Customer Reviews

The Magic Journey

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

John Nichols is perhaps one of our best contemporary writers, and it's a shame that he isn't more prolific and more accessible to the general reading public. He uses language like poetry, and his characters jump off the pages with their idiosyncracies. There are good guys, bad guys, and everything in between. Here, Nichols explores the subject that seems to most interests him, namely, the cultural destruction of a small southwestern town due to "progress," and the never ending quest for more riches. He never pretends that life was so great before, or that gentrification is always bad, but Nichols certainly wants the reader to understand the unfortunate consequences of converting a small town into a vacation spot on the lives of those who live there.

It is not easy to read "The Magic Journey." The plot tends to drag in places, and, Nichols liberally sprinkles his prose with Spanish, which, unfortunately, I don't speak. Nichols also tends to show off his prodigious knowledge concerning the southwest and its environment, and is somewhat heavy handed in his anti-progress stance. However, the writing is so beautiful that it is well worth it, even if you can read only a few pages of the book each day. Eventually, I intend to read the other two books in the trilogy.

This novel of the cultural, political, and economic evolution of northern New Mexico, starts with the "miraculous" explosion of a bus filled with dynamite in the 1930's and documents the devastating effect that discovery by the outside world has on separate but intertwined white, Hispanic, and Indian cultures in a small mountain town. This evolution is described through the eyes of strong, well developed characters that sparkle with complexity and humor. Nichols paints a picture of cultural and environmental destruction with dry humor and stark narrative. For anyone wishing to understand the recent history of the most beautiful portions of New Mexico, a must read.

A wonderful story about greed in a small New Mexico town when someone accidentally discovers hot springs. It features great characters including the beleagured lawyer fighting for the underdogs and a confused Peace Corp volunteer. It's the best part of Nichols's New Mexico trilogy.

In many important ways, John Nichols is right. What the "modern" world has considered progress has utterly wiped out centuries of subsistence agriculture, and has done it in both a racist and classist fashion. No arguments here.

However, I find his 2nd and 3rd novels of his New Mexico trilogy to be politically dead on but literarily melodramatic at best, histrionic at worst. The April Delaney character in this novel spends so much time in her head--a place that, for the most part, I had no interest in being--that the actual New Mexico portion of the novel does not happen almost until halfway through the book. The Virgil Leyba character is not as well developed as the author's forward suggested he was--certainly not as well developed at any of the Milagro characters.

The tempo and Mozartian bounce of Milagro here is replaced with a quasi-Wagnerian feel which is clearly not the work of a practiced hand. He writes like a disapproving old man.

I was disappointed both in this and the 3rd of the trilogy. IMHO, stick to Milagro.

...perhaps even the Great American novel. I agree with other reviewers who consider it underrated, even vastly so. John Nichols writes on a vast canvas, and handles his material exquisitely. For reasons known best to the author, he uses the alias of Chamisaville for Taos, New Mexico. The particulars of the novel involve the "development" of the town, largely by Anglo forces, personified by Rodey McQueen, "a sometimes prizefighter, medicine-oil hustler, cowpuncher, flesh peddler, and general all-around energetic ne'er-do-well from Muleshoe, Texas." The forces of conservation, or simply, let's let things as they are, are generally Hispanic, personified by a lawyer, Virgil Leyba, fighting the "good fight," against long odds, and generally losing. In true Greek drama style, Virgil receives assistance from nominally unlikely sources, like McQueen's daughter, April, who has embraced the "alternate lifestyle" of the `60's, and eventually comes home to Taos from NYC, to revive and publish a "communist" newspaper, i.e., one opposed to the "party line" of development is the ultimate good. Nichols style ranges from the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which seems to hit the truth squarer than more prosaic accounts, to the hard-hitting muck-ranking of Upton Sinclair.

There are numerous passages that are sympathetic to the non-Anglo version of history, and are grounded in the particulars of the New Mexico environment. Consider: "Suddenly Anglos were running most grades, and children of the burgeoning white population had catapulted to the head of their class. United States history that commenced with Columbus, the Pilgrims, and the Thirteen Colonies become mandatory fare; the story of native tribes on the North American continent long before the birth of Christ was squelched: the settling of Mexico become a footnote. Indians, dubbed "bloodthirsty savages," were only mentioned in passing as the dull-witted victims of heroes like Kit Carson..." (p 65). But there are sections that clearly transcend the NM environment, and speak to the concentration of power in any society: "The `state of free competition' essential to a democratic society did not exist. An overpowering force manipulated the entire shebang with as tight a control, despite the surface chaos, as any authoritarian government ever wielded." (p333). Aside from the sharp political commentary, Nichols is also a master of metaphors concerning the human condition. On the aging process, consider: "...her hair was falling out by the handful. `Autumn in your body, kid, and you've got a deciduous cranium.'"

