The Drowning Season

by Alice Hoffman

The matriarch of a Long Island clan with a stubbornly suicidal son and a defiant, restless granddaughter, Esther, has hired a Russian landscaper to watch over the family as well as the grounds of their secluded waterfront estate. But he has been watching Esther, too. And his love for her is growing wild enough to uproot them all.

The author of Here on Earth and The River King presents a "stunning and hypnotic" novel that "interweaves past and present with piercing images and unfailing energy" (Publishers Weekly).

Genres: Fiction, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Audiobook, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Adult Fiction

241 pages, Paperback

First published June 22, 1979

About the author

Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The World That We Knew; The Marriage of Opposites; The Red Garden; The Museum of Extraordinary Things; The Dovekeepers; Here on Earth, an Oprah’s Book Club selection; and the Practical Magic series, including Practical
Magic; Magic Lessons; The Rules of Magic, a selection of Reese’s Book Club; and The Book of Magic. She lives near Boston.

Reviews

[Brina · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a busy time of year for me, between holidays and baseball entering the playoffs, so it is amazing that I have been able to finish books over the last week at all. And that also means an attempt at shorter reviews as this might be one of the few days in the next two weeks that I have time to devote to goodreads. This is a perfect time of year for me to read a lot of shorter novels, so I decided to get a head start on a birth year reading challenge that I am doing next year by selecting The Drowning Season by Alice Hoffman. One of Hoffman's earlier works, The Drowning Season features three generations of a dysfunctional family living on an insular compound on Long Island, New York.

Matriarch Esther the White has a cold heart with no room for love. Adopted at an early age in a village in Poland where every family took in abandoned girls, Esther grew up with her 'brothers' Mischa and Max. When Esther found out that she was adopted, she devised a plan to escape and brought her brothers with her. Yet, Esther was ruthless and had no need for Max, a dwarf, and eventually sold him to a traveling circus troupe. Smitten with circus co-owner Solo, Esther became his lover and desired to run away with the tattooed man who she found charming, until she discovered that he left for Spain first, leaving Esther behind. Reluctantly, she plots to move to America, yet with no money, she follows a distraught Mischa to London and lives there for twenty years. Once in London, Esther discovers to her chagrin that she is pregnant and does not know for sure if the father is Solo or Mischa. As a result, she decides that she will not love her child under any circumstances and has no desire to bring any more children into the world.

Twenty years later Esther the White sees her dream come true but at many emotional expenses. The family does live on compound in New York but not in the Manhattan of her fantasies. Land is cheap and worth nothing and the only people interested in potentially buying it from her should the need arise are a group of fishermen. Esther's son Phillip is now a middle aged man and addicted to staging a drowning attempt each summer. Esther locks him in a cottage with his alcoholic wife Rose all summer to prevent from committing suicide. Even though Esther the White claims that she does not love, she loves her son enough to prevent him from killing himself, despite the fact that he has desired this since he reached adolescence. With a mother who only cares about herself and a father who is devoid from his life, outsiders believe that Esther should let Phillip be.

Hoffman counters Esther the White with her granddaughter Esther the Black. Phillip specifically went against Ashkenazic Jewish tradition of naming a child after a living relative to get back at his mother who never loved him. While Esther the White lives in her own world, Esther the Black would like to leave the compound when she comes of age yet she lacks the courage to leave the only world that she has known her entire life. Because this novel was only two hundred pages in length I read through to the end mainly to see if Esther the Black would leave, but I disliked all the protagonists as they were not likeable people. With all the feuding going on between family members including hired help Cohen, Esther the White created a upsetting place to live. The fact that Rose and Esther the Black are reluctant to leave the compound speak to the strength of Esther the White's character even if this character is cold and unlikeable to most readers.

I enjoy magical realism and have enjoyed Hoffman's later novels. Her earlier work shows that she still had much to develop as a writer and left me with much to be desired, especially after digesting a protagonist as unlikeable as Esther the White. At least I know that after The Drowning Season, there are many more quality books of Hoffman's to look forward to, including her current novel which is full of the magical realism that I savor.

