Second Nature

Author - Alice Hoffman ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Berkley Trade was reviewed on 29-Oct-2008.

Search ISBN:0425161633 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Second Nature Reference Book. Classifications : Hoffman, Alice ( H ) Authors, A-Z Literature & Fiction Subjects Books Contemporary Literature & Fiction Subjects Books General AAS Literature & Fiction Subjects Books Psychological & Suspense Thriller . Click the following link to view the cover of Second Nature.

Related topics: Hoffman, Alice. ( H ). Authors, A-Z. Subjects. Books. Contemporary. Subjects. Books. General AAS. Subjects.

1) Paperback Book Second Nature by Berkley Trade. This is not a deep read but I found it enjoyable and it kept my attention. There are a few different themes going on in the book, the main theme being Robin who takes a chance on the man found raised by wolves and takes him into her home. Lessons on human nature but not preachy. This is a good read.¤

2) Paperback Book Second Nature by Berkley Trade. I have been meaning to read another Alice Hoffman book since "Here on Earth". Finally, I´ve gotten around to it! And am glad that I did!

Second Nature is a unique story about a man who was basically raised by wolves. Although the story revolves more around his circumstances now that he has been discovered and his movement into mainstream society and his trying to find a way to learn what it means to be "human". Just as much, the story is about a small town and the people in it and each of their own love stories.

I´d definitely recommend this book, in fact I´m going to give this book to my mother in law to read. It was a nice easy, fast read. This author has a way of immediately pulling you into the story and the characters, so much so that you have a hard time putting the book down. I especially enjoy a unqiue story, since I´m an avid reader, and so far Alice Hoffman has not disappointed. I am already planning on reading Turtle Moon next!¤

3) Paperback Book Second Nature by Berkley Trade. Alice Hoffman is a master at taking an entirely bizarre and improbable situation and make it seem like something that could happen to anyone at anytime. She has a spare and yet fluid way of writing that is faintly magical and yet entirely believable. I have read most of her books but I think this is my favorite (this and "Turtle Moon"). What Hoffman does better than anyone else is create characters who are loaded with flaws and faults and yet are somehow amazingly lovable.

Stephen, the central character of this story, is a man who was raised by wolves. Don´t we all know someone like that? And yet, with her deft hand for counterbalancing toughness and vulnerability, Hoffman makes him seem like the guy we have all been waiting for. I´m not a fan of the popular genre of books that are identified as "romance" --- for me Hoffman is the consummate romantic. Her characters are utterly unique and entirely ordinary with that one curious little twist. Stephen, as designed by Hoffman, is the original "sexy beast". Read slow and savor.¤

4) Paperback Book Second Nature by Berkley Trade. A modern wild "child" tale of a man, Stephen, raised by wolves brought back into society by a gardener, Robin. They quickly fall in love as he adapts to life among humans. The story deals with the relationship between Stephen and Robin, her son Conner, her grandfather Old Dick (a crotchety old man), her brother (the psychologist originally asigned to his case) and his ex-wife, and Robin´s exhusband, an arrogant alpha male, Roy. The book is well-written, though often long and tedious about how he adapts to human life, and the human beings´ relationships juxtaposed with those of the wolf pack. While the book shows the difference between the "cultures" of the wilderness and civilization, it also highlights the similarities. Human beings have adapted cool logic and intellect and a complicated sense of morals in order to try to remove themselves from the "wilderness", but it becomes strickingly obvious that there isn´t much difference. Ironically, this is when Stephen--suspected of thoughtless crime--must leave human civilization. A thoughtful modern fairytale, but it rambles in an attempt to be mainstream. Grade: B+¤

5) Paperback Book Second Nature by Berkley Trade. SECOND NATURE is not your typical love story--which means, of course, that it´s very typical Alice Hoffman fare. The novel centers on Robin Moore, a divorcee with a teenage son and a failing landscaping business. Robin feels empty and dissatisfied with her life--until she impulsively decides to bring the "Wolf Man" home with her from the psychiatric hospital where her brother works.

The nurses call him the Wolf Man because he was raised by wolves, had been living with his pack since he was three years old and a plane carrying him and his parents crashed deep in the wilderness of northern Michigan. Years later, he´s discovered in the woods by two hunters, near death, his foot caught and mangled by a steel trap. When Robin sees him in the hospital, he awakens a yearning in her, and she takes him home with her, to the timeless island her own family colonized at the turn of the century.

The Wolf Man´s name is Stephen, and over the next three months, under Robin´s diligent tutelage, he begins speaking again, and even reading. Soon after, he and Robin begin a passionate affair, one that awakens both of them to a new level of awareness--and awakens Hoffman´s readers to a new awareness of human nature itself.

But then a little girl is found dead on the island´s shore, her throat neatly slashed, and when the community learns of Stephen´s true identity, all fingers point to him as the murderer. All at once, Stephen and Robin are forced to face the fact that the fairy tale they´re living in just can´t translate into the real world. Love, the most powerful of all human emotions, cannot conquer Robin´s fear or Stephen´s wild nature.

SECOND NATURE is not your everyday modern love story, but it definitely is a meditation on love in all its forms: love between the young and between the elderly, love that is all-consuming, passionate, tortured, breathless, animalistic, platonic, doomed from the start. Hoffman is the master of telling a magical story that her readers will still believe--in fact, we´ll eat up anything she says, just because she says it so beautifully. Her prose is so otherworldly, so beguiling and authentic, you just can´t help but be entranced. Her characters remain incredibly real even in their magic-laced world--but I´ve found that I don´t really read Hoffman´s books for the characters. I pick up her novels to learn something about myself--to learn what it really means to be human.

Reading a book by Alice Hoffman always requires suspending your disbelief. In SECOND NATURE, readers are required to do this quite extensively; we´re asked to believe that a man who´s lived with wolves since he was three somehow develops an advanced vocabulary and grasps adult concepts and etiquette in a matter of months. Completely unrealistic, right? Well, yes, but readers who are deterred by this are missing the point. Hoffman´s novel is about how we react when we´re in a relationship we know can never last; it´s about how we sometimes receive fulfillment from the most surprising of places.

While SECOND NATURE is not Hoffman´s best work, poignant insights into humanity and the author´s seductive, masterful prose make this dark, magical love story worth the read.¤

6) Paperback Book Second Nature by Berkley Trade. A New York Times bestseller, Second Nature tells the story of a suburban woman, Robin Moore, who discovers her own free spirit through a stranger she brings home to her perfectly ordered neighborhood. As Robin impulsively draws this beautiful, uncivilized man into her world-meanwhile coping with divorce and a troubled teenage son-she begins to question her wisdom and doubt her own heart, and ultimately she changes her ideas about love and humanity.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 26-Nov-2008, 04251616339780425161630, 850-330-990-000-620-850-8

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