The Magic of Magical Realism

I've always heard of magical realism, but I've never really read anything that would technically qualify as fitting into that genre. Until now. For one of my courses, we're reading The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. I'd heard descriptions of what constitutes as magical realism before...and I thought that it was really just a sort of shoot-off of science fiction and fantasy. I was wrong.

It seems that magical realism is very, very realistic. Everything is set in our world, with normal characters and settings and events. But then out of nowhere, something just insanely unrealistic pops up, but you are just supposed to buy it as being as real as everything else. I have to say, I'm having a hard time with this.

Take Rosa from The House of the Spirits. She is the daughter of a normal family, where all of the other members of the family seem to be normal people. But she has green hair. No, she doesn't dye her hair green...she was born with green hair. Now, my uncle used to pick on me all the time when I was growing up...I've got red hair, and he always told me that I had green hair. But I didn't really have green hair, I had red hair. But Rosa...Rosa has green hair. Hmm...Okay... And it doesn't stop there! Rosa is poisoned and dies early on in the novel, and when the doctor performs an autopsy, she has suddenly transformed into a mermaid. A dead mermaid, but a mermaid. With green hair. And we are supposed to believe that as being as real as everything else in the novel.

That is just one early example of this magical realism stuff in the novel. I'm just not really all that sure what to think of it, what to do with it, how to feel about it. I'm very torn. I really enjoy Allende's style of writing overall, but I find myself wishing that these elements were not included in what I am otherwise finding to be a highly enjoyable and artistic novel. It is full of political intrigue, fascinating characters, lush scenery, and a plot that pulls me alongside it. And it is full of this magical realism, which to me, is intrinsically unrealistic.

I need to finish the novel before I really post any more thoughts on this I suppose. But at the moment, I am a bit torn...and intrigued.