How well does Magical Realism age?

This post will pick up the Widows of Eastwick but a post on Tracks will be coming soon because I am over half way through the book and have a lot of thoughts on it. But for now I'd like to stick with the Widows of Eastwick and explore the book in terms of Magical Realism. It is particularly interesting to me because at this point in their lives, the women have come to regard their foray into witchcraft as a foolish preoccupation of their youth. Maybe that characterization is a little harsh, but they do not believe in the power in the same way they did when they were recent divorcees.

In the first novel, the women attempt to downplay the role their hex played on Jenny Gabriel's fate by questioning the magic which they had stood by previously. They reasoned that Jenny died due to a natural manifestation of terminal cancer. It was purely coincidental it was only after they placed a hex on Jenny that she began to show symptoms of the disease. So it is no surprise the women continued to distance themselves from witchcraft from that point forward. Lexa herself does not feel the same connection to nature she once did and at the start of the novel she disparages the importance she placed on both nature and witchcraft in her youth. Sukie and Jane feel similarly and make comments to that effect at various points at the novel. Yet when the do finally take a trip together it is to return to Eastwick and get back in touch with their "witchy-roots". Still, it is only Lexa who takes it seriously when they decide to try to erect a cone of power for the first time in thirty+ years. The other two dally on their way back from Jane's hospital visit and are not fully invested in the process which Lexa has so painstakingly set up. The magic is reluctant in this novel when it was abundant in the previous one. There are no transformations of tennis balls or love charms at all. Yet when the women do erect the cone of power, the magic is more undeniable than in any other instance. Sukie's former lover's hand begins to regenerate, Joe Marino's Daughter conceives a baby and Jane dies in a violent fashion. Yet there is a medical explanation for Jane's death not to mention her advanced age. It is a constant conflict and is left unresolved by Updike as to what is actually taking place, how much is magic and how much is scientific.

This conflict is embodied by Darryl Van Horne's replacement, Chris Gabriel. The scene in which Chris is originally summoned by Gretta Neff is a very magical scene and yet when it is later explained by Chris, it was nothing more than a phone call. It is similar to the attacks which Chris makes on Jane and then Lexa. His electron shooter springs from work he did with Darryl and alludes to the devil's work from the original novel, yet Chris himself admits that he doesn't think it works. The discomfort which Jane felt that was originally attributed to Chris could have very well been just her aged body failing her.

So my question is, do these plausible or semi-plausible explanations for the magical elements remove the novel from being considered Magical Realism? If it doesn't, would it be considered more Magically Real or less than the first novel? I believe the novel still can be considered Magical Realism. Updike's characters' propensity to search for logical answers for the magical elements is reflective of the western mindset. It is that propensity which is at the heart of many Latin American author's belief that White America cannot write within the genre. Yet in my opinion, Updike accomplishes just that. By allowing his characters to question what is actually happening, he creates a realistic western reaction to magic. But moments like the regeneration of Sukie's former lover's hand or Jane's death at the price moment she drew her tarot card, suggest that the magic is real and it is more than just a coincidence. So there is the natural questioning of anything which does not follow logic and accepted reality, but the narrative suggests that these moments are actually taking place. The result is a viable form of Magical Realism written by a White American. For the second question, I feel that the second novel is actually more Magically Real than the first. The first novel may contain more actual instances of magic, but it ends with the women trying to undermine the reality of that magic to help alleviate their own guilt of Jenny Gabriel. In this novel, they take the opposite road as they try to get back in touch with the power they once enjoyed. Of course the attempt to distance themselves from that power yet again after Jane's death, but the events that follow (the pregnancy and healing of the hand), provide an affirmation which cannot be denied.

Switching gears, I did enjoy the Witches of Eastwick more. This novel wrapped up a few loose ends from the first, but it tended to meander a little more. It took the first two thirds of the book for the women to even get back to Eastwick. It also covered a greater amount of time through the course of the narrative. Months turn into years before the story gets from start to end. I think those gaps disrupt the flow of the novel. The continuity of time in the first one created a different energy level. In the Widows of Eastwick, the energy ebbs and flows as different story lines reach their full arc before a new one begins. I did enjoy both though and they are worth a read.

