I do not have an issue with magical realism in books; in fact, I enjoy it. Isabel Allende and Sarah Addison Allen both use it — in very different ways — to add spark and dimension to their novels. Alice Hoffman’s Illumination Night, by contrast, seems weighed down by it — or maybe that was just the utterly depressing story. “He fell in love with the way she closed her eyes, long before he fell in love with her.” In Martha’s Vineyard, we’re introduced to a […]
A Strange Romance in Early 20th Century New York
Alice Hoffman’s The Museum of Extraordinary Things tells the story of Coralie, a “mermaid” girl forced to perform in her father’s freak show on Coney Island, and Eddie, who made his living for years by finding people, and has been tasked to find another young girl after a horrible disaster. Coralie and Eddie meet, and things change forever. “You are the one who taught me that love was never what we expected it to be and that it was all we needed. For that, and for a thousand […]
If you like your romances dark…
I’m reluctant to give too much information about the plot of Alice Hoffman’s Here on Earth. I didn’t really know what it was about going in, and I think that made it a much more compelling and surprisingly good read (especially for a novel I grabbed for $3 back on recognition of the author’s name only). That’s probably because lines like the following, which can be read in different ways and therefore reveal different things about the characters: “Unfinished business always comes back to haunt […]
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
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 […]