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Summary: A fine treatment of a wolf-man.
Review: A divorcee rescues a wolf-man, raised by wolves, from a mental institution. Once you accept the premise, the wolf-man is done very well, with feeling, but without sentimentality. Hoffman too often settles for the facile in her plot and character development for this to be a genuinely good book, nor by design, is it charming like some other Hoffman books, but it is a very decent read.
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Summary: MY FAVORITE BOOK!!
Review: After I read At Risk, I wanted to read annother book by Alice Hoffman. When I read this back cover of Second Nature, I automatically felt like this would be some thing I would like. I loved it! It was such a strange, magical story, with tons of romance that kept me hooked! What an awesome book!
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Summary: Can I review if I didn't finish the book?
Review: I got about 3/4 of the way through but just lost interest. I kept thinking I was missing something. Did this woman (main character) who was going through a divorce and being much harrassed by the local police (having a glovebox filled with citations), a teenage son and cash flow problems really just show up at a hospital and walk out with a wolfman who asked her to take him home? Then she sets him up in her guest room and teaches him to read by leaving books with him and a few pages later he is so transformed as to be her guest at a friend's barbeque! Too many holes and leaps of faith for me.
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Summary: Too Unbelievable for me
Review: I Have read Alice Hoffman before and I truly enjoy her work but this story was too unrealistic and dissapointing. I was willing to give the author creative license with the story of Stephen the Wolfman but she left too many questions unanswered. Here are a few but there are more:Why was Robin able to walk right out of the hospital with Stephen and nobody ever questioned his whereabouts? Why did the guard unlock the handcuffs so quickly on just Robin's say so? Why did Robin want to bring him into her household while she was going through a messy divorce and money problems? How come Stephen learned to read, write and play chess so quickly? I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone but I do recommend reading "Local Girls" also by Ms. Hoffman. Its a better story and truly shows how much talent Ms. Hoffman has.
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Summary: I absolutely loved this book!
Review: I may be biased, because I just love this author, but this was truly a great book. You begin reading it like it is a fairy tale, and soon forget the unlikeliness of the story line -it becomes utterly real to you. This was truly an excellent book - I don't know if I would have read it if I was unfamiliar with the author, but I am so glad I did. I recommend it to all of my friends.
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Summary: Hoffman's Best Book
Review: I read this years ago, but figured I should add to the positive reviews of this really wonderful novel. Maybe it's my romantic side, but I absolutely loved it. It is blamed for being unrealistic. OF COURSE it's unrealistic. Men, brought up by wolves do not turn civilized in the matter of weeks. But SN does not claim to be an anthropology textbook. It is a love story, and an extremely beautiful one at that. It is also the best that Hoffman has written (I think)--the atmosphere of a little town where time stands still is done masterfully, as is the atmosphere of that same town when something goes dreadfully wrong. The romance between the main characters is wonderful. I highly recommend it to all you romantics out there (but NOT to those seeking to read a true antrhopological account).
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Summary: Pure Magic!
Review: I've read several of Ms. Hoffman's books and enjoyed them all. Second Nature, however, stole my heart. I loved it. Then I read the reviews and comments from some of the other readers and had to sit back and wonder why it moved me so much while other readers clearly found it unbelievable. I'm a published author myself, and as such, a very critical reader. So, yes, there were plot holes, things that couldn't possibly have happened. But Ms. Hoffman's weaves a spell of magic with her writing that forced me to suspend disbelief. Her books take me back to when I read for the pure pleasure of the story rather than how she plotted a scene or developed a character. Her writing is simple and beautiful, and I couldn't have cared less whether Robin could have actually walked out of that hospital with Stephen. Or whether a she-wolf would in reality take in a human child and raise her as her own. I wanted to believe, and for the space of this very special book, I did. To me, that's pure magic.
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Summary: Second Nature vs. First Nature
Review: Like the greatest American novelists (Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, even Poe), Alice Hoffman always deals with the greatest questions in human life--questions that are cosmic or theological. In this book, she deals with Nature vs. Civilization--and which is more "human." She revives the old myth of the man raised by wolves, who is then reintroduced to civilization. Her commentary on the self-absorption and falsity of civilization is wry and frank; her views of the attractions of nature are brutal and hypnotic. A classic novel.
Rating: 
Summary: I found it a great read
Review: This is the second Alice Hoffman book I've read. Although it's not as brilliant as her "Blue Diary", I still found it wonderful. I read it in a night. No, I didn't think I'd ever read a story about a man raised by wolves and like it. Hoffman treats her subject so well however, that I was drawn right in, facts be dammed. It's a story about relationships and how we as humans often times act like animals and vice versa. Try this book, I think you'll like it!
Rating:
Summary: implausible but enjoyable
Review: This is the second Alice Hoffman book I've read. Although it's not as brilliant as her "Blue Diary", I still found it wonderful. I read it in a night. No, I didn't think I'd ever read a story about a man raised by wolves and like it. Hoffman treats her subject so well however, that I was drawn right in, facts be dammed. It's a story about relationships and how we as humans often times act like animals and vice versa. Try this book, I think you'll like it!
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