The Magician's Assistant
by Ann Patchett

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Book Reviews of The Magician's Assistant

Book Review: Well written - wacky premise
Summary: 2 Stars

Told from the standpoint of a fortyish woman named Sabine whod lived almost forever in the golden sun of Los Angeles, its a story of enduring love. At age 19, while working as a waitress at a place called The Magic Hat during her college years, Sabine was summoned to the stage by a young magician named Parsifal to assist him in a magic trick. She was smitten at once, and a relationship between Sabine and Parsifal began that continued until Parsifals death immediately before the opening sentence of the book. As the book unfolds, we learn pieces of Parsifals nature (like Cher, he had but the one name), their long-term relationship, and Parsifals family.

Parsifal did magic, with Sabine as his assistant, part-time (his day job was buying and selling Oriental rugs; hers was making architectural models). Then, a good twenty years after they met and about six months before he died, Parsifal and Sabine married (she took the name Mrs. Sabine Parsifal).

Theirs was no ordinary relationship and no ordinary marriage. For Parsifal, you see, was a homosexual. For a brief time early on, Sabine was frustrated by the incompleteness of their relationship, but because she loved him so much, she quickly came to accept the portion of affection he could give her. She had lovers here and there, none serious enough to capture her heart, but Parsifal had lovers who did capture his heart, most notably, and lastly, a Vietnamese named Phan who died of AIDS.

After Parsifal died of a sudden aneurism before AIDS got him, Sabine learned from his lawyer that everything he had told her about his background was a lie. His family name wasnt Petrie, he wasnt from Connecticut, and his family hadnt perished in a car crash. His name originally was Guy Fetters, he was from a small town in Nebraska, and he had a mother (Dot) and two sisters (Kitty, married with two sons, and Bertie) still living.

Sabine soon traveled to Nebraska in order to get in touch with the part of Parsifals life that had been hidden from her. There she became involved in the lives of the rest of the family, discovered family secrets, and found contentment in an unlikely place.

As well as the book is written, the story has oddities that show a lapse on the part of Patchett and her editor. These range from the simple -- Sabines poking among Parsifals business papers and coming across employee 1040s [come on, 1040s are tax returns which he had no business seeing] when Patchett meant W-2s  to the major -- the lawyers telling Sabine that there was a letter in the will whose provisions came as a shock to him, setting up as it did trusts for the previously unknown mother and sisters that reduced Sabines inheritance [theres no such thing as a letter in the will, and theres nothing in a will of which the lawyer would be unaware. After all, lawyers are the ones who draw up wills, in carefully crafted language to assure the clients wishes will be met. A letter to be opened upon my death (?) has no real legal effect, and stands on weaker legs still if it contradicts the provisions in a will]. There are other problems as well, some worse than others, but all sadly tending to erode the credibility of the story.

These nit-picky criticisms aside, the story has a certain charm. Theres a pervading sense of gentleness as seen in Sabines acceptance of Parsifal and their relationship (not to mention his relationships with other men), in the Fetters familys ready acceptance of Sabine, and particularly in Dots devotion to her children.

It is too bad, then, that the premise doesnt make sense. Are we to believe that a healthy woman never felt love fixated on a homosexual man ebbing away over such a span of years, when she pursued love affairs, and when she watched this man she loved become enamored of other men, leaving her the outsider? Are we to believe that a life of her own never called to her? Are we to believe that her parents supported this? And whatever was the point of their marriage?

Even more perplexing are Parsifals / Guy Fetters relations with his family. The abusive father has been done to boredom. But his mother Dot, the character most fully realized, was a steadfast, loving woman, and as a boy Guy was quite close to Kitty, the older of his sisters. Once the father was out of the way, it didnt seem logical that he would erase from his life, entirely and forever, these two people who cared deeply for him, and for whom he cared deeply (certainly his sister).

I wish, too, that Patchett had given us more complex characters, but they are all (check one) perfect or bad.

The same is true of Patchetts contrast between Los Angeles and Nebraska. I dont have a stake in either place, but I know L.A. isnt the promised land and Nebraska isnt a dead state.

Overall, I came away feeling Id been pointed by my book club at a well-written, but ultimately superficial story by an author with promise as yet unfulfilled. Patchett knows how to put ideas down on paper -- what she needs now is to learn what to put down.

Summary of The Magician's Assistant

United States Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > United States