jewishledger.com:

Author Alice Hoffman wrote her first novel, “Property Of,” at the age of 21, while attending the Stanford University Creative Writing Center on a Mirrellees Fellowship. That was some 35 years ago. Since then she has become one of the country’s more prolific writers, publishing a total of 18 novels, two books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults. Her novel, “Here on Earth,” was an Oprah Book Club choice, and two of her novels, “Practical Magic” and “Aquamarine” were made into Hollywood films. Her latest novel, “The Story Sisters”, tells the tale of three Long Island sisters coming of age.

Q: Fairy tales and magic are a theme in several of your books. Can you tell me why that is? Why is that such a strong interest of yours?

A: I was very fascinated with traditional fairy tales and the whole idea that they were really stories that were told from grandmother to grandchildren. That’s the tradition of the fairy tale – that they are really stories told by women. Reading them as a child, I always thought that they were very emotionally true in a way that a lot of other children’s literature wasn’t at that time. But I think that there is the whole Jewish tradition of Jewish folk tales and, reading Singer and reading Kafka, magic is really threaded through the Jewish tradition of fiction.

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Interesting take on magic and fairy tales. I haven’t read any of her books, have you? Do her ideas sound interesting to you?