This is a series of vivid interconnected scenes from a girlhood friendship lived out intensely against the slow, unfair death of the narrator's likeable mother, who "had always been an eyewitness to other people's problems, yet refused to have any of her own". Local Girls may seem more-of-the-same brand of no nonsense mysticism from a writer of deceptive power. But there is a difference. Hoffman, author of 14 novels, risks a variety of charges from sentimental to arch romance through her brisk Yankee magic realism, while remaining the most readable and humane of writers.
It possesses less magic than usual although there are moments of strangeness. The harshness of reality dictates the pace to such an extent that Gretel, the young narrator, having watched her mother and her best friend support each other against the vagaries of male behaviour, the onset of her mother's illness and the gradual decline of her once straight "A's" brother, emerges as a sharp, wary character with few beliefs. Even the setting is tougher and less romantic than Hoffman's usual lush beat: "people in our town had nervous breakdowns all the time". No one could call it a "feel good" story though the mood is ultimately one of survival.