is a ghost story, a history, a mystery, a genre-bending book of such beauty it takes your breath away. This astounding novel deals with love and death, time and forgiveness and gives us the most compelling anti-hero in all literature in the character of Heathcliff. There is no other love story that can compare to the one shared by headstrong Cathy and lost, doomed Heathcliff. If I were stranded on a desert island and had only one book with me, I would want it to be Emily Brontë's masterpiece."
Something Wicked This Way Comes
By Ray Bradbury
"Literary icon Ray Bradbury's chilling, suspenseful story of a dark carnival that comes to an all-American town is the original night circus. Two boys, best friends Will Hallowell and Jim Nightshade, must fight evil in the form of Mr. Dark, the ringmaster, in order to protect their town and families. Everything is at stake. This is a world of illustrated men, mysterious witches, and sideshows, but ultimately the novel is about the power of love. Nostalgic, scary, heartwarming, this book is a true original that has influenced so many current writers, including me!"
By Grace Paley
"One of the greatest short story writers, Grace Paley gives us her New York world, a great gift for one and all. These are truthful, beautiful tales of small lives and big hearts, of women who believe in grass-roots politics and in the people they love. Paley's characters are those who have been uprooted, the old, the poor, the up-and-coming, the immigrant -- in short, the inhabitants of the city of New York. Paley writes in the rhythm of Yiddish, Russian, and New Yorkese, and she gets the map of the human heart exactly right in every single story."
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With dates announced for his upcoming Old Ideas concert tour, we celebrate the inimitable Leonard Cohen: bard, survivor, legend. His most recent album is a return to form for the balladeer, exploring signature themes of lust and longing, spirituality and struggle, all overlaid with a droll sense of humor as familiar as Cohen's prophetic voice.
When Jack Luxton hears that his estranged brother has been killed in combat, long-buried memories begin to well up like groundwater, and difficult choices Jack thought he reconciled himself to years ago turn out to be close at hand. Man Booker Prize-winner Graham Swift's novel plumbs timeless themes of regret, renewal, and the bonds of love.
The opening story in Matthew Battles's electric collection, "The Dogs in the Trees", documents the inexplicable appearance of arboreal canines. Further gorgeous fantastika follows, producing a volume sure to draw comparisons to Borges and George Saunders.
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