Great book to curl up with. I get bored easily and this kept my interest.

very trite, poorly written (sophomoric writing style with cliche flair) and weak plot that was fairly predictable. extremely disappointing and can't believe i wasted my time reading this.

This is an awful book. I don't read Oprah's Book Club books anymore because of this travesty. If you want a decent book based on Wuthering Heights, go read Wuthering Heights.

I just feel that this book has WAY too many stars and I want to do my part to educate the public. As an avid, and well-seasoned reader, I must say that I usually manage to force my way through every book I start. Generally I can find something to hang on to, some reason to go on - even when there are elements I do not like.
However, I was not even able to make it halfway through this book. I felt terrible not finishing a book, but I realized that I was torturing myself for no apparant reason other than for the sake of thoroughness. It's really pretty horrible - as has been repeatedly mentioned (character development, dialogue, plot...UGH.) but this MAY just be the case for those of us who prefer to read LITERATURE. If you don't understand what I mean by that then go ahead and read the book you may like it, however if you do understand the difference, you will probably find the writing this book as laughable as I did - so don't waste your time.

Is it just me? I am an avid reader, I know enough to give a book a really good shot before I flip it closed and say,"I cant take it anymore" Im sorry, this book is in my opinion one of the worst books I have ever "attempted" to read. There is no "draw" nothing that keeps you interested, nothing to bring you back to the book to see what happens next. This book is painfully slow, it drolls on and on about nothing. The relationships are sketchy, the charachters are bland and the reference to animal abuse is offensive. I just dont get it. I think this is one of the worst books I have ever read.

I have read very few books, if any, that have characters as complicated as Hoffman's in "Here on Earth." They are many-layered and unravel throughout the story like an onion's skin peels off. How I felt about the characters March and Hollis in the beginning of the story was quite different than how I viewed them at the end. It is not often that this happens, in my opinion. I could not put the book down, and when I did, it was unwillingly. I highly recommend it! You may think differently about domestic abuse after you read it. This book helps you to see how a woman can become enmeshed in a violent and unhealthy relationship, without quite realizing it.

This book has many of the themes in WH, the obsession, the secondary love story, the familial tie that is hinted at in WH, etc...But Heathcliff of WH while horrible in the second half of the book to most of the females he is involved with- Would never have hit Catherine- cheated on her ( I know, I know, what about Isabella?) this is different in this book. If fact Heathcliff declares how much he loves Catherine by saying, that he would relish killing Linton and Hindly but b/c Catherine loves them, he will not-

The supposed obsessive love in this book is not love at all- it is more along the lines of a true sociopath that is prone to domestic violence. I think in his own twisted sense he felt like he loved March, but NOT LIKE HEATHCLIFF LOVED CATHERINE. So- these two are similar, but if you want quality- stick w/ WH.

Hoffman's book is a great introduction to her writing style.

I enjoyed this book more than I originally thought.

The story takes a twist, which I did enjoy.

Do yourself a favor: read the beautifully written classic "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte instead of "Here On Earth". The first is a work of genius; the second is a BLATANT rip off without the talent !! There is a slight difference in plot,a "what if" question one which every "Wuthering Heights" fan probably wondered, but that's it. Note the dedication page : "To E.B." I think Ms. Hoffman should have paid a TRUE homage to EMILY BRONTE , and the original story WUTHERING HEIGHTS. How can you basically take someone else's idea and not give them proper credit or homage????

I've read many of Ophra books and generally you cannot go wrong, but this was a frustrating book in a lot of ways. It begins by talking about how scary a certain part of the town is. Maybe it's going to be a ghost story. Then it talks about a family, not exactly happy where the daughter, who becomes the main character doesn't particularly like her friends, hates her brother and adores her lawyer father. Maybe it is going to be a coming of age story. It goes on where Dad brings home a juvenile delinquent who sculks about but eventually begins sleeping with the daughter. The brother and his bully friends stalk the jd, tie him to a tree, beat and abandom him. Maybe it's a story about hard life and hate crimes. That is getting closer. The two young lovers, the daughter and the young boy become obsessed with each other and then the dad dies leaving an old will which gives the evil son everything. (I guess the author didn't realize that a testator cannot disinherit by fiat, but that's another story.) The brother sends the young boy to live in the attic, where he and the sister are having plenty of sex and becoming more obsessed than before. The boy leaves and makes a ton of money in various illegal ways, but doesn't stay in touch. The girl waits for him by her window for several years before marrying and moving to California. One of the characters, who I think isn't given a large enough role to care about her, dies and the young girl, who by now is a woman with a teen age daughter, returns to the spooky town. The young boy, who has grown older and bitter has returned to the town to buy up most of the property. He marries, beats and maybe or maybe not, kills his wife. The old girlfriend and he meet once again and renew their obsessive relationship. The story evolves into a stupid woman being brutalized by a psychopathic man. The brother becomes the town's drunken failure. Most of the characters are despicable but they all get their comeuppance. Pretty predictable.

