Book Review - Alice Hoffman's The Rules of Magic
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: October 10th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 369 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)
Teenagers Franny, Jet, and Vincent live with their parents on the Upper East Side. For New York City in the 1950s their parents cherish their respectability and normalcy, which is why their children are never allowed below Fourteenth Street. Once New York City's grid starts to break down into villages and anything deemed "lower" it was off limits. They could not mix with the "other." But then again, their mother Susanna had a plethora of nonsensical rules; no walking in the moonlight, no Ouiji boards, no candles, no red shoes, no wearing black, no going shoeless, no amulets, no night-blooming flowers, no reading novels about magic, no cats, no crows, and never ever fall in love. Yet there was no denying that the children were odd and would do as they pleased, spending hours in Central Park or wherever their mother was least likely to find them. Then when Franny turned seventeen everything changed. Every Owens ever has had to spend their seventeenth birthday at the house Maria Owens built in Massachusetts. The current doyenne of the house on Magnolia Street is their Aunt Isabelle. Feeling that it's better to get things over and done with Susanna ships off all three of her children knowing they will finally learn the truth, they come from a long line of witches. They aren't just odd, they're magical. If you would have told them that this one summer would forever change the course of their lives they wouldn't have believed you. But it is the truth. They have all this power yet they are cursed. Those they love will perish. And their "wild child" cousin, eighteen year old April, also spending the summer with Aunt Isabelle is more of a catalyst than any of them could have guessed in regard to life and love. Yet three naive teenagers told that they must not love will soon realize that love, and magic, is everywhere. Even Vincent, who at fourteen, is trying to solidify a persona of cynical ladies man will one day be undone by love. First Franny starts to fall for her best friend Haylin, cherishing the letters they share over the summer. Then it's Jet's turn. Jet's romance that will change their family forever. She just doesn't fall hard, she falls hard for the wrong boy. He is descended from the man who tried to destroy Maria Owens resulting in the family curse. The families, despite being related, have continued to carry the grudge. And one perfect day in New York City both families will lose everything. Jet will be forever changed. Forever blaming herself for the lose of her love, her parents, her home, and her powers. But Franny, Jet, and Vincent slowly pick up the pieces of their lives and learn that love is worth it. Because to be human is to suffer loss. And sometimes, when the stars align, something miraculous can emerge from the rubble.
The Rules of Magic will leave you nostalgic for a life that was never yours. You will slip into the past and wander the streets of New York City and ponder all the paths both taken and untaken. You will fall in love, which you should do whenever you can. I remember the time I fell in love with the movie Vertigo. You might be asking, what does this have to do with this book? Well, actually, a lot as you will see. Because of how the studio system used to work when Kim Novak was lent to Paramount to make Vertigo Columbia got to have Jimmy Stewart for one of their films in return. It just so happened that the two leads would star opposite each other again in the reciprocal film, Bell, Book and Candle. In my mind Vertigo is one of the best films ever made, even if the ending is beyond tragic. But there will always be a part of me that couldn't help but wish that Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak could get their HEA. One day when I was at Walmart I saw Bell, Book and Candle in the DVD dollar bin. I knew nothing about it other than that it starred Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak and was only a dollar so I bought it. Years later I caught part of the movie on AMC during Christmas and remembered that long ago day in Walmart and dug the DVD out. Every Christmas Eve since has been spent watching Bell, Book and Candle with my family. It's our tradition to watch Gillian Holroyd and Shep Henderson fall in love. It just so happens she's a witch. One who walks barefoot through Greenwich Village and drinks at the local watering hole, the Zodiac Club, where her brother Nicky plays in the band. But one thing she forswears is love. To fall in love means to lose your powers. Of course, we all know where this is going. When I was rereading Practical Magic recently when Gillian Owens shows up on her sister Sally's doorstep with a car full of trouble her physical description is that of Kim Novak as Gillian Holroyd. I mean, the name was a bit of a giveaway that Alice Hoffman was a fan of the film, the description was a nail in the sole of a witch's foot. But nothing prepared me for how her love of Bell, Book and Candle would infuse The Rules of Magic. This book is a love letter to that film. It inhabits the same world while being its own thing. You can imagine the characters passing each other on the street one day and nodding to each other. And this is not just because Vincent one snowy day while out shopping with his sisters turns the streetlights out one by one like Nicky does on Christmas morning, but because of the whole spirit of this book. The worry about what you are verses what you are expected to be. Concern for giving into your powers. And the ever present conundrum of love. Can you give in to love when you are cursed to shun it? I just felt wrapped up love. Love of a film that means something to me with new characters that have grown to mean something to me. The Rules of Magic is a book I will return to as I do Bell, Book and Candle. It will become one of my traditions.
