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| The Magician's Assistant | 
 enlarge | Author: Ann Patchett
Publisher: Harvest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $0.01
You Save: $13.99 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (92 reviews)
Sales Rank: 4996
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0156006219
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780156006217
ASIN: 0156006219
Publication Date: September 17, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The Magician's Assistant sustains author Ann Patchett's proven penchant for crafting colorful characters and marrying the ordinary with the fantastic. When Parsifal, Sabine's husband of more than 20 years and the magician of the title, suddenly dies, she begins to discover how she's glimpsed him only through smoke and mirrors. He has managed to keep hidden the existence of a family in Nebraska--his mother, two sisters, and two nephews. Sabine approaches them hungrily, as if they are a bridge to her beloved husband and a key to the mysteries he left behind.
Product Description
A secretive magician’s death becomes the catalyst for his partner’s journey of self-discovery in this “enchanting” book (San Francisco Chronicle) “that is something of a magic trick in itself-a 1990s love story with the grace and charm of a nineteenth-century novel” (Newsweek).
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| Customer Reviews: Read 87 more reviews...
 BORING REVELATIONS July 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
With The Magicians Assistant, Ann Patchett has performed the proverbial "Hat Trick" with a tale that is filled with beautiful writing but contains nothing new in the way of plot.
By diverting our attention with conversations with the dead, flashbacks, dreams and vicarious travel being experienced by Sabine, the title character of this piece and widow of Parsifal the Magician, she manages to make us think we are experiencing a tale of substance when, in fact, it is really all just smoke and mirrors. This story of a woman in love with a man who is in love with a man, as well as the "tragic" childhood experiences and hidden family with a trunkful of secrets are classic Hollywood fodder and not worthy of the woman who gave us Bel Canto and Patron Saint of Liars.
Okay, I get the premise. Everyone is searching for love and acceptance and at sometime in our lives we all have to deal with death, or loss, or grief ..... or a combination of all of the above. This search, however, was boring and it's final outcome less than satisfying and definitely without true resolution. Ms. Patchett was probably going for an abstract look at one woman's spiritual journey. All I can say is you had better pack a large lunch to take along on this trip, because that is the only thing that will sustain you, since there is little in this story to feed your grey matter.
 Only finished it because I was on a plane July 14, 2008
I read a lot and can be very forgiving to authors because I appreciate the craft of writing, however, this is a very bad book. It's been said in a lot of the reviews already but let me reiterate why I think this was a very poorly written book: one dimensional, stereotypical characters (especially the Nebraska family members), no explanantion for why Sabine would adore Parsifal for more than twenty years or agree to live with him and his lover, no explanation for Sabine's sudden off ramp to lesbianism, difficulty liking the main characters, plot turns that high school students would be afraid to try, and an ending that just leaves me saying, "huh?". I had to go back several times to read sentences and paragraphs because I couldn't believe that the editor let it go through. For example, Sabine talks about not being over Parsifal's death a mere two weeks after he died. The writing is bad, the plot is silly and the only reason I finished this book is because I was on a plane and had no access to other reading material. Don't bother picking this one up.
 LOVED this book! June 20, 2008
Quite frankly, I bought this book because it had a rabbit on the front, and I'm an avid rabbit lover. But I ended up loving this book, mainly because I could relate to her grief (I'm a widow, too). And the quirky ending, that makes you wonder, did she and Kitty ever really get together..., was great. I thought all the characters were very human and likable, and you felt compassion for the position that all of them found themselves in, due to what happened so many years ago. Not to mention, as a rabbit lover, the random notations about the rabbit were charming, i.e., on Page 182, when Sabine calls home to her dad in LA, and he says, "Guess who's sitting here in my lap, helping me read the newspaper?" And Sabine says, "You'll spoil him." And her dad's response is, "No such thing as a spoiled bunny. This is an animal who possesses an infinite capacity for affection." Loved it!
Where's the Magic? June 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Parsifal the Magician is dead, and you're kind of glad anyway because really, who goes by the name Parsifal anyway? Parsifal is just one of many uninteresting characters in a novel that dares you to slap yourself awake to get through uninspiring dream sequence after another. And boy do those dream sequences keep coming. To say this book was unaffecting is to minimize how greatly this novel disappoints.
The book starts off with the loss of Parsifal, the great love of Sabine's life. But you never really get a true feel of the loss of this man's life, he, much like the book's plot, is merely an apparition. He is a ghost on every page of this book and yet again he never truly is there. Sure he's talked about a lot but he never really seems real, and quite frankly you never seem to care that he is gone. He's lived his life, had his fun, and the poor hapless soul that is his assistant is all that's left behind.
Sabine was just a character to me. She never really felt real and it didn't help that the author had her spouting nonsense like "In California every girl you meet you want to kiss" I mean every description of LA was so waxingly poetic it felt like she was reciting lines from a postcard.
Well if you can't tell by now I hated this book. I'm an avid reader and I must say this book was dull, boring, and an utter chore to read through. All I felt was relief when I got to the last page.
quite magical April 29, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book -- but in the end it definitely grew on me and ultimately touched me.
It's definitely written in a muted tone. The protagonist, the assistant of the title, is sunk in depression after the death of her two gay friends, one of whom was her husband. She sleeps a lot -- but she has sleepwalked through most of her life, settling for the illusion of love instead of the real thing. Her role as the assistant has been to stand there and smile sweetly while he does all the real living and loving.
Surprisingly, only when she travels to snow-bound Nebraska to bond with her dead husband's famly does the book come truly to life. It becomes clear this is a book about family and about the possibility of love -- the love that holds families together and the love that binds two people together, true love, the real thing, not the illusion.
Worth persisting with.
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