![]() ![]() It’s four years later, and it’s clear that Vianne is fearful about something, though it’s hard to tell what or why. The sequel, The Girl with No Shadow, on the other hand, was a puzzle to me. The touches of magic only serve to highlight these issues and keep the book from becoming too intense (and the constant talk of chocolate will have you noshing with one hand while you hold the book with the other). Using the device of injecting this footloose, free-spirited, pagan, magical woman into the humdrum life of a traditional French Catholic town allows the author to examine issues of tolerance and acceptance, religion, relationships, happiness, and even death in a serious but lighthearted manner. The first book is a nearly unalloyed delight. So I actually ended up reading this trilogy in 2-1-3 order, which skewed my viewpoint of the books somewhat. I had seen the movie version of this book several times, and so I felt I could dispense with reading it and move directly to the sequel, but it turned out I was wrong-the book has essential similarities, but also some crucial differences. It is especially potent because of the contrasts between the rural, parochial, cautious inhabitants of Lansquenet-sur-Tannes versus the mother and daughter who are swept into town with not only an ability but almost a mandate to upend everything traditional and narrow about the townspeople and insert some charm and whimsicality into their environs by opening a chocolate shop. When it is used as a crutch instead of as a delightful element or purposeful metaphor, that’s when magical realism can get out of hand.Īll this has led up to my current reading, which is the trilogy about a French chocolate-maker who lets the wind dictate her destination in life.Ĭhocolat, by Joanne Harris, is a quintessential example of magical realism. I am a person who has always enjoyed magical realism, and even I have a tolerance point beyond which I say to the author, “You’ve gone too far!” My breaking point, and it may be this way for others, is when the author begins to “fix” parts of the story as it unfolds by simply making things magical, instead of addressing the situation as it demands. Here’s the thing about recommending books containing magical realism: You have to be sure that your readers understand what it is and welcome its inclusion in the story, because they will either be delighted by it or they will be massively irritated. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough, by Robin Sloan. Other more contemporary examples include Life of Pi, by Yann Martel Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami most titles by Alice Hoffman The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, by Leslye Walton and you could also include such offbeat books as Mr. Some original classics would be One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel and The House of the Spirits and Eva Luna, by Isabel Allende. It can be quirky and fanciful or fraught with significance, but the specific characteristic that makes it magical realism is the author’s refusal to define which elements are real and which are fantastical. ![]() Essentially, magical realism allowed these authors to show or even suggest an alternative to an accepted or established political reality.Īs it diversified from the Latin American authors, the genre has taken on additional qualities, adding surrealism, with its irrational juxtapositions and combinations, and fabulism, incorporating fables and myths into a contemporary setting. Unlike fantasy or science fiction, which set up worlds separate from our own, authors of magical realism simply introduce into our world some slight distortion that forces the reader to question what is real and opens up additional avenues for our minds to ponder. The fantastic and magical elements of the story are presented as normal aspects of everyday life, thus putting the standard structure of reality into question this allowed authors such as Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende to question the political regimes of their day without being instantly labeled as dissidents. The literary movement of magical realism began with Latin American authors, and it has often been used by them as a genre of political subversion. The terms “magical” and “realism” seem antithetical, don’t they? If there’s magic involved, isn’t it fantasy? How can it be realism if there are magical elements in the story? ![]()
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