It's just not fair...

Whenever one of my granddaughters says of something: "That's not fair!" I unerringly, reply, as gently as I can, "life isn't Fair...."

Better that they hear it from someone who loves them more than air than from the mean, bad, unfair world out there.

But somethings aren't 'fair'--like how well Alice Hoffman can write.

I thought I had read all her 20+ novels but she was the featured writer at Cheshire's library last week, with a dozen or so titles displayed and I casually picked up one called The River King and discovered when I started it that I hadn't read it before.

I don't think I could read two of Alice Hoffman's books in a row--they are just too lyrical and rich and buoyantly beautiful to long endure. But I have decided now to read one a week until I've devoured them all again. (I read 4 or 5 novels a week--hey, I'm retired!)

I had taken The River King to lunch before going to a movie. My lunch was gone and I kept reading, putting off "August, Osage County" to another day. I finished reading it sitting in my car in Stop and Shops parking lot before going in to get something for our dinner.

There are 5 amazing characters in the book: Able, a drop-dead handsome small town police officer with life-long commitment issues; Mrs. Davis, an elderly, bitter History teacher who finds forgiveness as sweet as Spring in the end; Betsy, a photographer who is engaged to a boring man; and Gus and Calin, two star-crossed 14 year olds. Each of them are so full-blown and complete that they constantly surprise the reader,  just as real people are surprising.

I won't tell you any more about The River King in case you want to read it. But be ready for intense sadness and heart-wringing grief and surprise and breath-stopping joy and not a little inexplicable magic.

She's just too good. And her books endure beyond those of the person I think of as my favorite writer, Kurt Vonnegut. Maybe Kurt will have to be #2 after I re-read the Hoffman treasures. I'll let you know.