I realize that this is an oversimplication, but the book really doesn't deserve more.

I was stuck with this audiotape on a long trip, otherwise I would not have bothered to finish it. Dull plot, flat characters, and uninspired prose characterize this book. Annoying writing, too, like continuously calling one character "The Coward" instead of by his name. As an exploration of abuse and doomed love, this falls way, way short.

I found this book to be very boring. The main characters were not very interesting with the exception of the daughter. I just never really felt very invested in the plot. It was a very slow and forgettable read for me. It was also a bit too simple for my tastes, it belongs in the young adult genre.

.........a romance novel, I would not have picked up this book. However, as romance novels go, this wasn't too awful. Character development sucks, I think we're supposed to guess at the attitude/mood of the characters when they speak, dialog is rare though. But still, Hoffman does have a nice quality in her sentence structure.

I remain surprised at the choices the Winfrey woman makes for her book club. I can see Here on Earth as a read for sad, lonely, depressed teenagers. Maybe. I wonder if even teens would enjoy it.

I read this book in one day because I just couldn't stop reading. It's been a few years since I read Wuthering Heights, but it was very similar, except I liked the ending better. Either way, it caused me to pull my dusty copy of Wuthering Heights off the shelf to reread. The book is definitely sober, but touching and real.

I hated the main character in this book. Other reviewers seemed to hate the book because of her but I think it was an accurate portrayal of a woman who gets so caught up in an awful relationship. She made me so angry and there were so many things I wish I could say to her, and i like that this book was able to bring out some of those emotions. The subplots in the book also describe other situations in which love is not a beautiful fantasy that many women are waiting for and i enjoyed reading how love could be really painful here on earth.

What a waste of time this was. Probably a waste of talent on her part too. I seem to remember her as a good writer. I would never have finished this book if I didn't think I needed it for my thesis. The characters were totally un-likable and the situations they let themselves in for were ridiculous. If I knew anyone like them I sure wouldn't have anything to do with them - which leaves very little reason for reading the book.

This is the first Alice Hoffman novel that I read and I enjoyed her writing style. The book though depressing was never dull. It is a story of how destructive love can be. A what is suppose to be an intelligent women leaves her husband to get involved with her childhood sweetheart who ends up being a bitter, jealous and abusive man but she is still in love with the boy he once was and stays with him. This is all done in front of her teenage daughter who already has issues and who also becomes tormented mentally and physically. In addition, she falls in love with her first cousin and the mother is so self involved that she accepts the relationship. Just a sad and sick story.

My friend recommended this book to me and it came at a perfect time when I was looking for something to get totally engrossed in. Warning: Do not pick this up if you do not have time to finish it! It's a page turner.

March Murray returns to her hometown in MA after being away for 19 years. She knows that she will have to face her past and most importantly her first (and only) "love" and she's not sure what will unfold. The book takes a turn towards the end. Great character description - you'll feel what the characters are feeling.

The book is gripping and I had a hard time putting it down. It is definitly not one to read if you are looking for an uplifting story. Alice Hoffman writes and incredibly dark story that might depress the happiest person. The relationship between March and Hollis is so all consuming that neither can see how it has over shadowed and destroyed their lives. March infuriated me when she allowed Hollis to treat her the way he did but even more so when he threatened her daughter... how could any mother ever subject her child to the horrors she did? Then stand by and make excuses? Hoffman makes you want to reach into the story and shake her awake... I hated Hollis yet Alice Hoffman has a great talent in keeping you reading even when disgusted with the caracters actions. I was thankful that Gwen grew in the story and was able to free herself (and saddened that she was smarter than her weakened and abused mother. March makes you feel sorry for her blind stupidity at times.
The other characters in the book are very interesting and make you wonder about the choices people make in life-for right or wrong. Louise Justice is a prime example of a woman who makes a choice to stand by her husband because she loves him even though most would not be able to abide his actions. Yet, both characters are still likeable and you can understand their feelings.
The ending leaves you wondering what will become of them and in a way might offer a glimmer of hope that rights can be wronged, stupidity learned from, betrayal eventually forgiven,and love is not always what it seems because what we think we want is not always what is best for us...