3 stars

[Sandysbookaday (taking a step back for a while) · Rating 3 out of 5]

EXCERPT: Once, when Esther the Black was eighteen, she sat on the porch of her grandmother's house and dragged her feet in the dust until her toes were coated and dark. She had lived within the walls of the Compound of houses owned by her grandparents all of her life, but she promised herself that this year would be different. Esther struck the head of a blue-tipped kitchen match along the railing; she lit a cigarette and tilted her denim cap back on her dark hair. Although she was the same age her grandmother was when she gave birth to her first and only child, Phillip, Esther the Black looked young, she looked like any orphan scowling in the sun. The cap protected Esther's eyes, but the light was still white hot across her skin; it was the time of year they called Drowning Season, and the day would soon be too hot to sit outdoors; already the heat rose from the grass and the dust in maniac waves.

THE BLURB: The matriarch of a Long Island clan with a stubbornly suicidal son and a defiant, restless granddaughter, Esther has hired a Russian landscaper to watch over the family as well as the grounds of their secluded waterfront estate. But he has been watching Esther, too. And his love for her is growing wild enough to uproot them all.

MY THOUGHTS: While this is not my favorite book by Alice Hoffman, you can't dispute Hoffman’s talent for making her characters come alive. Hoffman has written a tragic story of a truly dysfunctional family. It is a tale of selfishness, greed, and guilt. It is also the coming of age story of a young woman who has basically raised herself, with the aid of the gardener, and her need to escape; just as her grandmother had done many years earlier.

In no way could this book be considered 'enjoyable'. But at the same time, there was no way I could have abandoned The Drowning Season. The characters pulled at my heartstrings, and I could not help but think how different their lives could have been if only they had communicated honestly with one another.

3.5 stars.

I listened to the audiobook of The Drowning Season by Alice Hoffman, narrated by Bernadette Dunne and published by Blackstone Audio, via OverDrive. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions. Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book but didn't love it. Full of selfish characters and found that I didn't like a single one of them. But I thought the story was interesting enough. I found the characters refused to feel and engage in each others lives and when the end came none of them had anything of consequence. They mostly lived in the past and missed out on so much in the moment. More of a 3.5 rating for me. I was not disappointed in Hoffman's story just not her usual 4-5 star book. I would recommend this book after reading some of her others.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. I finally found an Alice Hoffman book I didn't like. I didn't like the characters, the story, nothing. NONE of the characters were likable or elicited sympathy. Bummer. At least it was a quick read and I didn't waste a lot of time on it.

[Cindy Pollock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not enjoy this one. Seemed contrived. Am a big Hoffman fan so I had high expectations.

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Alice Hoffman's novels, so I have already read most of them. How delightful to discover her earlier works like "The Drowning Season" which I had previously missed. If I understand correctly, this was first published in 1979, and came out two years after her first novel, "Property Of." Hoffman really grew as a novelist and developed her craft so much between her first and second novels, judging from the depth of character development that makes "The Drowning Season" so complex, bizarre, beautiful, and wise. Alice Hoffman is my "go to" writer for so many reasons, but first and foremost because her books are enchanting, beautiful, the perfect blend of darkness and light (although this particular Gothic tale is more dark than light, but still hopeful), and because she never disappoints. "The Drowning Season" stands as a counter example to what I have always said--that rich people make lousy protagonists in fiction. I guess in the hands of a master like Hoffman, anything is possible.

[Erin Dempsey Perry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having loved several of Alice Hoffman's books, I was taken by surprise by the lack of depth and good storytelling in this novel. I thought the style was completely different from her other works, the characters were undeveloped and I was bored to death by the lot of them. There were so many cliches, I cannot possibly list them all. Selling a dwarf to a circus? A preppy kid who wants to be a punk rocker and changes his name to Pagan Rath? Pagan? Really? I can't begin to count how many times I had to read the names Esther the Black and Esther the White, each time thinking they sounded ridiculous and out of place in a modern day story. I was dumbfounded that this was written by an author that I have read and enjoyed so many times before. I could go on and on but I won't. I truly hated this book, to say the least.

