Home
Practical Magic is probably not Alice Hoffman's best, but it's a fast, clever, and amusing book. While she overdoes the magic realism at times, Hoffman always manages to write with an extra-light, almost wispy touch that's perfectly suited to her modern-day fairy tale about two orphaned sisters raised by professional witches.
For literary fantasy with a sharper edge, try Angela Carter's The Magic Toyshop. Originally published in 1967, her second novel is a creepy and playful send-up of Victorian children's literature: Imagine A Little Princess with an erotic charge. The great thing about Carter's fiction is that you can never predict how it will finish, but the narrative is so transporting that you go eagerly along for the mystery ride.
Equally transporting is Master and Commander, the first novel in Patrick O'Brian's seemingly endless series about life aboard a British man-of-war. I admit, for years I resisted O'Brian because I was afraid I'd get hooked, and I didn't want to spend the rest of my life plowing through 16 sequels. And be warned, this is addictive stuff. The flawless, sensuous evocation of the 19th century, great sea battles, and the complex friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, the ship's surgeon, make for just about perfect escapism.
O'Brian's series is long, though, and if you don't want to spend three quarters of your vacation with your nose stuck in a book, you might consider packing a short-story collection. The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton is sheer delight. Wharton wasn't slumming when she wrote about wretched spirits glimpsed in gloomy mansions, but you can tell she was having a delicious time scaring herself.
A.S. Byatt's The Matisse Stories is haunted by the ghost of the French painter; each of the three semi-comic tales of middle-aged angst is linked to a piece of his art. This minor work from the author of Possession is an entertainment but not a trifle: Her characters' lives are too bittersweet for that.
The poor Haitians in Krik? Krak!, the first collection of short fiction by Edwidge Danticat, are brutalized by the island's culture of tyranny, victimized by superstition and the secret police. Though permeated by the grinding terror of political repression, Danticat's harsh stories are also suffused with grace, courage, and dignity.
And finally, the salted peanuts of summer reading: any one of the six volumes in Paradox Press' "Big Book" series (Urban Legends, Death, Conspiracies, and Weirdos; Freaks and Little Criminals). These anthologies of bizarre trivia and over-the-top personalities done in comic-strip form are frankly irresistible. And like all of this summer's paperback bests, they're perfect for the patio, the deck, the rooftop, or the beach towel. Enjoy.