Maleficia Revisited

The Widows of Eastwick is John Updike's follow up to the Witches of Eastwick almost a quarter century later. It is set in 2008 (the year the book was published) which makes it almost forty years later than the setting of the first book. At this point the three women live in different parts of the country and their second husbands are either dead or die shortly after the beginning of the novel. The women are all in their 70s and yet still as lively as ever. The novel begins by reintroducing us to Lexa in her new life as a widow in the South-West. The novel start by joining Lexa on a trip Canada. By beginning with Lexa alone, Updike is able to demonstrate how her mentality about life has changed over time. She has lost touch with nature, sees the witchcraft of her younger years as somewhat of a fad and still carries the guilt of what they did to Jenny Gabriel. After the trip the women begin to get back into contact but Sukie's husband is still alive. So Lexa and Jane decide to take a trip together to Egypt. Again, Updike sets up the situation to show the evolution of his characters and how their interaction has changed because of those developments. Finally Sukie's husband passes away and the three women decide to take a trip together.

Where else would the three women go but back to Eastwick of course. They rent a condo in the old Van Horne mansion or more specifically the room which had once been the hot tub room. They immediately are confronted with their past when Lexa runs into the wife of her old lover, Joe Marino. The women also see Gretta Neff, the wife of one of Jane's lovers when they go to a local concert and Sukie meets one of her old lovers when she returns to Dock Street. Their reasons for returning are partly to get back in touch with a part of their lives when the three were connected and they were enjoying themselves, partly to make up for past wrongs and partly to stir up more mischeif.

It is an incredible literary experiment. Such a large amount of time has past and Updike is at such a point in his life that these women are drastically different and yet retain the essence of the earlier characters. It is also incredible how topical this book is. It really nails the post 9/11 hysteria that gripped this country. Writing from the standpoint of an old women who lived through some very momentous times in this country and being written by a man who actually did live through those times, creates a very interesting perspective from which to view recent events. A lot of American hostility toward to Arab world was relflected in Jane and Lexa's attitudes towards Egypt during their trip. It was a very clear picture of the atmosphere that exists throughout most of this country. It was also interesting to see the treatment of sex. Lexa claimed to have lost interest in the physical aspect of sex, but the treatment in this book is far more explicit than when they were in their sexual primes. Especially for Sukie, who does not feel that same absence of a sexual appetite. Her past and current sexual activity is dealt with in some detail when it was skirted with more general description in the Witches of Eastwick. Maybe it is just a relfection of our societies increased acceptance of more explicit sexuality and a greater exposure to sex in general, but it is definitely a noticible shift from how it was previously portrayed.

There is one passage in the book which is incredibly important to my reading of the Witches of Eastwick. The passage is an exchange between Lexa and her eldest daughter who stayed in Eastwick to marry and raise a family,
"Girls your age just can't realize how few opportunities there were for women when I was young. Our job was to make babies and buy American consumer goods. If we fell off the marriage bandwagon, there was nothing much left for us but to ride a broomstick and cook up spells. Don't look so shocked, it was power: Everybody needs power. Otherwise the world eats you up."
"What about children? Isn't having them and loving them power enough for most women?"
"'In sorrow thou shalt bring forth cildren,'" Alexandra quoted, the quotation being fresh in her memory, "'and thy desire shall be to they husband, and he shall rule over thee.' Isn't that utterly disgusting?"

This passage sums up my impression of what Updike was trying to accomplish in the Witches of Eastwick. I felt as though Updike was trying to capture the essence of individual feminism during that time period. Women were given another option towards having control in their own life and an absolution when it came to traditional moral responsibility. As a result, our society went through some what of a tumult because the traditional familial model with women in a position of subordination was rejected. But that was not a bad thing, it was a necessary development. I am going to leave this post here, but I think I will come back to this idea as well as give a few more impressions about this book in my next post. Hopefully my many readers will be able to hold their collective breath in anticipation.