[Jonna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice Hoffman is a poet who just happens to write novels. I am a poet who happens to read novels. Is it any wonder that Hoffman's books are among my favorites? With each book, I become more enchanted, more in awe of her.
The Drowning Season is, like so many of Hoffman's works, almost a fairy tale. The story of two women, Esther-the-Black, and her granddaughter, Esther-the-White, follows their lives through one summer, the drowning season. As Esther-the-White struggles to find peace and love at the end of her life, we hear the story of her escaoe from Russia, to the Compound she has created on Long Island. Who will know her, love her?
This novel is smooth and magical, a terrific story told by a spellbinding teller.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise behind the book has great potential but the book did not provide enough depth

[Sherri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Alice Hoffman, but as I started this one I felt like the style was a little different. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I had trouble getting into it like I do most of her books. I did like the characters and the story was interesting. Her characters are always so interesting, it seems like I can usually relate to them and I did in this story as well. The underlying story in this to me was about how people perceive us in a certain way, but they don't understand that events have shaped us to be who we are- But, I felt like the ending was in a big hurry, like the book had to be finished in a certain amount of pages and here's the end.

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not read a book by her that I haven't loved!

[Cathryn Conroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can't forget your past…no matter how hard you try. That's the gist of this odd and sorrowful little book by Alice Hoffman that is surprisingly good considering how weird it is.

Esther the White (so named because of the color of her hair) is one of three children growing up in Russia. Her parents are cruel, and when she is 15 and finds out she isn't their daughter, she decides to run away, taking her two older brothers, Mischa and Max, with her. The three make their way to France where they sell Max, who is a dwarf, to the circus, and Esther the White, who has a torrid affair with the tattooed man, marries Mischa for very practical reasons. They travel to England and eventually New York where they purchase land on the North Shore of Long Island. Mischa builds cottages that no one buys, so the family lives there for the next 20 years as the place, which they call the Compound, pretty much crumbles around them. Esther the White and Mischa have a son, Phillip, who grows up and marries. He and his wife have a daughter they name Esther the Black (so named because of the color of her hair), which infuriates Esther the White. She believes that she will turn into a ghost if her name is stolen from her. And Phillip knew that when he named his daughter Esther.

Meanwhile, Phillip has this disturbing habit every July and August of trying to drown himself in the harbor. The family calls it the drowning season. They hire Cohen to serve as Phillip's lifeguard, as well as their chauffeur and landscape artist, and Cohen falls madly in love with Esther the White. When the book opens, Esther the Black is a defiant and angry 18-year-old, who dislikes her family and dreams of escaping to Nevada—but she has no money. Every summer her father tries to kill himself drowning, while her grandmother is cold, mean, and spiteful, especially to her. Why should she stay?

This is a fairy tale without the magic, a strange, tragic, and disquieting story with a simple but profound message: Remember your past or it will haunt your present and poison your future.

A bit of advice: If you haven't read other books by Alice Hoffman, don't start with this one! (It's just too odd.) Instead, begin with the "Practical Magic" series or "Seventh Heaven," which is one of my favorites.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early Hoffman novel. It lacks her signature magic realism, but does contain moments of enchantment and a fairy tale sensibility.

[Beth Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reminder that sometimes those closest to us are the ones we know least.