Each year for the past five I've been fortunate to ski for a week at Taos. A wonderful place, devoid, in particular, of those European ski lines. A blessed development? As I manage to reach the bottom of the hills, usually in the vertical, it is hard not to remember the conflict that went into its development, including the co-opting of some forestry officials, Nichol's own "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern," minor characters in the book, pawns in McQueen's game, whose betrayals of their job function ultimately benefited me. Life's sweet contradictions.

I loved Nichol's more famous "Milagro Beanfield War," but "The Magic Journey" is the culmination of his powers, a book that should be read in all the American schools, history as it ultimately was, told in a delightful, unique style.

Apparently this is the second book in a trilogy, something I failed to notice until I'd finished. It stands alone quite nicely and I suspect the other two would do the same.

It is loosly the story of a forgotten southwestern town named Chamisaville during the Great Depression, and how it went from being small and self sufficiant to being a much larger "better" modern city thanks to a rattletrap bus loaded high with dynamite exploding and leaving a miracle behind that a few quick thinkers were quick to exploit.

It is also the story of April, the daughter of one of the foremost of those interested in the Betterment of Chamisaville. Vibrant, intoxicatingly beautiful, full of life and enthusiasim for everything but a tendancy to jump from one thing to another that leaves those in her wake feeling rather lost.

It is a story of how important fighting againt progress for the sake of progress is, and how futile... The fight that is going to be lost eventually, but you desperately struggle to hold off the inevitable as long as possible.

The writing style is such that though its about the same length of the books I normally read, I think it took me about twice as long to get through. Some of this was because I found myself needing to take breaks to think about what was happening, some of it was that it was not dry, but... the style itself conjured images of a forgotten town that was happier being forgotton.

Had you asked me at the beginning if I liked it, the answer would have been no. Half way through I couldn't have said, and by the end I thought it was worth having read, if not one I would be likely to read again. Now that its been a few days I would have to say it is not one that I would likely read again soon, but it is entirely possible that at some point in the future I may pick it back up and see what I can find on a second reading.

The Magic Journey is an incredibly powerful American story, probably the most underrated novel of our times. It is the story of Rodey McQueen's rise to the middle class and power politics of the day, by hook or by crook, mostly crook. Besides being a novel about the human consequences of imposing middle class values upon the world, the central character of this book is Rodey McQueen's daughter April, brought up amid the powerful Anglo Axis in the Southwest with strong influence by the local Spanish speaking population.

The book has a multitude of Anglo and Spanish speaking characters of all varieties, and all have their place in the "Betterment of Chamisaville." Through it all we follow the impossibly magnetic April as she grows to love the local people and sympathize with them against the sometimes crushing power of the Anglo Axis.

Here is a sample: "But for his daughter, Rodey McQueen would have been on top of the world, no strings attached. Yet April, his most precious possession, also caused him frightening pain. Beautiful beyond almost any man's ability to describe her, April seemed possessed by devil-inspired energies. Volatile, criminally attractive, all-American, and healthy -- almost any superlative might describe that wild and moody child. By April's sixth birthday, McQueen had realized they were in for trouble."

This is a rollicking saga, sometimes roll on the floor hilarious and irreverent, sometimes heart-stoppingly sad as the reader feels the frustrations of both the rich and poor souls populating John Nichols's America. THE MAGIC JOURNEY follows THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR in a trilogy whose third book (NIRVANA BLUES) is unfortunately not of the same caliber. THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR was made into a good enough film, though the book is far more complex and incredibly funny. I am stunned that THE MAGIC JOURNEY has not been made into a film yet.

This book gives a true meaning of going back to your roots especially when you can make a connection with the characters. This book is thought provoking in the sense that one can see the authors insight of the past, and apply it in the current debacle of our current society and its quest for wealth, even in the face of destroying culture and people in the process. The genious prose that sets John Nichols apart is clear and being able to bring to life a culture and people lost to time and greed is amazing.

With minor but well chosen elements of Magic Realism John Nichols continues his New Mexico Trilogy. With sharp and witty vignettes set in a small New Mexico town dating from the 30's to the 60's that eventually blossom into a generational epic.It has moving, true to life depictions of interpersonal relations that you don't have to be Latin to understand. A moving story about the perils of progress in a small town. Progress as a great evil tied in with a palpable Anglo threat. Just incredible!

The first book in this series, The Milagro Beanfield War, was so powerful that I was excited to read the other two. This second book was a big disappointment and I'm not bothering to order the third one.

Why would an author who was capable of writing a book which was a powerful social statement with strong personal relationship development and lots of humor in it think he must do stupid graphic sex scenes in succeeding books? The whole book was terribly disappointing.

Read the first one. Then quit.