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by Cara Hoffman

Cara_Hoffman Women's_Fiction English
  • ISBN: 1451617283
  • Category: Fiction
  • Author: Cara Hoffman
  • Subcategory: Women's Fiction
  • Other formats: azw doc mbr lrf
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (March 6, 2012)
  • Pages: 320 pages
  • FB2 size: 1608 kb
  • EPUB size: 1608 kb
  • Rating: 4.2
  • Votes: 589
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Only 9 left in stock (more on the way). In her fiction debut, former investigative reporter Cara Hoffman has written a tremendously affecting and intriguing-if not altogether satisfying-book about life in a small, rural New York town, and how violence causes countless ripples.

Here, she interviews Cara Hoffman, author of So Much Pretty, a novel that centers on the disappearance of a young woman from a rural New York community. Fairstein: As I read So Much Pretty, which is a stunning debut novel, I was reminded of The Lovely Bones

Here, she interviews Cara Hoffman, author of So Much Pretty, a novel that centers on the disappearance of a young woman from a rural New York community. Fairstein: As I read So Much Pretty, which is a stunning debut novel, I was reminded of The Lovely Bones. What do you think it is about our society that is so fascinated by the victimization of young women? Hoffman: I think we are fascinated by the victimization of women, especially young women, because that kind of violence is revelatory of who we are; it’s common and all-pervasive but treated as though it is very rare and shocking.

Book Description 'A man can only take so much pretty walking back and forth in front of hi.  . Cara Hoffman is the author of the critically acclaimed novels So Much Pretty, Be Safe I Love You, and now, Running. When nineteen-year-old Wendy White disappears, the small town of Haeden, New York, is shaken to its core.

So Much Pretty - Cara Hoffman. Prior to taking the job, I was writing for an independent in Cleveland, and I had a pretty good little scene going on. THEY ARE LOOKING for someone with blond or dark brown or black hair. I lived on Schiller Street, where there were still a lot of family duplexes and old houses and where the abandoned mills and meatpacking plants were being converted into studios or bright, high-ceilinged offices for start-ups that had moved into the neighborhood.

Cara Hoffman is a New York City-based writer. She is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, So Much Pretty (2011), Be Safe, I Love You (2014), and Running (2017). Her essays have been featured in the New York Times, the New York Times Book. Hoffman was a visiting writer at St. John's University and at Goddard College

So Much Pretty is a novel about family, community, and storytelling. A conversation with cara hoffman. You come from upstate New York yourself.

So Much Pretty is a novel about family, community, and storytelling. The Pipers are a family built on optimism and on a deep-rooted commitment to community. Claire and Gene have moved with their precocious, beguiling daughter, Alice, to Haeden, New York, for a fresh start and to give Alice the freedom and opportunity they have always wanted for themselves. How much of this story is autobiographical?

Be Safe I Love You: A Novel.

When she disappeared from her rural hometown, Wendy White was a sweet, family-oriented girl, a late bloomer who’d recently moved out on her own, with her first real boyfriend and a job waiting tables at the local tavern. It happens all the time-a woman goes missing, a family mourns, and the case remains unsolved. Be Safe I Love You: A Novel.

Could I fucking do this if she was awake? Dude, cut that shit out. Wait till my brother gets here. Maybe she’s playing possum. Shh. Fucking quit laughing. Fuck he coroner here in a minute. He can take her pulse. I can’t believe she doesn’t feel this shit. Would you just wait till my brother gets here? All right, all right. MoreLess Show More Show Less.

Cara Hoffman is the author of the critically acclaimed novel So Much Pretty. She teaches writing and literature at Bronx Community College and lives in New York City. Other books by Cara Hoffman at BookBrowse. Membership Advantages. Beyond the Book" backstories. Find books by time period, setting & theme.

9 quotes from Cara Hoffman: 'Sometimes she felt she had fallen asleep inside herself while she was wide awake working. Cara Hoffman, Be Safe I Love You: A Novel. ' 'A man can only take so much pretty walking back and forth in front of hi. He said pretty like he meant something else. and 'How disposable is a woman's life? How expected.

