Magical realism is my favorite genre of fiction. Some authors, Terry Pratchett among them, believe it's simply Fantasy by another name. In fact Pratchett has been quoted as saying "it's a polite way of saying you write fantasy". I disagree. Magical realism as I enjoy it, both in reading and writing thereof, is about finding the magic that lies just beneath the surface of the ordinary and bringing it into the narrative as though it were obvious all along.
Fantasy, on the other hand, usually takes place in a made up environment in which odd things are the norm right from the beginning and form a natural part of the plot. It's true that there are short stories which start out in an ordinary everyday environment then devolve into fantasy, but that's not true magical realism. Such works used to be know as Fantastic fiction, thus aligning themselves more closely with fantasy proper.
Magical realism at it's best never deviates from the "real" world, but introduces elements that that are unusual but become tightly woven into the plot and we accept that it's happening. Some examples are animals that can talk to certain characters, characters that can move between waking and dream states without being asleep and houses that can alter the appearance of their rooms .
It is claimed by South American scholars that magical realism began in the '60's as a style of certain South Americal writers. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of Love In The Time Of Cholera confessed, "My most important problem was destroying the line of demarcation that separates what seems real from what seems fantastic."
A related genre has emerged in the last five years, Interstitial Fiction. This is a bit harder to pin down than magical realism, but many examples of this genre bear a strong resemblance and the two are so similar at first glance it's hard to see this as a genre in it's own right, but there are important distinctions.
Interfictions, as they are sometimes known, are more challenging. They invite the reader to see reality in an entirely different light, providing a wider range of possibilities for the reader's engagement and transformation. They are even more in the realm of the fantastic than magical realism in many cases.
The defining aspect of interfictions is that they are works that clearly fall between two distinct genres, such as mystery and westerns or science fiction and detective stories. Blade Runner comes to mind as an early example.
All of this is meant to introduce two genres you may not have explored yet. If so, I encourage you to do so, especially if you like fantasy or science fiction.
For magical realism I recommend Jonathan Carroll, author of Bones of the Moon, Sleeping in Flame, and Kissing the Beehive, among many others. For interstitial fiction, Elizabeth Hand, author of Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories and Aestival Tide.
