Local Girls

by Alice Hoffman | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0701169109 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Molyneux of Oxford, Oxfordshire United Kingdom on 1/13/2006
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5 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Molyneux from Oxford, Oxfordshire United Kingdom on Friday, January 13, 2006
Amazon.co.uk Review
More than a collection of short stories, yet not quite a novel, Local Girls occupies an undefined territory between these two forms. The local girls in question are Gretel Samuelson, her best friend, Jill, her mother, Franny, and Franny's cousin Margot--four characters who weave in and out of each of the 15 related stories that chronicle the rocky years of Gretel's adolescence. That hers will be a tough row to hoe is immediately apparent in the first story, "Dear Diary", in which Alice Hoffman introduces the Samuelson family just as they are being swallowed up by the fissures that have cracked them apart. "Long before the plane touched down in Miami we could hear our parents arguing," Gretel tells us of a family vacation to Florida; "and at the hotel room they locked themselves in their room. If you ask me, working so hard at being married can backfire." It is the end of the marriage that has lasting ramifications, however, as we discover in later stories: Gretel's brilliant older brother, Jason, becomes a drug addict; their mother must battle cancer alone; and Gretel becomes involved in a destructive relationship with a drug dealer. All pretty depressing plot points, to be sure, yet Hoffman's luminous prose combined with Gretel's tart and funny perspective keeps the reader eagerly turning the pages until the very end.

In fact, Gretel and her family and friends are so compelling, so endearing, that the reader wishes Hoffman had chosen to give the Samuelsons a novel instead of this series of stories. In reading about Jason's descent from A student with an acceptance letter from Harvard to working in the produce section at the local supermarket and shooting heroin, for example, one can't help but feel that a lot of his motivations happen between stories; and Gretel's difficult relationship (or lack thereof) with her father and new stepmother functions mainly as a plot device, leaving the reader wanting so much more. And yet, if one is to judge the success of a book by the reader's reluctance to be done with it, then Local Girls is successful, for Hoffman has created a world so enticing that one is willing to overlook the minor flaws. At the end of the title story, as the now-grown Gretel and Jill discuss two teenage girls in the neighbourhood who recently committed suicide, Jill remarks: "They should have just waited. That's all they had to do. They would have grown up and everything would have been all right." The same might be said of reading

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Journal Entry 3 by Ali4189 from Oxford, Oxfordshire United Kingdom on Saturday, January 14, 2006
BC MEET

Journal Entry 4 by Ali4189 at Steventon, Oxfordshire United Kingdom on Friday, January 30, 2009

Released 15 yrs ago (1/31/2009 UTC) at Steventon, Oxfordshire United Kingdom

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Never read,

Journal Entry 5 by teachie from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire United Kingdom on Saturday, January 31, 2009
I picked this up at the Cherry Tree meet today, however I already have a copy (with a different cover) so shall release it.

Journal Entry 6 by teachie from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, June 3, 2009
I am putting this into the European VBB.

Journal Entry 7 by teachie at Edinburgh Book Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom on Monday, August 14, 2017

Released 6 yrs ago (8/19/2017 UTC) at Edinburgh Book Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom

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Releasing this at the mini meet up on Saturday.

Journal Entry 8 by Triggerfish at Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom on Sunday, August 20, 2017

Caught at Bookcrossing mini meet up, thanks.


Journal Entry 9 by Triggerfish at Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom on Sunday, December 9, 2018
This poor book has been on the go for 12 years without a rating so probably not read!
Well, I read it. Hoffman is a good writer but I found this story to be rather bleak overall.

Journal Entry 10 by Triggerfish at Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom on Sunday, December 9, 2018

Released 5 yrs ago (12/9/2018 UTC) at Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom

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Welcome to Bookcrossing!
Please consider making a journal entry to say that you have the book, anonymously if you wish.
(If you decide to release this book back into the wild, please be aware that charity shops will probably bin it, as it is “defaced”.)
I hope that you enjoy the book.

Journal Entry 11 by wingrainbow3wing at Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom on Sunday, December 9, 2018
Triggerfish thanks for this snapped it up thinking Alice Hoffman fab writer, nice to say HI however briefly! Have a cosy & calm or perhaps a wild & wilful, Christmas, or maybe even a combo of both? Whatever suits!

LOCAL GIRLS by ALICE HOFFMAN (1999) | ISBN: 0-7011-6910-9 / 978-0-7011-6910-7 (UK PB) | Publisher: Chatto & Windus

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