Fortune's Daughter [Hardcover]

The fortune teller, Lila, is certainly not a stereotypical "old woman hag-like freak" that is so often portrayed in the movies. She is a beautiful wisp of a lady in her late 40's, married and living in the hills of Hollywood, California. Introduced long ago to the art of tea readings, she has a loyal following of clients and a fairly reliable income. Her passion, however seems fickle, and her past secrets and haunting memories begin to affect her readings.

Everything in Lila's past that she has struggled to hide erupts when she is pressured to do a fortune telling for a distraught young girl, abandoned by her flakey, no-good boyfriend. When Lila looks into her cup and into Rae's tragic eyes, the unbearable similarities intwine them and makes their fates dependent on each other from that moment on.

...I would like to comment on a few random impressions that I found interesting. One I had was that the "fortune telling" was not overdone, but appropriately utilized to ground and furthur the story line. Another is how the author uses the land to correlate with the character's personal issues and relationships to each other. For example, the infertile land behind Lila and her husband's house was referred to frequently throughout the book. Ms. Hoffman revealed the land to be nearly barren, and only with the greatest of efforts were the couple able to nurture plants to life. Tomato plants were thin, spindly, and rarely productive. The soil was said to be as if poisoned, leached of nutrients and unrevivable, no doubt a comparison to Lila.

The only viable plant, a vine, (interestingly enough, a passion flower), had for so many years been neglected, it had become wildly overgrown. Tangled into a gigantic heap of a mess, it grew into a choking dying nuisance requiring abrupt removal. This comparison could apply to the relationship that Rae had with her abusing boyfriend, then again, other possible correlations could be the relationship between Lila and her husband, or Lila and Rae, or indeed all four of the characters and their relationship to each other.

Ms. Hoffman described some incredibly intense and emotional events. One of these events was Lila's giving birth at age 18 after successfully hiding her pregnancy from her parents and everyone. Alone, and abandoned by her married boyfriend, the experience was revealed in words of delicacy and power, seeming to be a representation of the process of labor itself.

...Rae struggles throughout the entire novel to rid herself of her abusive boyfriend, Jessup, but she keeps seeking him out, and their dependent dysfuntional relationship stays alive. As the four of them converge on the hospital on the night of Rae's baby's birth, I could not help but feel let down that she ultimately was not strong enough to push Jessup away. Rae, like the passion flower, seemed destined to emulate the vine. The flowers are so beautiful and fragile. The danger is to allow it to grow without restraint.

In "Fortune's Daughter," Hoffman parallels the lives of two very different women. Rae is young, single, and pregnant and on the verge of losing her self-absorbed, shiftless boyfriend. Lila is middle-aged and happily married to Richard, who grows roses and lemon trees in unfriendly soil in their California backyard. As Rae's and Lila'a paths cross and Rae's pregnancy progresses, we are drawn intimately deeper into watching how one woman's life comes out of confusion into clear focus while the other loses her center and slips into madness. It's a delicately and finely drawn dance, and Hoffman executes it perfectly.

If anything was unsatisfactory about this book, it was that it ended when it did. After I finished it I sill wanted to go back, to read at least two or three more chapters to know what happens to Rae & Lila, to Jessup & Richard, and to all the others whose lives entwined in this story.

I can see by now that Alice Hoffman's novels are a bit haunting and mystical. She is a writer that, under most circumstances, has a haunting plot full of emotional welfare that hooks you in, and interesting, rich characters. To top it off, she paints beautiful pictures with her words. The only other writer I know who knows how to do it as well is Connie May Fowler.

In Fortune's Daughter, you have a pregnant, lost young woman named Rae, and a fortune teller named, Lila, whose paths cross when Rae goes to get her fortune read.

Rae, who left home to run off with a boy she loves, Jessup, finds herself alone and pregnant. She leaves her family behind, and Jessup leaves her behind, since he is selfish and isn't interested in being a father at the beginning of this book.

Lila reads tea leaves and lives with her husband, Richard. Lila isn't really interested in fortune-telling anymore, and when she encounters Rae, she finds herself re-living her own painful past.

She was disowned by her own family when she became pregnant herself with her boyfriend's child. She was alone, as her lover was absent and selfish (much like Jessup was), and she was made to give up her daughter after she gave birth to her in her own bedroom. A cousin, who was a nurse, acted as her coach, as her parents refused to send her to the hospital due to shame.

Rae reminded Lila too much of herself when she was that age, and before she knew it, she was putting a strain on her marriage to search for her lost daughter.

This is a very bizarre and haunting story, full of feeling of loss and deep sadness. It is a good story, but one that leaves you with a very sinking feeling after you're finished with the book.

Nonetheless, an interesting read that is difficult to put down.