Inside the Magic City, past, present

Published March 4, 2007 Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Oline Cogdill
Magic City. James W. Hall. Minotaur/St. Martin's Press. $24.95. 320 pp.

The sharply plotted Magic City starts with a forgotten photograph. A "random snapshot taken at a cosmically inappropriate split second" illustrating a historical event.

Author James W. Hall uses this "unsparing" black and white photo to put in focus the time when Miami was on the cusp of changing, when Florida was emerging and when race relations in America were evolving.

By the end of the potent Magic City, extended families, new families and old families will have disintegrated because of this photograph.

The picture that sets off the action in Magic City was taken during the 1964 Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston heavyweight-championship fight in Miami. The year 1964 was a heady time for Miami when the fight, visits from the Beatles, famous actors and politicians made the city "the center of the universe." But it's not the shot of Clay's winning punch that causes an uproar, but rather who's in the audience.

A few hours after the photograph was snapped, a family of Cuban exiles and their fervently anti-Castro militiamen were slaughtered. The murders were never solved but were believed to be the work of Castro infiltrators.

An avalanche of action starts rolling when the decades-old snapshot is shown as part of an exhibit. Destroying copies of that photograph, which could incriminate some of Miami's movers and shakers, won't be easy; not when Thorn, Hall's perennial hero, is involved.

Thorn is trying to live part-time in Miami with his girlfriend, Alexandra Rafferty, a major step toward making their relationship even more permanent. Thorn stops two Cuban-American thugs from stealing a copy of the photograph from their home, but his actions will bring danger to himself as well as Alexandra and her father Lawton, whose lucidity has been slipping for years.

Throughout his 14 novels, Hall has shown an affinity for illustrating the different dimensions of South Florida, specifically the Keys that Thorn calls home. For Thorn, there's no choice between the "city of clamor and an island as still as the moon."

By taking Thorn out of his comfort zone of the Keys, Hall makes Magic City a fish-out-of-water story. Thorn doesn't belong in Miami, but he's trying to make it work for himself and his relationship with Alexandra and her father.

Hall does equally well with his villains. The two thugs were the only survivors of that horrific mass murder of their family, but their lives had never been easy, their parents "strangling on hate" of Castro. In the four decades following their family's murder, these two brothers have been "ruined in different ways."

Magic City perfectly illustrates how scenery shapes characters, action and dialogue. Thorn is the hero of Magic City, but the real lead character is Miami, especially the Miami of 1964 and the 2007 version. Hall chronicles the beginnings of contemporary Miami, taking the city from the time it was "departing America, joining the larger world" to become an international city. In 1964, "the tropical air is sugary with innocence and hope. Anything can happen. It is Magic City." Hall makes each description, each reference of the contemporary Miami intersect with old Miami, giving a complete past and present view.

Hall has delivered the quintessential South Florida novel in Magic City.

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	Inside the Magic City, past, present Published March 4, 2007 Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Oline Cogdill Magic City. James W. Hall. Minotaur/St. Martin's Press. $24.95. 320 pp. The sharply plotted Magic City starts with a forgotten photograph. A "random snapshot taken at a cosmically inappropriate split second" illustrating a historical event. Author James W. Hall uses this "unsparing" black and white photo to put in focus the time when Miami was on the cusp of changing, when Florida was emerging and when race relations in America were evolving. By the end of the potent Magic City, extended families, new families and old families will have disintegrated because of this photograph. The picture that sets off the action in Magic City was taken during the 1964 Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston heavyweight-championship fight in Miami. The year 1964 was a heady time for Miami when the fight, visits from the Beatles, famous actors and politicians made the city "the center of the universe." But it's not the shot of Clay's winning punch that causes an uproar, but rather who's in the audience. A few hours after the photograph was snapped, a family of Cuban exiles and their fervently anti-Castro militiamen were slaughtered. The murders were never solved but were believed to be the work of Castro infiltrators. An avalanche of action starts rolling when the decades-old snapshot is shown as part of an exhibit. Destroying copies of that photograph, which could incriminate some of Miami's movers and shakers, won't be easy; not when Thorn, Hall's perennial hero, is involved. Thorn is trying to live part-time in Miami with his girlfriend, Alexandra Rafferty, a major step toward making their relationship even more permanent. Thorn stops two Cuban-American thugs from stealing a copy of the photograph from their home, but his actions will bring danger to himself as well as Alexandra and her father Lawton, whose lucidity has been slipping for years. Throughout his 14 novels, Hall has shown an affinity for illustrating the different dimensions of South Florida, specifically the Keys that Thorn calls home. For Thorn, there's no choice between the "city of clamor and an island as still as the moon."



	By taking Thorn out of his comfort zone of the Keys, Hall makes Magic City a fish-out-of-water story. Thorn doesn't belong in Miami, but he's trying to make it work for himself and his relationship with Alexandra and her father. Hall does equally well with his villains. The two thugs were the only survivors of that horrific mass murder of their family, but their lives had never been easy, their parents "strangling on hate" of Castro. In the four decades following their family's murder, these two brothers have been "ruined in different ways."
	Magic City perfectly illustrates how scenery shapes characters, action and dialogue. Thorn is the hero of Magic City, but the real lead character is Miami, especially the Miami of 1964 and the 2007 version. Hall chronicles the beginnings of contemporary Miami, taking the city from the time it was "departing America, joining the larger world" to become an international city. In 1964, "the tropical air is sugary with innocence and hope. Anything can happen. It is Magic City." Hall makes each description, each reference of the contemporary Miami intersect with old Miami, giving a complete past and present view. Hall has delivered the quintessential South Florida novel in Magic City. Back to Press