Practical Magic

by Alice Hoffman

Image courtesy of Amazon.com.

Read for Halloween and keep a copy year-round.

I have to admit something: I bought Hoffman's book after watching (many, many times) Griffin Dunne's film adaption. Which I love. An awful lot. Turns out, Dunne doesn't stay very true to the book. While he uses a few of Hoffman's ideas as a foundation, he contemporizes the approach and upgrades the humor. I still enjoy his version. But Hoffman's is so much more.

The Owens women beget women who have extra-perceptive sixth senses--and an uncanny understanding of love. New Englanders have publicly condemned them and privately acclaimed them for centuries. Blessed and cursed with the laws of attraction, Owens women are famous for making sane men do crazy things. Sisters Gillian and Sally Owens aren't interested in repeating history, however. Gillian tries outsmarting fate by hopping from romance to romance. Sally tries denying it by falling in love--for real. All too soon, they find themselves strapped with the body of an ex-lover and backed into a rather dark corner. The only way they can escape their evil haunter is with a coven women, gallons of weed killer and generations of love.

Hoffman weaves a fluid tale from start to finish that keeps the reader guessing. Her own approach to writing is magical, from the heftiness of her details to the focus of her story arc. Gillian and Sally are very real, very sad women who represent too well the issues of bad relationships and commitment fears. Their lives are not happy. But they learn their endings can be. This story is best read at summer's end, with a hint of fall in the air.

Another thing: Beware if you get a copy that ends on an excerpt from The Rules of Magic. If you must read the excerpt, read it first. Hoffman's approach to the prequel is not so rich.