Half the House: A Memoir - Hardcover

Richard Hoffman's prose and verse have appeared in numberous journals, including Agni, Ascent, Harvard Review, The Literary Review, and in anthologies. Among numerous awards, the most recent is The Literary Riview's Charles Angoff Prize. He is Writer-in-Residence at Emerson College and teaches at the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast MFA program.

Hoffman's work has appeared in literary journals such as the Hudson Review, Kansas Quarterly, and Shenandoah; he currently works at a health clinic. His childhood, which he recounts in this memoir, was shattered by the deaths of two young brothers with muscular distrophy, abuse from his father, and sexual molestation by a coach. For a period, Hoffman himself turned to alcohol and drugs. His memoir is ultimately a story of love, reconciliation, and triumph over adversity. Hoffman's spare style makes his story all the more affecting, as he skillfully interweaves the beautiful and ugly details of growing up in a working-class family in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Returning home to confront his father, Hoffman writes, "I was shrinking....I felt a split-second shock that my feet reached the floor." In the end, he does become a man, reconciles with his father, and brings his own children to visit. His memoir will be of interest to public libraries as well as to some academic and special ones.?Nancy Shires, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, N.C.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.