Just Finished Reading: Property Of….. by Alice Hoffman (FP: 1974)

She knew exactly what she wanted and was determined to get it. But there was one thing that she would never be – Property. She would never wear the leather jacket proudly displayed by the girls declaring that they were Property of the Orphans. She had another ambition – to be the only woman of the leader, the President of the Orphans himself: McKay. When Danny the Sweet finally relented and promised to introduce them she knew this might be her only chance to make an impression on McKay and Fate or something else had her back for that was the night when the Orphans would extract their bloody revenge on their rivals and prove that she what it took. McKay wasn’t easily impressed but the girl certainly had something apart from her attitude. But she didn’t impress The Dolphin, not at all. He told McKay straight up, in front of her, that she was bad news and that she’d cause him nothing but trouble but McKay had already stopped listening and she knew from that moment that she had her prize. McKay was hers. At least for a while. Until that is McKay’s ambition for power and influence led him to the means to have both – and money too, lots of money. Connections were made and promises exchanged. If the other gangs could be swept off The Avenue the Orphans could have exclusive rights to the distribution of as much heroin as they could handle. McKay was eager to run the whole show. Almost as eager as he was to try the merchandise despite everything she could do to stop him. Nothing worked. Nothing could turn him away from the needle. There was only one thing she could do to get his love back, to compete with a chemical. She could get him to inject her too.

I loved the movie Practical Magic and when I read the book I loved it all the more. After hearing that the author had penned a sequel I bought it and resolved to read everything that Ms Hoffman had penned and this was her first novel. To say that I was surprised by its subject matter – New York street gangs in the 1970’s and the heroin epidemic that swept through them – is a massive understatement. I’m not exactly sure what I expected but this was most definitely not it.  First published when she was only 22 years old this is a stunning achievement. Although few of the characters in the book are admirable (and not remotely lovable) they are all completely credible. No one, most especially the unnamed narrator, are free from emotional damage. Their drivers are primal – fear, loss, regret and the overwhelming need to belong no matter the cost. McKay is driven by his concept of honour and is destroyed when he is witnessed performing a dishonourable act that cannot be excused. The descent into drug use is gradual but completely believable. If the author wasn’t drawing on personal experience she seemed to be drawing on the real experiences of others. Consequently this is definitely not the book for anyone of a sensitive nature. There’s some violence here although more threat than actual and some sex without much detail, but it is the slide into drug induced oblivion that will stay with you – the desperate joy of heroin addiction that eats you alive as you both crave the hit and despise the need. Gritty doesn’t cover it. Despite everything though this is a stunningly poetic and, at times, quite beautiful novel. As a first novel it is frankly astounding in its seemingly effortless accomplishment. A must read from those with a strong enough constitution. Definitely more from Ms Hoffman to come.