Editorial Review
After nineteen years in California, March Murray returns to the small Massachusetts town where she grew up. Here she will encounter Hollis--the boy she loves so desperately, the man who has never forgotten her--and the past will collide with the present as their reckless love is reignited.
Alice Hoffman's hearbreaking, wise, and complex novel reminds us that in heaven and in our dreams, love is simple and glorious--but it is something altogether different here on earth.
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Customer Reviews
Just read Wuthering Heights, seriously. 
2008-07-30
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 have nothing to say that hasn't been said already....but 
2008-07-08
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.
A study in the hypnotic power of obsessive love 
2008-06-03
It's hard to find any heroic figures in this dark romance. Everyone's been hurt, most have hurt others, all find sound judgment a rare commodity. The closest are the most unlikely, a cowardly drunk who helps to save an old racehorse, his niece whose rebellious ways are shed n favor of developing a clear but sad perspective on things like family, responsibility, and love. One central character is controlling and cruel to the core, another nearly loses her hold on reality by yielding to the seductive power of an old, ill-advised, once lost love. The detachment of her scientist husband is painful, and equally so the judgmental meddling of her closest friend.
There are good, kind, and stable folks in the story as well, but even they seem to be troubled by ghosts from the past. A fascinating tale of the damage done by obsessive love, marking everyone within range, with only glimmers of redemption to come.
like watching paint dry 2008-04-24
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.
Spellbinding 
2008-02-28
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.
Similar to WH but... 2007-11-27
After nineteen years in California, March Murray returns to the small Massachusetts town where she grew up. Here she will encounter Hollis--the boy she loves so desperately, the man who has never forgotten her--and the past will collide with the present as their reckless love is reignited.
Alice Hoffman's hearbreaking, wise, and complex novel reminds us that in heaven and in our dreams, love is simple and glorious--but it is something altogether different here on earth.
Different 2007-09-19
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.
Rip Off of "Wuthering Heights" 2007-06-11
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????
Not exactly a love story 2007-05-20
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.
Terrible! 2007-05-11
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.
