The
almost supernaturally prolific American author Alice Hoffman has
taken a busman’s holiday this year to pen a little fan fiction: a
prequel to her own bestselling novel Practical
Magic.
The original book became the 1998 Hollywood romantic comedy starring
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as witchy sisters Gillian and Sally
Owens. Now, in The
Rules of Magic,
set in 1950s New York, we are treated to the backstory of Gillian and
Sally’s great-aunts, Frances and Jet.
Like
all the females in the Owens family tree, Frances and Jet are witches
descended from Salem escapee Maria Owens. More than 300 years ago,
the teenage Maria was seduced and abandoned by Salem trial judge John
Hathorne (real-life great-great-grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne,
who added a “w” in his name to deflect the inevitable
question).
The
fact that Maria’s lover was a state-sponsored serial killer of
women led the young witch to conclude – erroneously, one hopes –
that all men are a bad thing. Thus before she went to her grave Maria
decided to protect her female descendants by casting a spell to
ensure that every male who loves an Owens woman will die, horribly
and fast.
This
spell makes life difficult for Frances and Jet, especially when they
become sexually aware teenagers. In the summer that they go to stay
with their Aunt Isabelle, at least four local lads – including an
adorable pair of 17-year-old twins – come to shocking ends.
Aunt
Isabelle is sanguine about the whole thing, and encourages the girls
to keep on loving boys anyway, saying wisely: “When you truly love
someone and they love you in return, you ruin your lives together.
That is not a curse. It’s what life is, my girl.”
The
girls’ brother, the irresistible wizard Vincent Owens, has a
different problem. As a youth, he breaks the hearts of endless girls,
before realising that he is gay. Yet just as he’s starting to enjoy
himself, he remembers that he too is cursed to die young.
Hoffman
has a soothing touch, so we quickly get over the various
horrific tragedies with which her latest book is littered – any one
of which would pole-axe us personally for life. It’s all the great
circle of death, we comfort ourselves, as we stroll through the
scented garden of Hoffman’s prose.
In the book, Aunt Isabelle
trades love remedies for women’s diamond rings. Hoffman herself has
a spell for which any writer would trade a crate of diamonds – the
ability to turn out one enchanting bestseller after another, more
than 30 novels to date, and probably more by the time I
have finished this review.
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Original Review on: www.theguardian.com
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