The Magic of Love

by Fran Withrow 04.2021

Alice Hoffman’s genre is magical realism, and she is so adept at it one half suspects it is all true. This is certainly the case with her latest novel, “Magic Lessons,” which is set in the 1600’s during the Salem witch trials.

“Magic Lessons” is Hoffman’s prequel to “Practical Magic,” and I eagerly devoured it. Hoffman’s writing is deliciously distinctive: characters move through her stories with a dream-like quality, wandering across the pages surrounded by nature. Bees hover nearby, snow falls softly, buds bloom into exquisite life. Hoffman paints the background for her stories seamlessly, and that’s as mesmerizing as the stories themselves. 

In “Magic Lessons,” Maria Owens, abandoned at birth, is raised by a local healer and has special gifts herself. Maria eventually finds her birth mother and father, but they send her away to Curacao, where she is forced into servitude.  There she meets a visiting American, the debonair John Hathorne. Hathorne charms the young girl and declares his undying love for her. She falls for him, only to discover one morning that he has gone back to America without her, and now she is pregnant.

Determined to find him, Maria sets sail for Salem, Massachusetts, along with her baby, Faith.  On board the ship, she uses her healing skills to save the captain’s son, Samuel, from a deadly disease. Samuel falls in love with her but Maria is sure that love, for her, will always be cursed. Oh, what a tangled web!

When Maria arrives in Salem, she discovers her beloved is married. Hathorne, appalled to see her, feels deep remorse over his dalliance with her. He decides to stifle his guilt by seeking to rid the town of anything that smacks of witchery. And why wouldn’t he? Witches are unpredictable and powerful, and that makes many men uncomfortable. Maria is eventually arrested on suspicion of witchcraft and marched to prison while holding her precious daughter against her chest. Knowing she faces the gallows, she relinquishes Faith to a local woman, Martha, who swears she will care for the girl and bring her to visit Maria in jail.

Instead, Martha runs away with little Faith, who grows up forced to hide her own magical gifts until finally she can bear it no longer, turns toward dark magic, and escapes. What happens to Maria, to the selfish and proud Hathorne and his meek little wife, to Martha and to Faith, is just fine writing. I didn’t see how Hoffman could resolve all this in a satisfying way. Will Maria survive the witch hunt? How can she be with her true love when she is convinced their love is cursed? Is her daughter Faith doomed, since she is practicing dark magic for selfish purposes?

Interspersed throughout the book are magic lessons, references to herbs and remedies, and recipes for drinks such as Courage Tea, which I long to have in my kitchen.  

If you have read Hoffman before, you know that love always wins. 

And that is just practically magic.