[Cookie M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Drowning Season" was the second book published by Alice Hoffman, and while it foretells the greatness she will someday show, it does not yet have it. The unique, magical turn of phrase that is so Hoffman and so imitated by writers such as Sarah Addison Allen and Ellen Herrick is only hinted at.
The story contains characters I neither love nor hate. I want to identify with the teenaged Esther the Black, but she is just too flat.
One of the main plot points revolves around Phillip, Esther's father, the son of Esther the White, who every summer tries to drown himself, this the title of the book, and has to be locked in a cottage until the impulse leaves him at the end of each Drowning Season, usually after one failed attempt.
The members of this tragic family are all failures at something, all giving up some pursuit of other after a half hearted attempt.
But the reader wants to care about them more, and doesn't. She is left looking for some "Hoffmanesque" connection that never appears.

[Onceinabluemoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually love quirky books and everything Hoffman writes, true this was written in the 70s, and she has honed her craft over the decades, but it did very little for me. I picked the title because I live on the coast and very sadly there was another drowning out my window this week. Real life and fiction didn't mesh well, not sure what I was looking for, perhaps some solace but it was a poor selection. She is an eloquent writer, but the book was too off kilter even for me this week. A bit of good news while reading this I received news the dog that was missing after the boating accident was found 4 days later, rescued as fire fighters trained at sea. She was rescued during the funeral, it felt like angels sending a message to the surviving family. Fact is as good fiction in this case.

[Debbie Berris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite

This one didn't grab me, and I usually love Alice Hoffman's writing. The disconnected people never resonated and there was nothing I could really relate to.

[Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this beautifully sad story about meanness and kindness, love and loss. Historical fiction with psychological issues.

[Bonnye Reed]

Alice Hoffman The Collected Novels Volume One

[Nancy Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dark. Ridiculous characters. Esther the White, Esther the Black, etc. a totally dysfunctional family with no real story line except how unhappy everyone is. Phillip just tries to drown himself once a year. I don’t see any redeeming grace is the purpose of this story.

[FeralGreenKat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whew! I was truly eager to read this one, given my genuine appreciation for another book by the same author a few years ago. I'd like to chalk it up to the audio recording, as I had this one on audiobook through Chirp - but it was only so-so at best. I REALLY struggled to get through it, and it really can't get any easier than someone reading it aloud to you.

The characters were shallow--in both the vapid sense, and in the sense that they all really needed more development. The secondary and tertiary characters were nearly impossible to keep straight, as there just wasn't enough to connect them. The storyline was all over the place, but not in that way we've come to know when the timeline jumps around for effect--just in the sense that the plot didn't have much development. The fact that I saw this book categorized elsewhere as a romance novel is jarring. It is anything but.

I rounded up and gave this book two stars rather than one because I did manage to eke out a little bit of connection to one of the characters (Esther the White) during perhaps the final 20% of the book. Both with reading the book and with the plot itself, it felt a bit "too-little-too-late," but considering my past raving about this author, I felt she deserved at least that much. I'm glad she seems to have continued to improve over the years, as this book was originally published in 1979, and The Red Garden (which I loved) was published over 30 years afterward. I still believe Ms. Hoffman is a brilliant author and will absolutely read more of her work. This one simply didn't do it for me.

[Anna Lumpkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

...she wanted to sit in the dark and whisper all of her fears into an ear which would hold every word like a silver shell.

i have loved alice hoffman since i was little- she's a poet, in my opinion, who happens to write fantastic novels. as the second book she ever published, i can see the hoffman i love emerging, but she's not fully developed. although this wasn't my favorite of hers, it definitely speaks volumes of her writing skills and foretold how she would become one of the best storytellers.

i found myself despising all of these characters- they were all selfish in their own ways. money on mischa's mind, drowning on phillip's, cohen's desparation for esther the white, rose on getting to nevada, and on and on it goes. esther the white was the most selfish of them all, however. she did what she had to do to get to america, including selling her "brother" to the circus and sleeping with men to gain something. she irked me the most, although they all did. she caused turmoil within her family and was, in my opinion, partly responsible for her son's yearly attempted suicide.

i loved all of the characters, even while despising them. i gained such a clear, deep understanding of them all, which isn't always easy to do in a book less than 300 pages. i look forward to reading my next hoffman book, Property Of!

