The Sealey Challenge (Expanded) Day 22: "The Invisible Hour" by Alice Hoffman *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

I admit that this was a guilty pleasure. It was one of those, oh, is the Owens family or... no, just iconic red boots. Those boots threw me every time they were mentioned though. I would say they were a plot device--but an unnecessary one and just hinting at other iconic novels. But still a bit of a guilty shoe fetish pleasure. Also, this is the second book in less than a month that uses Nathanial Hawthorne, the writer, as a character. Yes, and as a writer that does this to the extreme it intrigues me, but where does it lead us in story, myth, and in the craft of writing? Do we all just follow Lewis Buzbee's model for his Tarzan poem--using a historical person instead of an imaginary pop culture character?

The plot is intriguing, and I find the characters believable. I found myself almost beat over with moral questions though. It is too much of a spoiler to discuss so soon, but current politics must have influenced this story. I, myself, have used the topic and hidden it a bit deeper into the story. There is no right answer to craft--just that this book was overt with opinions that I agreed with.