A review by kristineisreading
The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.5

I enjoyed the way this meandered through generations of a small town. Each chapter skipped a generation or two but still connected to the previous chapter. You get only brief glimpses into a small part of that chapter's featured character's life, but in the next chapter you get to see how their life turned out. The characters themselves are varied, interesting, and generally relatable. Hoffman is a master at writing people. There's no real plot here, but it doesn't even matter. It's about all the facets of the human experience, how different it has been throughout the centuries, and yet how similar the challenges are across generations. Characters experience life, and love, and tragedy, and death. They make good decisions and bad decisions. These are things that tie us all together throughout history. Overall this is a good character study and an enjoyable read.