Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

I came to the Owens family story through Rules of Magic, published years after the first Owens family novel, the immensely popular Practical Magic. I had liked the characters in Rules and realized their story was rooted in the very real struggles of young adulthood. Afterward, I finally read Practical. 

The prequel to Practical Magic, Magic Lessons, begins in 1664 in Essex, England. It is the story of the first Owens witch who cursed all the Owens women's loves.

The teenage witch Maria tragically loses her mentor and adopted mother. Her biological parents send her to the New World as an indentured servant. On St. Kitts, she honed her craft as a healer. Maria falls in love with the New England merchant John Hathorne, who abandons her without knowing she is pregnant. Maria travels to New England to find John.

She finds passage in exchange for nursing and healing the pirate Samuel Dias, whose Jewish family had fled Portugal. He falls in love with Maria.

Her troubles increase when she does find John. Her very life is threatened by the witch hunters of Salem, her daughter stolen from her.

John Hathorne in the novel is based on the actual magistrate who condemned women accused of being witches to death. (Nathaniel Hawthorne, our great early novelist, added that 'w' to his name to disassociate himself with his ancestor.)

Oh! the ways women have been controlled and punished for overstepping the narrow lives men ordained for them. If a woman reads, she must be a witch. If a woman stands up for herself, she must be punished. If a man is attracted to a woman, she has bewitched him and is evil. Bind them in iron and drown them! Nail their feet to the ground and burn them!

And women are still fighting this battle.

Maria understood that a woman with her own beliefs who refuses to bow to those she believes to be wrong can be considered dangerous.~from Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

The heart of the novel is, of course, love. How women love the wrong men and suffer for it. "Love someone who will love you back," Hannah advises. But how do we know love when we find it? Young people confuse lust with love, always have. We ignore the signs that later seem obvious. Maria rejects her true love, first because of her passion for John, and later because she vows never to love again.

Love was risky, for marriage required women to abdicate all self-determination and choice. Maria's magic helps women from men who abuse them.

I had a neighbor who said, "What goes around, comes around." Hoffman's rule of magic is similar: you get back threefold whatever you do. Best to do good! What magic you bring into the world becomes your responsibility.

Hoffman weaves her stories with flawed characters whose struggles we recognize, for even if they have magic at their command, they are very human. It is no wonder these books are so popular with readers. They offer romance, challenges, strong female characters, life lessons, and in this book a heavy dose of history.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Read my review for  Rules of Magic
Read my review for Hoffman's novel Faithful here.
See my review for Hoffman's novel The Marriage of Opposites here.

Magic Lessons: The Prequel to Practical Magic
by Alice Hoffman
Simon & Schuster
Publication Date October 6, 2020
ISBN: 9781982108847
hardcover $27.99 (USD)

from the publisher

In an unforgettable novel that traces a centuries-old curse to its source, beloved author Alice Hoffman unveils the story of Maria Owens, accused of witchcraft in Salem, and matriarch of a line of the amazing Owens women and men featured in Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic.

Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin? With Maria Owens, in the 1600s, when she’s abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby. Under the care of Hannah Owens, Maria learns about the “Unnamed Arts.” Hannah recognizes that Maria has a gift and she teaches the girl all she knows. It is here that she learns her first important lesson: Always love someone who will love you back.

When Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts. Here she invokes the curse that will haunt her family. And it’s here that she learns the rules of magic and the lesson that she will carry with her for the rest of her life. Love is the only thing that matters.

Magic Lessons is a celebration of life and love and a showcase of Alice Hoffman’s masterful storytelling.

Mini-Reviews: Martin Luther, Renegade to Hoffman's Practical Magic

Martin Luther: Renegade, The Graphic Biography is one of dozens of books that have come out on the 500th anniversary of the Protestant revolution, which began when Luther dared to stand up to church corruption. Although I was tempted to read several of these new books, I could not fit them into my tight reading schedule.

I read Martin Bainton's biography of Luther, Here I Stand, several times, albeit in the 1970s. At Temple University I had a course on the Reformation. Our professor called Luther a cultural icon, a game changer, who freed the common people's minds with a Bible they could read. The result was a peasant uprising against all in power. In a seminary course on The Book of Romans we learned about its influence on Luther.  Most recently I reviewed Brand Luther by Andrew Pettigrew. I have at least a foundation of understanding.

The oversize book of 154 pages is illustrated by Andrea Grosso Ciponte. The art is beautiful, often with striking light and dark contrasts. Some pictures appear painted over photographs. The story by Dacia Palmerino tells Luther's faith journey. Life was brutal in Luther's time, with disease, poverty, and the abuse of power by governmental and church authorities. People turned to faith and the hope of escaping eternal damnation through works-- acts of piety, including church donations called indulgences.

Luther struggles over justification in God's eyes and with the easy buy out offered by indulgences. Reading the Bible he becomes his own theologian and realizes that we are justified in God's eyes by faith, and faith alone, and that works without faith is meaningless.

Luther is excommunicated and goes into hiding for a while, protected by the local prince. He uses the newfangled printing press to great advantage. The peasants rise up and are mowed down by the army. Luther frees the priesthood from celibacy and consents to marry.

I would not suggest this graphic biography for younger readers. It is very dark, even if it did skip Luther's self-flagellation, and the theology and historical milieu would be confusing.

And I am concerned about the portrayal of Luther's later years and emphasis on his talk about the Jews needing to come into the fold now he has reformed the church to a purer state. I would hate it to spur a justifiction of Anti-Semitism.

The end of the biography highlights how Luther ended the power of the Catholic Church over government, for each Prince was free to choose his faith.

I won Renegade from Plough Publishing House through a Publishers Weekly giveaway.

