Faithful

September 5, 2016
The sweet-natured latest novel from Hoffman (The Marriage of Opposites) ambles along pleasantly enough as it
follows the recovery from grief of young Shelby Richmond. As a high school senior, Shelby is driving with her best friend Helene one snowy February night on Long Island when her car goes out of control, leaving Helene in a coma and Shelby ridden with guilt. After a suicide attempt, three months in a psychiatric institution, and a couple of years hiding out in her parents’ basement smoking marijuana, Shelby moves to Manhattan, gets a job, makes friends, rescues several dogs, finds a calling, and finds and loses and then finds love. She’s helped along on this path by homemade postcards from a mysterious source with messages such as “Feel something” and “Save something.” A subplot involving the magical powers attributed to Helene by the hundreds of people who troop faithfully to her door in hopes of a cure goes almost nowhere, and Shelby’s life—one learning experience after another—is oddly episodic. The novel, with its hopeful message and well-intentioned characters, will appeal for the relatability of Shelby’s slow coming-of-age, romantic difficulties (many of her own making), difficulty in choosing a career, and changing relationship with her parents. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM Partners.

Starred review from January 30, 2017
Actress Tamblyn, known for playing the title role in the TV series Joan of Arcadia, inhabits Hoffman’s story so naturally it is almost as if it was written for her. The novel opens with a car accident involving two high school seniors on a snowy night on Long Island. The accident leaves one of the young women, Helen, in a coma and the other, Shelby Richmond, who was driving the car, seemingly determined to punish herself in perpetuity for what happened to her friend. Tamblyn captures the bleak despair of the novel’s opening and then slowly, gingerly, traces Shelby’s fledgling attempts to build a life for herself. Sometimes Shelby’s early behavior is appalling, but it stems from her self-hatred and survivor’s guilt; the challenge for Tamblyn is to depict the raw fury of Shelby’s aftermath but also show listeners enough of the character’s goodness and humanity that they champion her cause. She portrays Shelby as tough as nails but also achingly vulnerable. She also turns in fabulous interpretations of other characters, particularly of Maravelle, a single mom trying to make ends meet in New York whom Shelby befriends later in life. A Simon & Schuster hardcover.