Practical Magic is one of my favorite movies of all time. I love the music, the love story, and above all, the aunts. If Dianne Weist and Stockard Channing were to show up at my door, right this moment, wearing looney hats and torn stockings, I would follow them to the ends of the earth, no questions asked. I happened across the novel that Practical Magic was based on, and knew I had to read it. Usually I don’t like to read a book after watching the movie, especially if it’s a movie I’ve seen so many times as to have memorized it. But I finally read the Princess Bride last year after my one-millionth movie viewing, and loved it because it added so much to the film. So I figured I would give it a shot.
The novel Practical Magic is very different from the film, but shares enough to make them both enjoyable. The book is much more focused on Sally and Gillian (I’m assuming everyone has seen this movie/knows the storyline here, but I’ll run through the plot of the novel in a second), and Sally’s two daughters (barely featured in the film). The aunts rarely make an appearance (sad!) but do come save the day in the end.
Basically, the Owens women are all witches, to one degree or another, and everyone in town has known it and persecuted them for two hundred years. Sally hates being different, and tries her best to be a “normal” person: gets married, has two kids. When her husband dies, she leaves the town and does her best to raise her daughters as normal kids in a new town. But of course, her crazy sister and the magic catches up with her.
It’s a cute story, and Hoffman does a great job writing two teenage girls as sympathetic while exploring their anger and resentment with their family, which I imagine is not easy to do. The novel is told more from their perspective than the movie, which mainly focused on Sally and Gillian. I feel like I got a more rounded story by reading the book and seeing the movie, even though the plot lines vary. It just felt like spending more time with people I already loved.
See, I read Practical Magic long before watching the film, and recall pretty much hating the movie adaptation because it was so far from the book I loved. As such, I found it fascinating to read your review and your angle on the situation.
Speaking of books featuring sisters and everyday witchcraft – have you read Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen? It’s a lovely book, which reminded me a lot of Practical Magic. My review of it is here (from way back in 2009, which I think was my first CBR: http://kingmagu.blogspot.no/2009/12/cbr-13-garden-spells-by-sarah-adddison.html
I love books and movies that compliment each other. I adore every iteration of The Princess Bride, the book, the film, the soundtrack. I feel pretty much the same way about Stardust. I actually liked Gone Girl and The Perks of Being a Wallflower better after seeing the films. Then there are all those sad cases where the book is just so superior to the film.
I wondered how I would have felt seeing the movie after the book, since they did change the plot. I loved the whole thing in movie with Sally creating a man she loved then meeting him. They had such good chemistry. But if I was already smitten with a different plotline, I probably would have been annoyed.
I totally second your thoughts on those other adaptions (expect for Wallflower…that book frustrated me and I never saw the movie). But I loved Stardust even more after seeing the movie, and it’s one of my favorite audiobooks. Gone Girl, too, was well-complimented by the film.
I haven’t read Garden Spells–I’ll have to check it out. I read Sarah Addison Allen’s Sugar Queen and it was just darling–I bet I’ll like Garden Spells, too.
Thank you for your comment and recommendation!