I so enjoyed The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman that I checked out Practical Magic through Overdrive. Rules is a prequel to Practical. The elderly witchy aunts in this book appear as teenagers in the prequel.

This first book about the Owens women was very popular and became a movie. I have not seen the movie.

Plot wise, it is a simple story. Sisters become complicit in hiding one's dead lover. In the end each finds true love. What sets the novel apart are the otherworldly occurrences and the reality of magic in their world.

I could see how Hoffman has grown as a writer in the time between the two books. Practical Magic has a lot of 'magic' rules which gave the novel a specific tone, but slowed the action. The tale is told, with very little dialoge or action. I will warn that the language is also grittier and the plot line involves an abusive lover.

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

I will admit, I have not read Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic, and I am not a fan of books or television series about witches. Except for Bewitched, which I loved, but I was eleven years old then.

Consequently, I did not know what to expect when the publisher offered me The Rules of Magic based on my having read the author's previous books Vinegar Girl, the Hogarth Shakespeare series version of The Taming of the Shrew, and her historical novel The Marriage of Opposites imagining the marriage of the artist Camille Pissarro's parents. Based on the last mentioned book alone, I have collected quite a few Hoffman books now languishing on my TBR shelves!

What happened was unexpected, for I was instantly in love with Hoffman's language and The Rules of Magic characters. Although the novel is about three teenagers struggling with the powers and limitations of having magical abilities, it is really about universal themes: the power of love, and how we must love regardless of the costs, and that we must embrace who we are.

Franny, Jet, and Vincent are complex characters burdened with the knowledge that they are cursed to bring destruction to the men they love. As they grew up, their parents tried to protect them from self-knowledge, but they recognized they were not like other children. "It's for your own good," her mother told Franny. "What makes you think that's what I want?" Franny counters.

"What is meant to be is bound to happen," and in 1960 the children's lives change when they visit their Aunt Isabella, a contact that "inflame[s] characteristics" which were "currently dormant." And over the summer each child learns their genealogy, their abilities, and about the curse and joy of love.

The book was a joy to read, lovely and moving. I felt a deep connection to the characters.

The Rules of Magic is a prequel to Practical Magic, telling the backstory of Frances and Jet who accept their brother's granddaughter into their home. I found I did not need to know the previous book to understand and enjoy this one; it stands on its own, and without any tedious linkage to the other book.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Rules of Magic
by Alice Hoffman
Simon & Schuster
Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
Hardcover $27.99
ISBN: 9781501137471

Faithful by Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman's new novel Faithful is the story of a teenager's descent into guilt and self-loathing after surviving a car accident which leaves her best friend in a coma. Shelby's mental anguish and depression is self-destructive. The novel follows Shelby's journey from the bottom through her slow, tortuous climb back into life.

Shelby is unable to accept the love of a good man, but he does leave her with the goal of becoming a veterinarian. She leaves him for a bad love affair, but finally realizes she can save herself. And her own past mistakes give her the wisdom needed to help her best friend's children find their way past their bad choices.

Shelby's empathy and ability to understand other's pain, and her natural desire to rescue the unfortunate, including abused dogs, become her greatest strengths.

The message of letting go of the past and that even 'monsters' can be 'angels', is inspirational.

I am glad to inform you, that traveling to Hell with Shelby is worth the trip. We rejoice when Shelby finally finds friendship, acceptance, and even love.

I loved The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman which I reviewed here.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Faithful
Alice Hoffman
Simon & Schuster
Publication Date Nov. 1, 2016
$26 hard cover
ISBN:9781476799209

The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman

The lush tropical paradise of St. Thomas in the Caribbean inspired Columbus to call the island Heaven-in-Earth. The sunshine can cut like a knife. The island is drenched in color-- the flowers and birds, sky and sea in shades of orange and red and blue. Mortar is mixed with local molasses.

Two Women Chatting by the Sea, St. Thomas, (1856) by Camille Pissaro

The Pomie family fled the Inquisition and landed in Danish held St. Thomas. Here they could practice their faith in a small enclave of Jews. Just after the turn of the 19th c dreamy seventeen-year-old Rachel Pomie longs for another life, imagining Paris where her father had lived. This is not a time when people made choices; their work and marriages were determined for them. Rachel is married to an older man in order to secure her family's financial security. He is good to her, but is still in love with his deceased wife. Rachel she has been told that she will have a second marriage, a true love.

After her husband's death his nephew arrives to manage the family finances and estates. Frederic Pizzaro is seven years younger than Rachel, a pious and handsome Sephardic Jew who grew up Europe. They fall in love immediately.

There are complications. Rachel is Frederic's aunt by marriage and they cannot marry. They try to stay apart but finally succumb to their passion and then live together. They are shunned until they receive permission to marry.

Their child Jacobo Camille Pissaro  is meant to inherit the family business, but is dreamy and detached. He is sent away to be educated in Paris and is brought home to work at the family business. He longs to escape and dedicate his life to art. He becomes the confident of those with secret knowledge, learning that when someone tells their story you are entwined together. A gifted and self taught artist, Camille becomes the "father of impressionism".

The Pomie-Pizzaro family are surrounded by slaves and the ancestors of slaves. Their pasts and fates are interwoven, alliances are covered up, lies become truth.

Alice Hoffman's novel Marriage of Opposites is atmospheric and romantic. She has taken a few facts and transformed them into a story full of vivid characters with mysterious and complicated pasts. The Jewish community of St. Thomas struggles with these maverick personalities who won't concede to the rules and marry and outside of their faith and race. Hoffman's story does become entwined with the reader.

I thank the publisher and NetGalley for a free ebook in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. It was my first Alice Hoffman novel. It won't be my last.

The Marriage of Opposites
Alice Hoffman
Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: August 4, 2015
ISBN: 978145693591
$27.99 hard cover