If it were not for Alice Hoffman's talent I would have a hard time recommending this book. Having read it right after Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman I would probably never read anything else by her...yet I am intrigued & will read something else by her.

I couldn't put this book down. I was completely entranced by the story and how some of the charecters could live their lives in such a way. The charecters seemed real in the beginning, but the way in which many of their personalities literally spiraled out of control was intriguing, but a little unrealistic. There is no definitive ending and the reader is left with so many questions as to how these people that they have come to know and develop so many emotions for will end up.

Basically, I loved the fastasy-like story line but hated how I was left wondering about the conclusion.

Ughh! I was so frustrated with the main character of March in this book that it made it hard to enjoy anything else about it. She was whiny and selfish and abandons all those who truly care about her. It was impossible to have any patience or sympathy for such weak character. You wanted to tell her to grow up and start putting her daughter's needs before her own. Instead, she puts her daughter's life at risk by moving her in with a sociopath. The daughter, Gwen, was very interesting and you felt so sorry for her for having such a terrible mother. I also enjoyed her "love interest", her cousin that lives with Hollis, as well as her relationship with the horse. For me, these were the only redeemable parts of the book.

I had to keep reading the book in hopes of something better for the characters. This book is intriging and dark. Many of the books I have read from Oprahs book club tend to lean toward the darker sides of life and this book is definately one of them.
I may read one more book by Alice Hoffman just to see if all of her ideas are depressing or not. I thought this book was well written in the sense that I wanted to find out what did happen to the characters.

No matter how very valid are the cons noted in other reviews, I've just finished this book and feel as though I've read a combo effort of Bronte/King/Koontz/Higgins Clark w/a touch of Steel. Add to that the sensation of intrigue, suspense, "can't put the d*mn thing down," gifted prose-- succinct but filled with clarity & emotion--how could I not rate this 5 stars?
Yes, it is a twisted romance melded with horror but at the center is love...and hate. Love right, love wrong, love naive; hate common but often overlooked for the good of the order. Love gone awry & how an innocent can convert to a monster. Make that 2 innocents-which will be revealed when you read the novel. Love transformed to obsessive, love blind, love that metamorphs & mutates until it's twisted, ugly, despicable . Ultimately, no longer love at all. Does it sound familiar in the real world? Maybe not to the majority of readers but some of us might understand an inkling; some more. Thus, the fascination. The reader recognizes this warp, supporting characters do, but not the central figures. As with all suspense, that's what makes it so captivating! We, the reader, initially supportive, then we question, ponder, fret...but
they don't...not in time.
One reviewer writes of the mirror image of Wuthering Heights premise. Great observation & having just finished this book--feeling spine-tingling anxiety, it only makes me want to digest W. Heights again ASAP! Any book that causes one to yearn for the classics (due to being so moved) is truly a book that's worth reading. This should happen more often. I know...I read 3 books per wk. Some are so dull, I wonder why I've bothered. Not this one! A rare find.
My chief & only gripe with Here on Earth is the title. Perhaps the premise could only happen "here on earth???"

This is the first Alice Hoffman book I have ever read. Im not sure I can say I really enjoyed the book but I will tell you this I could not stop reading. Be advised....Dont start reading this book late at night because you will never fall asleep, it's a real page turner.

Reading the first chapter was the only time I actually enjoyed this book. Everything went downhill afterwards, when I realized this was just a retelling of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is a well-told classic, timeless, raw, and beautiful. Here On Earth, however, is just a poor rendition, very contrived, no spontaneity whatsoever.

