Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman - Book Review

Alice Hoffman is known for her lyrical writing and stories laced with magic. Fans of her previous works will find both in Skylight Confessions, an epic novel that’s steeped in the imagery and magic of fairy tales. The saga of Arlyn Singer is tremendously sad at times, which lends her story a weighty authenticity, and Hoffman includes enough love and hope that the book is, on the balance, thoughtful and uplifting.

Alice Hoffman’s Skylight Confessions is filled with people falling in love quickly and deeply, children longing to fly, and otherworldly signs and beings. The story starts with Arlyn Singer, a young woman who decides to love the next man she sees, and pursues him straight to a marriage. The rest of her life, and the lives of those around her, seems predetermined and magical but also deeply sad and bound up in loss.

Skylight Confessions has broader ambitions than some of Hoffman’s previous novels, but is also missing some of the rich depth to which her readers may be accustomed. A few key characters are drawn in broad strokes, while the author spends a lot of time on the various animals that serve as comforting pets or ominous omens, as well as the glass house that serves as the architecturally-renowned but sterile hearth for the family.

The complexity and sensitivity of family relationships—husband and wife, sister and brother, sister and half-sister, stepmother and daughter—are realistically portrayed, which is a nice balance to some of the magical realism in Hoffman’s plot. Overall, Skylight Confessions is sad but hopeful, a moving novel that will engross the reader.