The Magician: A Novel
A New York Times Notable Book, Critic's Top Pick, and Top Ten Book of Historical Fiction Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, NPR, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg Businessweek From one of today's most brilliant and beloved novelists, a dazzling, epic family saga set across a half-century spanning World War I, the rise of Hitler, World War II, and the Cold War that is "a feat of literary sorcery in its own right" (Oprah Daily). The Magician opens in a provincial German city at the turn of the twentieth century, where the boy, Thomas Mann, grows up with a conservative father, bound by propriety, and a Brazilian mother, alluring and unpredictable. Young Mann hides his artistic aspirations from his father and his homosexual desires from everyone. He is infatuated with one of the richest, most cultured Jewish families in Munich, and marries the daughter Katia. They have six children. On a holiday in Italy, he longs for a boy he sees on a beach and writes the story Death in Venice. He is the most successful novelist of his time, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, a public man whose private life remains secret. He is expected to lead the condemnation of Hitler, whom he underestimates. His oldest daughter and son, leaders of Bohemianism and of the anti-Nazi movement, share lovers. He flees Germany for Switzerland, France and, ultimately, America, living first in Princeton and then in Los Angeles. In this "exquisitely sensitive" (The Wall Street Journal) novel, Tóibín has crafted "a complex but empathetic portrayal of a writer in a lifelong battle against his innermost desires, his family, and the tumultuous times they endure" (Time), and "you'll find yourself savoring every page" (Vogue).
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Community Reviews
This book starts out all right, as the young Mann navigates his passage through adolescence into adulthood. The complexities of his sexuality, his relationships with his parents and siblings, etc., are all interesting and engaging. But like the oldest cliché around, once he gets married and settles down—and especially once he and the fam move to America—the whole thing just slowly dies. It becomes a tedious crawl through every spiteful family squabble that ToÃbÃn can dredge from his imagination. Even the upheaval of WWII, and Mann’s own involvement as an influential German expatriate, cannot lift the book out of the mire. The narrative just moves from one bickering quarrel to another, like a nicotine addict using each cigarette to light the next.
I should have known better—I don’t like biographies, and I don’t particularly like family sagas. I was fooled by the fact that it’s fictionalized, and by ToÃbÃn’s reputation (this is the first thing I’ve read from him). But having recently read [b:The Age of Disenchantments|40535623|The Age of Disenchantments The Epic Story of Spain's Most Notorious Literary Family and the Long Shadow of the Spanish Civil War|Aaron Shulman|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531832180l/40535623._SY75_.jpg|62932514] and now read this, I swear: I will never even approach another biography (fictionalized or not) of a “literary family.” From all appearances, they seem to be about the worst family models the human race has to offer. In both these books, the family members are consistently petty, mistrustful, loveless, and self-centered. It’s deeply unpleasant to spend time with them, and even if this book’s writing weren’t dry and plodding (which, believe me, it is), it couldn’t possibly make the experience worthwhile.
I’m not positive why I finished it, but I certainly don’t recommend it.
I should have known better—I don’t like biographies, and I don’t particularly like family sagas. I was fooled by the fact that it’s fictionalized, and by ToÃbÃn’s reputation (this is the first thing I’ve read from him). But having recently read [b:The Age of Disenchantments|40535623|The Age of Disenchantments The Epic Story of Spain's Most Notorious Literary Family and the Long Shadow of the Spanish Civil War|Aaron Shulman|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531832180l/40535623._SY75_.jpg|62932514] and now read this, I swear: I will never even approach another biography (fictionalized or not) of a “literary family.” From all appearances, they seem to be about the worst family models the human race has to offer. In both these books, the family members are consistently petty, mistrustful, loveless, and self-centered. It’s deeply unpleasant to spend time with them, and even if this book’s writing weren’t dry and plodding (which, believe me, it is), it couldn’t possibly make the experience worthwhile.
I’m not positive why I finished it, but I certainly don’t recommend it.
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