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Loading... The River Kingpor Alice Hoffman
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adorará Adira ao LibraryThing para descobrir se gostará deste livro. Not as enjoyable as others I have read from Hoffman. An average read. (  ) dianestm | Jul 26, 2009 |  Class structure and separation were very clear concepts to the people of Haddan, Massachusetts. The people on the West side of town were there to serve and cater to the people on the East side, and even they weren't "fine" enough to have their children attend the exclusive prep school whose campus was on the far edge of town by the river. The faculty and students at the Haddan School didn't belong in town and the townsfolk certainly didn't belong on campus. But one year, two students arrived at Haddan School who probably didn't really belong anyplace. Carlin Leander was a daughter of a convenience store cashier from Florida, there on a swimming scholarship, and Augustus Smith was an awkward boy with long, greasy hair and a bad attitude from New York who was there as the last best hope of his exasperated parents. Yet, even as the two misfits drew close to each other, more people began stepping around barriers that had held Haddan together for decades, causing class collisions that sent quiet little shockwaves through the populace. And when the body of a student at Haddan School is found floating face down in the river, a local policeman with a troubled past walks into that enclosed world of academia and upsets it completely. Like all of Hoffman's books, this one is filled with lyrical magic and several divergent plotlines, but the story unfolds layer by layer, and the wisps of the tale, past intermingling with present, reality blending with magic, come together in a way only possible by a master storyteller. A terrific story lyrically told. (  ) madamejeanie | Jul 16, 2009 | About a prep high school in a small town. School literally was falling in to the river. Very sad but a good read. janetjuggler | Dec 18, 2008 | I didn't like this as much as others of hers that I have read. Seemed to take a long time to get where it was going (  ) dudes22 | Aug 12, 2008 | Not suprised to say that I enjoyed another Alice Hoffman book. This novel kept me turning the pages. The character's development moved the story along where lack of action could have slowed the pace. Each character had their own burden to carry and contribute to the motivations that led to the misfortunes suffered by each. In a real way, as in life, each character wrote their own part, told their own story, and learned from each other's suffering, that we are all connected and cannot just go about our own life without taking into account our effect on others. (  )2  mmignano11 | Jul 27, 2008 |  sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha
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A cogent warning indeed, for as in all of Hoffman's novels, the question of whom one chooses to love and who loves in return is the crux of the matter. The River King revolves around triangles. First there is Betsy Chase, a young photography teacher at the Haddan School who has gotten herself engaged--almost accidentally--to a fellow faculty member, even as she is inexorably drawn to Abel Grey, a town policeman. Then there are Carlin Leander, a scholarship student, and her best friend, Gus Pierce. While Carlin is able to fit in, even attracting the interest of the most popular boy on campus, Gus is a defiant outcast, a tall skinny kid in a long black overcoat "who viewed his own life as a prison sentence and experienced his existence much as a condemned man might." Carlin's romance with the charismatic, cruel Harry McKenna creates a rupture between her and Gus, and fuels a mean-spirited practical joke with horrific consequences. In the aftermath of tragedy, each character's heart, conscience, and courage is tested in unexpected ways.
Hoffman spins her web of love and heartbreak and transcendence with a sure hand, and in the process creates characters so palpably human in all their petty flaws and small instances of heroism that one almost expects them to step out of the book and into the room. Indeed, if there is a flaw in The River King, it is that Alice Hoffman doesn't always trust the magic inherent in her characters, relying a little too heavily at times on somewhat precious invocations of the otherworldly. But this is a minor defect in an otherwise satisfying novel, one that will keep the reader spellbound by its emotional complexity and compelling story. --Alix Wilber
(retirado da Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:09 -0400)
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