The Practical Magic series by Alice Hoffman, is just a treat to read. It is a series of magic realist romances, beautifully written, full of heart. There are fantasy elements in here, but it really is not genre fantasy fiction, being very solidly grounded in day-to-day reality, albeit a reality suffused with practical magic – healing minor illnesses, helping with love (bringing it and ending it), - and all the matters that traditional cunning folk deal with, and with the darker magic of curses and revenge as minor key elements. I'm savouring her writing and am likely going to seek out more.
I’m dealing with the books in the order they were written although two books are prequels and one a sequel to the first. If you prefer to read them in their chronological order, it’s Lessons, Rules, Practical, and Book. I noticed as I was reading through them that Hoffman’s understanding of folk magic became richer, and she added more spells, potions, and magical details into the later books. Her writing also became more assured, and the characters became richer and more fully developed in the later books. The first book is very good but the last two are better still.
The series centres on the Owens family, descended from a witch, Maria Owens, who settles in Salem, Massachusetts, and suffers through the famous persecutions there in the late 1600s, although she survives. The family is cursed so that anyone who loves and is loved by an Owens will die young and the curse passes along through the bloodline along with magical abilities. Naturally, the Owens try to avoid falling in love, but inevitably they do. In various ways throughout the series, they search for love and try to find a way around the curse.
Practical Magic is centred on two Owens sisters, Gillian and Sally, who are orphans being raised by their eccentric aunts in the family home in Salem in the 1980s-90s. The bond of love between the sisters, who are very different people (Gillian a bit of a wild child, and Sally very grounded), as they both look for love and magic, drives the plot. Their aunts, particularly Jet, offer magical services to the community, especially around matters of love. The sisters and the aunts have to deal with the death of an abusive partner of Gillian and his haunting of the family, as well as other unfortunate romantic entanglements, love, and loss.
Rules of Magic is an immediate prequel and deals with Jet and Franny, the aunts, and their brother Vincent, the first boy to ever be born into the family, their mother who tries to shield them from the family curse and exploration of their magical abilities in the 1960s. The tragic curse kills several men that the sisters love and drives their brother to fake his death in order to be with the man he loves, and they all reluctantly embrace magic. Hoffman included more practical magic tips – herbalism, simple spells, potions and lotions.
Magic Lessons is the story of the start of the Owens line in rural England and then later in New England in the 1600s. The characters are richly developed and the themes of careless love and betrayal, and the difference between lust and mature love are well developed. Hoffman lards the story with quite a lot of practical magical tips, some Wiccan elements and folk magic. The witchcraft trials and persecutions are thoughtfully presented and not sensationalized.
Book of Magic is set in the present and follows Gillian, Sally, Franny, and Sally’s children Antonia and Kylie, and the reunion with Vincent. It continues the themes of love and family from the previous three books as the family tries to find a way to break the curse so that they can finally live and love. The occult element of dark magic is much more prominent in this book as Kylie is drawn to it to save the man she loves. Again, the protective mother, Sally, had kept the family heritage of magic and the attendant curse from her daughters and had denied her magical abilities until it was almost too late.
The exploration of the profound importance of love, the need for connection and meaning, sacrifice, and the deep family love of the characters, the beautiful writing, and the exploration of practical magic and folk magic in the past and present, all make these books absorbing. There is wisdom and compassion, and an understanding of the ethics of magic use, in these books
~review by Samuel Wagar
Author: Alice Hoffman
Penguin / Random House, 1995
Simon and Schuster 2017, 2020, 2021
286 pg., 366 pg., 396 pg., 378 pg.
