Thursday, November 4, 2010

The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett

This book is about Sabine, who is an assistant to her husband who is a magician. However their marriage is a strange one because her husband is a gay. The very first lines of the book are,"Parsifal is dead. That is the end of the story."
Parsifal all through his life had not spoken to Sabine about his family but somehow in his will he leaves a lot of money for his family.Certain situations lead to Sabine meeting Parsifal's family who live in Nebarska. The book is more about Sabine's discovery of Parsifal's childhood and his parents. She even takes a trip to Nebarska and stays with the family for few days. 
The description about Nebarska is beautiful and most of the time you feel that you are there.  The story is slow paced but still beautiful. However the last 30 pages  came as a shock and the ending seemed inconclusive. Nonetheless the emotional aspect and the strangeness of love makes it quite a good read.
To quote some lines from the book,"He does not say this to Sabine.He mouths the words.He takes her hand and pulls her down the back hall to the edge of the stage.They are standing there together in the dark,side by side, as they have been on any one of a thousand nights before."

Rating: 3.2/5

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