Alice Hoffman

"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers and The Museum of Extraordinary Things: a forbidden love story set on the tropical island of St. Thomas about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarro the Father of Impressionism"--

The Marriage of Opposites

Amanda

Alice Hoffman has crafted a beautiful and enchanting story, with one of the most unique settings I've ever read. The island of St. Thomas is lush, magical, wonderfully brought to life, yet full of secrets, scandal and woe. By far, the setting was my favorite aspect of this novel, aside from Hoffman's signature magical realism, which was beautifully done here as always.

I loved Rachel's character and while I enjoyed Camille and even Lydia's POV sections, I felt the story was going to be Rachel's to tell throughout. I understand the differing perspectives now that I have finished the book, but while reading I at least wanted a first-person narration throughout. Alternating POVs don't always work, especially when they begin so late in a novel, but overall I think the author pulled it off. However, there seemed to be a disconnect with Rachel's character from beginning to end. I understand people grow and change, but she's so much different (almost to the point where she's unlikeable) at the end of the book compared to the beginning. It was hard as a reader to justify her drastic change, especially because there are large portions of this book where she's not the narrator. 

For a book supposedly so romantic, the main romance was perhaps the shortest segment of the book and took a long time to build up to. I would have been happy with more of Rachel and Frederick's romance, especially from her perspective. 

Each character was wonderfully crafted and three dimensional. I will say, disregarding my comment about differing POVs for a moment, we got to see each character through the eyes of another and another still, leading to heightened opinions and resulting in more fully fleshed out people.

All in all, this book held my attention and captivated me from the beginning with its setting, magical prose and history. I've never read a book quite like this and found myself learning a lot about a people, place and time that is usually not as tangible as Hoffman made it out to be.

Rachel

The Marriage of Opposites is more than a love story, I expected a sweet and maybe dark love story, but received so much more. The story focuses on Rachel Pissarro, a rebellious woman in her young days who is a pain in the ass for her mother because she challenges the accepted ways of the Jewish community on St. Thomas. She fights for what she believes in and for her friends and family that have a relationship out of the accepted social norm. She gets married out of practicability, not understanding the fuss over true love and what it is capable of making you do, but this husband dies and she does fall in love with someone that makes the relationship unacceptable within her community. As she gets old Rachel changes and understands the hardships of life and doesn't want her children, especially Camille Pissarro, to go through what she did and she realizes that she is more like her mother than she realized, her mother was trying to prevent the same hardships for her. It's a complicated story with many plots that are interwoven and beautifully written.

The Marriage of Opposites

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