Magical Realism

A literary genre or mode. There is no general agreement over exactly what it means, although it is agreed that the following works are magic realist:

• Illywhacker; PeterCarey? (Australia)
• Nights at the Circus; AngelaCarter? (UK)
• Immortality; MilanKundera (Czech Republic)
• One Hundred Years of Solitude; GabrielGarciaMarquez (Colombia)
• Midnight's Children and Shame; SalmanRushdie (UK/India)
• Waterland; GrahamSwift? (UK)
• Many short stories by JorgeLuisBorges.
• Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord and sequels; LouisDeBernieres?

Other writers often identified as magic realists include FranzKafka and UmbertoEco.

Magic realism is realist, mimetic writing which contains fantastic elements. Shame is a particularly good example: it concerns the history surrounding a military coup in Pakistan, but as well as power-hungry generals, corrupt bureaucrats and the odd noble hero, it has one character, a general's daughter, who runs off into the countryside and devolves into a beast, hypnotizing crowds of men and tearing their heads off. The juxtaposition of the completely real and the completely unreal is seamless and shocking, and cannot be dismissed as a detail, as it is crucial to the resolution of the story.

My mom handed me down the book Towards the End of Time by John Updike. It was readable but not earthshaking. But now I understand his special effects gimmicks were following a named genre. If I could be disillusioned about JU's prowess, I would be now. >sigh< -- PhlIp

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You know this kind of stuff would probably be better off on BookShelved. as would all book and author references

I think that would require at least a pact between Ward and Laurent regarding page transplants.