Aug 03 2008
A Morning Changes A Marriage
At the beginning of Alice Hoffman’s Blue Diary, Ethan Ford has played hooky from work for the morning to lure his wife, Jorie, back to bed. The morning’s pleasure cools quickly with an unexpected knock at the seldom used front door:
“Jorie hears him open the door, and then she hears nothing. The silence is unnatural. It’s as if Jorie has been thrown headfirst into the cold embrace of the sea and water fills her ears. Rattled, she drops the coffee cup she was about to refill, but she doesn’t hear it break on the hardwood floor. She just leaves it there, in pieces, and hurries down the hall. She’s moving through water, drowning in green waves. There are some people who insist that every time one door closes, another door opens, but this isn’t always the case. There are doors that are meant to stay closed, ones that lead to rooms filled with sepents, rooms of regret, rooms that will blind you if you dare to raise your eye to the keyhole in all innocence, simply to see what’s inside.
“Jorie takes note of the way he’s standing at their own door, her husband, Ethan, whom she loves more than anything in this world. He’s so rigid, anyone would think he’s been shot. She glimpses the other men who have gathered on the porch, and as she recognizes them, local men one and all, she wants time to stop, then and there.”
Time, of course, does not stop. And Jorie will probably wish that there had been serpents on the other side of the door, something her husband could have stood and helped her battle. As it is, she will face what is ahead alone, and without any sort of map to guide her. With lovely prose, Hoffman weaves the story of a family unraveling–or maybe not–under very unusual and unexpected circumstances, and how the small, close-knit town in which they live responds to the situation. The perspective shifts, which I sometimes find distracting (or, on occasion, aggravating), but it’s handled pretty smoothly. Hoffman also evokes clear visual images that I found very engaging.
I discovered this book, as I do many, on my living room bookshelf, with no memory of having purchased it. Alice Hoffman’s name is familiar, but after searching out a number of titles on Amazon and reading reviews and synopses, I couldn’t find anything familiar. Either I heard about her and never followed up, or am, once again, a victim of my poor memory. I noted an Oprah Book Club Selection in there, but it got mixed reviews. We’ll see…
The book sounds very interesting I like the way you included it in your blog. I enjoyed reading your opinions about this book.