It is always nice to see all the faces on the screen for our Zoom Bookclub meeting. Present tonight, Betty, Carla, Colette, Jane, Janet, Linda, Marg, Michèle and Shirley. The book discussed tonight was Michèle's choice Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman.
Ms Hoffman is an American novelist born in New York City in 1952. She studied creative writing and now lives in Boston. She wrote over 30 novels, 3 short story books and 8 children's or YA novels.
Magic Lessons is part of a series of three books about the Owens family, all women. The first book of the series was Practical Magic written in 1995, The Rules of Magic was written in 2017 and Magic Lessons was published in 2020. Both of these last two books are prequels, written after the original book. A fourth book will be published next year about the whole Owens family.
Magic Lessons begins in the late 1600's and is the story of Maria Owen abandoned as a newborn in the snowy fields of rural England. She is found by Hannah Owens and raised by her until the age of 11. It becomes evident that Maria has magical powers and Hannah teaches her the Nameless Arts, the herbs and remedies that help for physical maladies a those of the heart. When Hannah is murdered, to save herself Maria leaves England and finds herself on a tropical island in Central America and then goes on to America. The story follows Maria to Salem, Massachusetts where she travels to find the father of her daughter Faith. She is arrested and found guilty of witchery. The story continues when Maria escapes but loses her daughter Faith. Jolene, who passed away in 2018, would have enjoyed this book since it has a happy ending, tying all the loose ends.
Most of our members enjoyed the book. Many found it read like a fairytale and was a page-turner. The characters were well developed and interesting. It was an easy read, easy to follow the story and plot. There are many contrasts in the story, good & evil of course, selfless use of magical powers as Maria did and selfish use of magical powers as her birth mother Rebecca did. Many of us felt like yelling at Maria and Faith when they made poor choices, almost always about men! We were definitely immersed in the story! We were also all intrigued by the black soap that all women wanted and bought from Maria.
Janet pointed out that we have read other books that use magical realism, Yann's Martel's The High Mountains of Portugal and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. She also noted that this is the 3rd book we have read in the last year that is in the time of the Great Plague of London of 1665, The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish and Bush Runner : The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson by Mark Bourrie.
Maria sang the lullaby The Water is Wide to her daughter Faith as some of us did with our own children. Thank you Janet for reminding us. This was a good book to read during these difficult times in today's world, easy to escape to another time, a fairytale.
