This is a luminous book that sucks you in ... Though coincidences sometimes play an oversized role in advancing the plot, Faithful doesn’t have the magical realism elements that are found in some of Hoffman’s fiction. Nor is it a young-adult novel, strictly speaking — though Shelby and her milieu will surely resonate with younger readers as well as...um, mature reviewers.
What’s most vexing about Faithful is that you’re supposed to feel like a monster if you laugh. Hoffman builds Shelby out of trauma and not much else, and her observations suffer from a certain clichéd vagueness ... Faithful is most successful when describing the everyday details and habits of Manhattan ... If you can hang up your disbelief and surrender to the soft-focus glow, the book becomes enjoyable, satisfying even, as the mystery of the postcards is solved and the catharses arrive right on schedule. In the end, it feels as harmlessly saccharine as an after-dinner mint, with one exception — the disclosure, early in the book, that when Shelby was in the mental hospital she was raped repeatedly by an orderly. It’s a terrible choice on Hoffman’s part, seemingly made only to increase Shelby’s misery.
t’s impossible not to root for Shelby Richmond, the broken, good-hearted young woman at the center of Alice Hoffman’s poignant new novel ... Hoffman exercises characteristic strengths — a wide cast of quirky, believable characters, sly humor, and a clear love for the American teenager ... A few plot points push the novel toward a cloying winsomeness — too many animal rescues, too much Chinese food delivery — but the high stakes of Shelby’s recovery cut through with redeeming sharpness.
Hoffman demonstrates how a young woman's strength and self-reliance grow over the years. She reminds readers who have experienced events powerful enough to break your spirit that, in time, the resulting cracks really are what let the light into a survivor's soul.
Faithful starts as a story about two teenagers who have been in a car accident. That it becomes something else entirely is both the novel's strength and its weakness. Helene never feels like a real person ... The story also contains a few contrived twists - coincidences that are too perfect, too neat ... But Faithful is still a good read, and an emotionally rewarding one. Shelby is real and unwittingly charismatic.
While the story is compelling, there are so many platitudes that the prose itself can be a distraction...During these moments, the writing is embarrassingly earnest and clichéd ... Although Hoffman repeatedly reminds the reader how deadened Shelby is, the overall effect works.
And you’ll find yourself rooting for Shelby, despite her missteps along the way to growing up ... Hoffman brings Shelby full-circle, resolving the anonymous cards mystery brilliantly and even — without making it awkward — giving her an ending of sorts with Helene. This is a beautiful novel of a young woman finding her way after tragedy and keeping it real for the duration.
Hoffman instantly impresses in these first pages, conjuring a communal narrative of shrines and lore ... Shelby’s character changes drastically from beginning to end. Yet, this transformation is as subtly nuanced as in real life ... The only downfall of Faithful is its use of Helene’s tragedy.
