Book review: The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman

If you can't get away from it all this summer, let your mind drift to the island of St Thomas. Immerse yourself in a fictional account of the life of the mother who helped give birth to an art movement. Time-travel to Rachel Pizzarro's early 1800s childhood in the island's tight-knit Jewish community. Learn the history of historic St Thomas synagogue's sand floor, which Jews forced into hiding used to muffle the sound of prayer.

The prolific Alice Hoffman's latest work is rich with details that transport readers to a tropical paradise. The Marriage of Opposites invites comparisons to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but Hoffman follows her own star.

The book shifts between first person and third person; the first-person passages read swiftly. Chapter headings noting place, date and character provide structure that make shifts in point of view less intrusive.

Although women of the time are not educated, Rachel's father gives her access to his library, and she pines to see Paris. Rachel comes of age believing she is destined for something more than her apparent lot in life: marriage to a financially stable man. From what she has seen, "marriage was hard labour, not a fate I looked forward to".

Real-world problems of the era - trade difficulties, cholera and social pressures - underlie the conflicts in the book.

At first, Rachel resents a male relative who is summoned from Paris to run the family business. Her mother nixes the notion of Rachel's leadership with a comment painfully reminiscent of the time: "You could never accept the fact that you were a woman and nothing more."