Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman

Just finished this novel early this morning while rain beat against the window. I enjoyed it as I've enjoyed other Hoffman novels. She tells a good story, creates interesting characters you can care about. Susannah Hunnewell of The New York Times Book section gives a concise description that fits many of Hoffman's stories so well when she says they are about " the intersection of wounded people who seek to learn where and how to give their love" ( NYTimes, April 26, 1992).

In Turtle Moon you get transported to hot, muggy, buggy, humid, Verity, FL., a small town which has perhaps more than its fair share of single mothers who have escaped divorced husbands and started new lives. Hoffman draws our attention to a 12-year-old boy disturbed over his parents' divorce and loss of the world he knew. He doesn't know how to cope so acts out and becomes "the baddest boy in Verity." His mother, Lucy, not only has her bad boy son to contend with but becomes mixed up with the town-bad-boy turned tracker-for-the-police-department, Julian. The three meet and become involved because of a violent crime that involves another single mother who lives in the same complex as Lucy and her son. Both males are in the dark, suffering, and Lucy, whose name means light, becomes a link between them.

I loved the down-to-earth way Hoffman describes the boy's thoughts and actions. It's believeable and his pain is so clear you can recall your own old wounds freshly. As Hunnewell points out, the soul and its struggles are "part of the action" in the novel. So too is a sense of magic, as Hunnewell called it, or mysticism, that inhabits all of Hoffman's worlds or, I should say, those I've read about.

The core of the story had me, no doubt about it, but then Hoffman throws in "The Angel" - the chained to the spot where he died spirit of Julian's cousin. To some extent that was fine - as far as explaining Julian's search for forgiveness, for light. But when she has The Angel fall in love with a teenage girl who is a minor character, I wanted to stop and ask where she was going with this. As it turned out, I couldn't see the need for it in the end. But don't let that deter you from reading the novel. It's a good read; a fine look at human nature. Just don't expect a neat and tidy happy ending of the happily-ever-after type because that isn't Hoffman's way nor the way of the world.

Find Turtle Moon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Turtle-Moon-Alice-Hoffman/dp/0425161285/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208835005&sr=8-2