The almost-complete cast of characters in Wuthering Heights is present in Here On Earth. I don't remember the names of the characters in Here On Earth but I remember their counterparts pretty well. There's your modern-day version of Catherine Earnshaw, there's the modern-day counterpart of her brother Hindley. Then there's the counterpart of Heathcliff! Surprise! Surprise! A foundling with a dark and ominous character! And then there are the neighbors: the counterpart of Edgar Linton (whom Catherine's counterpart marries), and the counterpart of Isabella Linton (whom the counterpart of Heathcliff marries). And then there's the counterpart of Catherine Jr (Catherine-counterpart and Edgar-counterpart's daughter), who falls in love with cousin counterpart of Hareton (son of Hindley's counterpart). There's also Nelly Dean's counterpart, and Linton Linton's counterpart, but that's all I'm going to say. Those of you who've read and loved Wuthering Heights, you know the rest.

It's a sad thing that this is the first Alice Hoffman novel I've read. I'm now inclined to ignore the rest of her novels. Maybe. Or I might be open to her other novels if I've finished reading all the other books I really wanted to read first.

This was my first foray into the Alice Hoffman territority. I've heard of her for years but for some reason never read one of her books until "Here on Earth". I have to say, I really enjoyed it, though I was somewhat bewildered by the other reviews, which were not that flattering. However, I am glad I went ahead and read it regardless of what anyone else said about it. It, to me, was a good read that made for a good afternoon escape.

If you are a fan of this genre, I say pick it up and see what it has to offer you. This is a good book. Other good books "I Know This Much Is True" and "Any Man", among others.

When March Murray, fortyish and married in CA, returns to Mass for the funeral of the lady who raised March after her mother's death, she knew that she would have to encounter Hollis the orphaned boy living with her family whom she passionately loved as a teenager before he left town. Hollis a man of mystery returned to the small town a millionaire, buying both March's and her husband's childhood homes. But Hollis seems to leave destruction in his wake, being at times paranoid, abusive, possessive, and vindictive, not to mention his wife's death. Yet March blithely ignores all of this and basically abandons her family as she is helplessly drawn to Hollis.

The story is set in the Fall, and the encroaching bleakness of the landscape reflects the situation of Hoffman's characters. March's daughter Gwen, who accompanied her from CA, arrived as an insolent teenager, but is forced to find herself and is aided in that endeavor by her taming of a racehorse thought to be too mean for human contact. In addition, Gwen finds a kindred spirit in Hank, the teenage son of March's brother now a drunken hermit. They keep the story from collapsing.

The book is practically incestuous with all of the brother, sister, cousin, and next-door-neighbor marrying and romance. There's enough dysfunctionality among them for the whole town, let alone a couple of families. At its best, the book has some insight into excess, romance, coping, etc. But then again, the evil and obsessiveness is fairly akin to what is found in the grocery store genre. The entire book has a dream-like feel - way short on realism. And the ending is weak and unreflective. I wonder what Oprah saw in this book?

I survived reading about four chapters before I couldn't take it any more! I bailed out just before March and the towns folk of Jenkintown gathered for the housekeeper's funeral. (see? I can't even remember that woman's name) The characters were so polarized. Hollis was the mean, evil, brooding forsaken lover, a loner... The housekeeper was just so "good good good" it was not believable. I was vistiting a nursing home today and decided on the spot to get rid of the book, I left on the reading table.

I began to read this book because Oprah's book club had given it their stamp of approval. I started out loving how the author flows from one point of view to the next without a bump in the road. All-in-all I loved the author's style of writing and creative word usage, but I couldn't wash off the disturbing feeling I got when the Gwen/Hank relationhip took seed even after they found out that they were FIRST COUSINS! Not third cousins twice removed or something as obscure as that, but first cousins, YUCK! I was waiting for them to seal the deal on their relationship by consumating it somewhere along the storyline, but thankfully that does not take place. Also, I think that the story dies right at the end where the author uses Hank, a side character, to close the story. I felt at this point, what could have been a tremendous ending to a fairly good book just kind of fell over just before the finishline ribbons. Recommended? Sure, but skip over the cousins who feel the need to make out on occasion. Maybe this book could be coupled with the movie Deliverance!