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a very odd story, and I felt like it just ended..really no satisfying conclusion. I kept thinking throughout the read, how did the author come up with these characters & storyline? Esther (the white), Mischa, & Max ( a dwarf) were raised as brothers & sister; but discovered that Esther actually wasn't. They escape childhood hardship eventually settling in France. Esther "sells" Max to a circus and Esther & Mischa marry & head to London. Esther's son Phillip develops an unhealthy attraction to water & tries to "drown" himself at least once a year. Neither Esther or Mischa are good parents and when Phillip has a daughter, he names her Esther (the black). Apparently a no-no in the Jewish community to name a child after someone in the family who is still living. What was Phillip's motivation for that? All eventually live a dysfunctional life together on a compound in New York, add in a loyal gardener/security guard (Cohen) who secretly loves Esther the White, Rose, Phillip's wife, Max's wife, and a fishing community who is at odds over the right's of the harbor. From there the story kind goes no where despite some dramatic potential.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I've suffer severe "insomnia"...I read this wonderful piece of literary genius during the middle of the night.

Alice Hoffman has written a hypnotic and mesmerizing novel with 'The Drowning Season'. I was sorry to see this novel end!

From back cover:

"On a secluded waterfront estate on the North Shore of Long Island, a matriarch named Esther rules over her clan. But in spite of her sharp tongue and manipulative ways, she cannot quite keep control over her charges. Her son, Phillip, routinely tries to drown himself each summer; her granddaughter sneaks cigarettes and dreams of escape. Esther has hired Cohen, a Russian landscaper, to watch over the family as well as the grounds. But Cohen has been watching Esther as well. And his love for her is growing wild enough to uproot them all..."

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really enjoying discovering this author, that was recommended a couple years ago to me. As always, I need to start at the beginning of what they have written and I'm really glad that I did. From reading some of the other reviews, I think if you have read her more current stuff, then try to go back to the beginning, you don't enjoy the journey as much.

I thoroughly enjoyed how Hoffman gives you a sense of the characters and how they connect to each other. I definitely see how her writing style is starting to evolve from her first book to her second. I love the imagery she evokes and the way she depicts her characters actions vs. feelings. The doing is very direct. The feelings and thoughts are almost lyrical.

Very nice journey discovering Esther the White and Esther the Black.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last chapter of this book painfully summed up life for me. We spend our lives listening, cooperating and following the directions. Oftentimes, losing ourselves, or even worse, never stepping out of line long enough to ever know ourselves. Why? For what? And to make who happy? Suddenly, we find ourselves in the home stretch, alone and wishing we had someone, anyone, who knew us, knew our hearts, or even cared to know. Yep, life is short. Too short. One day you are 40 yrs old, and next thing you know you wake up to find 20 yrs, gone, in the blink of an eye you are 60.

Just when I was finding this book dragging along and finding myself eager to finish it, it grabbed me by the throat and screamed "are you paying attention?!"

I will come back to this review again after rereading this book.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Drowning Season is one of Alice Hoffman's first books, published in 1979, although its themes are timeless. It features strong but flawed women characters, generations of family with secrets, and ultimately redemption. This is the story of two Esthers, Esther the White who is grandmother to Esther the Black and their complicated and strained relationship, especially with Phillip, Esther the White's son and Esther the Black's father, who has a compulsion to drown himself. The "drowning season" in the title refers to the summer months when Phillip's compulsion is particularly strong and he annually attempts to give himself to the sea. When Phillip finally succeeds in his quest to drown himself, the two estranged Esthers are forced to come to terms with each other.

[Carol · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seems as if there were many unresolved issues left hanging at the end of this book. The story was rather flat and predictable. Didn't care much for this one - and I had high hopes coming from this author.

[Susanne Winterhawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat different from Hoffman's usual.

[Yuckamashe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't pin down why I can't stop thinking about this book. The setting is bad ass! It has a We Have Always Lived in the Castle feeling. I like when the town hates the rich people.