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Practical Magic (Paperback)

by Alice Hoffman (Author) "FOR more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in town ..." (more)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (142 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 286 pages
Publisher: Berkley (TRD); Reissue edition (Aug 5 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425190374
ISBN-13: 978-0425190371
Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13 x 2.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 250 g

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (142 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #52,123 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in these categories:

#2 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( H ) > Hoffman, Alice
#16 in	Books > Religion & Spirituality > Fiction > Visionary Fiction
#32 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Metaphysical

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

For most adults, fairy tales are among the childish things we've put away. Alice Hoffman, however, feels differently. Practical Magic starts out as a tale of Gillian and Sally Owens, two orphaned girls whose aunts are witches--of a mild sort. For the past two centuries, Owens women have been blamed for all that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town, ever since their ancestor arrived, rich, independent, and soon accused of theft: "And then one day, a farmer winged a crow in his cornfield, a creature who'd been stealing from him shamelessly for months. When Maria Owens appeared the very next morning with her arm in a sling and her white hand wound up in a white bandage, people felt certain they knew the reason why." The aunts are daily ostracized by the same upstanding citizens who sneak to their house at night for magical love cures. To the sisters they are for the most part benevolently absent, though their bell, book, and candle routine makes life a torment for Gillian, beautiful and blonde and lazy, and Sally, who's all too responsible. But when one of the aunts' cures works too well, ending as a curse, the dangers of real love become all too clear. In Hoffman's world being bewitched, bothered, and bewildered is no mere metaphor--and neither is desire. The elbows of one enamored man pucker a linoleum counter, another walks around with singed cuffs. It's difficult to catch the author's power in brief quotes. She needs space and increment to build her exquisite variations of vision and reality, her matter-of-fact announcements of the preternatural. Practical Magic again and again makes one recall the thrill of hearing at bedtime, "Now will I a tale unfold..." --Kerry Fried --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Her 11th novel is Hoffman's best since Illumination Night. Again a scrim of magic lies gently over her fictional world, in which lilacs bloom riotously in July, a lovesick boy's elbows sizzle on a diner countertop and a toad expectorates a silver ring. The real and the magical worlds are almost seamlessly mixed here, the humor is sharper than in previous books, the characters' eccentricities grow credibly out of their past experiences and the poignant lessons they learn reverberate against the reader's heartstrings, stroked by Hoffman's lyrical prose. The Owens women have been witches for several generations. Orphaned Sally and Gillian Owens, raised by their spinster aunts in a spooky old house, grow up observing desperate women buying love potions in the kitchen and vow never to commit their hearts to passion. Fate, of course, intervenes. Steady, conscientious Sally marries, has two daughters and is widowed early. Impulsive, seductive Gillian goes through three divorces before she arrives at Sally's house with a dead body in her car. Meanwhile, Sally's daughters, replicas of their mother and their aunt, experience their own sexual awakenings. The inevitability of love and the torment and bliss of men and women gripped by desire is Hoffman's theme here, and she plays those variations with a new emphasis on sex scenes?there's plenty of steamy detail and a pervasive use of the f-word. The dialogue is always on target, particularly the squabbling between siblings, and, as usual, weather plays a portentous role. Readers will relish this magical tale. BOMC main selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
FOR more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in town. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

142 Reviews

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (142 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars "Plant lavender for luck. Fall in love whenever you can", Feb 10 2009

By	J. Macgillivray "Maritime Bookworm" (Moncton, NB, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A beautiful and magical story about love and the bond between sisters, with the author's trademark mystical touch. One of my favourite books.

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3.0 out of 5 stars There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain..., Nov 17 2008

By	GinRobi (Timmins, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practical Magic (Paperback)

When their parents died, Sally stepped up to bad, calming the sitter down long enough to have her riffle through her mother's address book and called the aunts. If the aunts didn't step up to the plate, Sally and Gillian would become wards of the state.

The aunts took them in. While growing up, Sally and Gillian are teased and tormented while growing up, asll all Owens daughters are. Gillian, the youngest, rude and selfish, runs away at 18. Sally, ever so smart, calm and responsible, has done nothing but take care of them all, cleaning, laundry, healthy meals. She meets a man, falls in love and has two beautiful girls, Antonia and Kylie.

When her husband dies, remained in bed for year before she finally awakens and begins fresh. She's tired of the life she lives while in the aunts' house; Kylie, the youngest, is much like Sally, while Antonia is growing up just as spoiled, rude and selfish as her aunt Gillian. Desperate for a change, she buys a house on Long Island and moves the girls away.

And just when the monotony of life feels comfortable to Sally, Gillian shows up at her door in the middle of the night, her mean and abusive boyfriend, Jimmy, stone cold dead in the passenger seat of his car. In the heat of the moment, it's decided they'd bury Jimmy in the back yard.

And that's when their lives completely change...

While I thought the story was good, I had a hard time with it. Yes, the characters were interesting, watching them grow, and change from who they were to someone better, learning about themselves as they go along. When Hoffman wanted her character to be rude, the character was; happy, sad, determined... You could feel everything with the characters.

But I had such a difficult time reading this one. There were no chapters, only four parts - which made it a long story with no breathing room. It was getting to the point where my attention was wandering and I wanted to skim the pages, which I barely refrained from doing. There was no separation between scenes from the past, present, and future; it's reading memories as each of the characters are in focus, or what's to come later. And no differentiation between characters, either. And for me, that's a huge fault, and it took away from the book. I hate to say it, but if I'd read the book first, I may have never had the urge to watch the movie. And I own the movie on VHS and DVD.

However, I thought the feelings and lessons learned were beautiful. How each learned to love, forgive, forget, changing themselves into a better person, is the best part of the story. I'm rating this one 3.5 stars - I say read it and come to your own conclusions.

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5.0 out of 5 stars top plot, top creative writing, from a top author!, Mar 11 2006

By	paula b "paula" (surrey, england!) - See all my reviews

like returning to an old friend, to re-read this book, love the movie, love the soundtrack
the only problem i had was the difference in storyline, after the film, everytime i read a piece of antonia's or kylie's character, realising they had switched the two over, & also made their screen characters younger,
however, after reading this, i noticed that the crossover from book to film had been undertaken with care, & preserved a lot of the original quotes written
the film also evoked much more warmth, or at least the screen characters did, than those originally in the book.
this really is one of my fave stories ever, & my fave movies also. it really is totally magic. & one of my faves from alice hoffman, along with here on earch & turtle moon.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Completely different from the movie - beautifully written
The movie version of this story is one of the most fun, exhilerating movies - a favorite in this household. This book bears very little relation to the movie. Read more

Published on May 31 2004 by Mary C

4.0 out of 5 stars Magical. But....isn't beauty in the eye of the beholder?
I love Alice Hoffman. So does the rest of the literature world, it would seem. Her books capture me, make me emotional and I can't (usually) put them down. Read more

Published on Jan 11 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down.
I read the book before I saw the movie. I loved it. I found it an easy, relaxing read. It was scary without being a horror story. Read more

Published on Nov 22 2003 by cyclista

4.0 out of 5 stars From a Younger Sister
This is a must-read for ALL older and younger sisters out there. Read it and experience it. Learn from it. You'll not regret reading this book.

Published on Nov 21 2003 by D. Smith