This is not the type of book I would pick for myself, but recently I found myself in a situation far from home with no T.V., Radio, or even my own book collection so I was forced to read whatever my host had to offer. Although I felt there were some really strange twist, maybe something I wouldn't have personally put in, and some things that were so outlandish, no one could ever relate to such characters, I did however find myself drawn to the book. I finished it in about 5 hours which was nice. Do not go into this book expecting your life to be changed forever, or maybe a new outlook, it doesn't offer either. But for me, it allowed me to tap into a hidden part of my own life where I had been in love and lost, and that intrigued me. I can definately see where people would have issues with the book... but for me, it was worth the short 5 hours it took from my life... maybe it will be worth it for you!!!

This reader found Alice Hoffman's "most seductive and mesmerizing story" (publisher's description) unremittingly gloomy and pedestrian. Most notably it lacks a motive for the central character's self-destructive behavior.
As the story goes, March Murray, returning to her home town in New England with her teen-age daughter, willingly chooses to re-enter an abusive relationship after her non-abusive marriage falls apart. The reader might expect March, having had a healthy relationship, to know better the second time around. Yet the author offers no apparent explanation for March's back-sliding other than good sex. This might be ok if "Here on Earth" had been written in Emily Bronte's time, but in this more psychologically sophisticated era we now know enough about the dynamic of abusive relationships to deserve some explanation. So for me this tale of woe comes off as emotionally flat and disturbingly naive.
Ms. Hoffman's writing style doesn't help the story line. She has an indecisive, uncommitted way of describing things. For example, she writes "There is no measuring love, other than all or nothing or that space in between." So the author has included all possibilities for "measuring love" and left us with nothing. In another example she writes: "He keeps one hand on March's, but for whose comfort even [he] isn't sure." If he and the author don't know, why do we need to know? These are two of many examples of word clutter - too many words, too little meaning.
Ms. Hoffman's command of the English language is so shaky that she employs redundancy for support. Consider the words "Spartan" or "notorious" in the examples below: "if his reputation hadn't been so notorious" (notoriety IS a form of reputation) or "The kitchen now has a Spartan quality; that which isn't a necessity isn't here." She goes on to describe the Spartan quality in detail. Ms. Hoffman's style is anything but Spartan.
Finally, Ms. Hoffman's pointless digressions impede the book's narrative progress, merely filling up pages.. Example: "Ed Milton is the one who finally informs Susanna Justice of her friend's affair. He tells Susie right after they make love, at her place, a cottage so small he can talk to her from bed while she fixes them hot fudge sundaes. Susie's dogs, Chester, the golden lab, and Duffy, the black one, watch her every move, drooling onto her bare feet." Do we really need to know about the dog drool? More clutter - this digression seems to serve no dramatic purpose.
In short, I found the redeeming qualities insufficient and the writing style too annoying to make this depressing tale worth reading.

Here on Earth By Alice Hoffman takes place in the state of Massachusetts. March Murray is the main character in this book that is found confused in her love life. She goes back home to where she grew up to attend a funeral of her housekeeper but instead, she finds herself remembering special times about her past and confused with her emotional love life.She wonders what will happen and if she will see her first true love Hollis. When she sees Hollis for the first time in so many years her fellings for him come back and she is stuck in the battle with her emotional feelings. She finds herself confused in what to do now that she has a daughter, a job, a house , a family and a husband.

Here on Earth By Alice Hoffman takes place in the state of Massachusetts. March Murray is the main character in this book that is found confused in her love life. She goes back home to where she grew up to attend a funeral of her housekeeper but instead, she finds herself remembering special times about her past and confused with her emotional love life. She wonders what will happen and if she will see her first true love Hollis. When she sees Hollis for the first time in so many years her fellings for him come back and she is stuck in the battle with her emotional feelings. She finds herself confused in what to do now that she has a daughter, a job, a house , a family and a husband.

Some people seem to be offended that Hoffman would dare use the plot of "Wuthering Heights" so blatantly for one of her novels, but I found it fascinating for just this very reason. What WOULD have happened if Heathcliff had gotten Cathy back? This "rewrite" of that wonderful classic into a modern setting and that unmistakeable Hoffman-like language is intriguing to say the least.

That a happily married woman can once again become snarled into an old erotic relationship and can't get out is a highly-charged story all in itself. That her daughter, who seems on the fast track to becoming a slut, finds peace through a horse, balances the first lurid story out beautifully.

For me the novel is a good study of how erotic attraction can blind a person, and just how worthwhile true friendship in a relationship is.

Still my favorite Hoffman novel (that I've read) so far is "Turtle Moon."