“So Much Pretty is a fearless first novel,” announced The New York Times Book Review, “for all the passion in this intense narrative, Hoffman writes with a restraint that makes poetry of pain.”Set in a rural community steeped in silence and denial, So Much Pretty explores all parents’ greatest fear, that their child will be hurt. But it also examines a second, equally troubling question: What if my child hurts someone else? The disappearance and murder of nineteen-year-old Wendy White is detailed through the eyes of journalist Stacy Flynn and a host of other richly drawn characters, each with their own secrets and convictions. After Wendy’s body is found, Flynn’s intense crusade to expose a killer draws the attention of a precocious local girl, Alice Piper, whose story intertwines with Wendy’s in a spellbinding and unexpected climax.
Reviews about So Much Pretty: A Novel (7):
Pumpit
In her fiction debut, former investigative reporter Cara Hoffman has written a tremendously affecting and intriguing--if not altogether satisfying--book about life in a small, rural New York town, and how violence causes countless ripples.

Stacy Flynn is an award-winning reporter who moves from Cleveland to rural Haeden, a small town about an hour outside NYC, in search of her next big story. The blue-collar town is dominated by a prosperous dairy, which is owned by a foreign company and run by a powerful family, and it causes a great deal of pollution and illness. But while Stacy thinks the environmental damage will be her mega-story, her focus changes when Wendy White, a 20-year-old waitress born and raised in Haeden, disappears one afternoon. Five months later, Wendy's body is found in a ditch just outside of town, yet no one wants to investigate what might have happened, as everyone (including the local police) insists her killer was a drifter. (As Stacy says, "who even uses the word 'drifter' anymore"?) Frustrated by her inability to solve the mystery of Wendy's disappearance and subsequent murder, she writes a powerful article about violence against women and how it often happens in secret, behind the walls and doors of small towns like Haeden. Stacy's words motivate precocious 15-year-old Alice Piper, a gifted student raised in the town but whose family is still considered "outsiders," to take matters into her own hands.

I found this book very affecting, almost eerie at times, and Hoffman's message about violence against women--and the subsequent actions taken in the story--absolutely threw me for a loop. She has created some amazingly complex characters, although some of the secondary characters are little more than clichés you've seen before. And for someone who reads as much as I do, it takes a lot to surprise me, and some of the plot development that gets related almost in passing came as a complete shock to me. All of that being said, I have two criticisms of So Much Pretty. First, I found the narrative structure, which jumps from narrator to narrator, piece of evidence to piece of evidence, and doesn't follow any concept of time, very confusing. To truly understand where the story was going, I often had to flip back and find out what year the main story was taking place. (This was harder on a Kindle.) My second criticism is that while Stacy's story about violence against women served as such a major catalyst for the plot, we never got to read it, so I felt a little cheated. But still, this story packs a powerful wallop, and I'd love to see this be made into a movie. Tremendously intriguing.
Tane
This book is terrifying and captivating and brilliant. I could not put it down. It made me hateful and angry and opened my eyes in a way that I cannot come back from. My entire understanding of myself and the world changed with this read. It is not for the faint of heart. If you are a feminist or believe in women or at the very least have any concept of human decency this will affect you. It affected me. I finished the book, looked up, and whole heartedly felt baffled by the fact that the world around me had not changed when I had changed so much. I highly recommend. It is a very unique look at very heavy subject matter.
Muniath
This book will hit you hard. The story is chilling and unfortunately more true to life than any of us would like. The writing is beautiful, but most importantly, this book will make you think differently about important things. Like a lot of books, it's about families and communities and gender and class, but absolutely avoids cliche in each of these areas. Characters are not processed through the lens of familiar folks from TV or other fiction, they seem like real, complicated people. Scenes don't follow expected patterns, which is jarring but in afterthought realistic. I can't recommend this book enough.
Ubrise
Hoffman's book, "So Much Pretty" provides a very good description of rural community life while depicting some of the more negative aspects of rural values and the difficulties of being a new resident - read outsider (which can mean living in a dual area less than 20 years or a whole lifetime). Additionally, the book is suspenseful and has a great mystery that provides a satisfying ending, certainly from a woman's perspective.
Quttaro
Unlike other novels dealing with the the violent disappearance of a female protagonist, So Much Pretty shifts the conceptual focus from the more common victim/perpetrator dichotomy to draw attention to a far more insidious and disturbing cycle of violence that underlies contemporary existence. From the corporate farm to the barroom misogynist to the adolescent school shooter, Hoffman illustrates, in devastatingly eloquent prose, how violence only begets more violence in a culture defined by inequality and injustice. This systemic view coupled with Hoffman's sensitivity to human insensitivity sets this novel apart from others of its genre by a long shot.

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