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Magician's Assistant Paperback – Bargain Price, September 17, 2004

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Ann Patchett (Author)
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Ann Patchett (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars 710 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 357 pages
  • Publisher: Harcourt Brace (September 17, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0156006219
  • ASIN: B0018202YI
  • Product Dimensions: 1 x 5.2 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (710 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,205,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsBest novel of loss ever.....
By Michael H. Jones on May 29, 2004
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I am amazed at the 'average 4-star rating' listed for this book. It is flat out the best book of loss ever. I send this book to anyone who has lost a loved one. It is on my Desert Island book list, for sure; and I am a two-book-a-week fiction junkie. Bittersweet, haunting, hopeful, uplifting, funny.....the full package.
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5.0 out of 5 starsParsifal is dead. That's the beginning of the story.
By David Benioff on January 16, 2000
Format: Hardcover
Ann Patchett, who lives in rural seclusion with her pet raccoons (at least according to the profile in Modern Tennessean), is so good I wish she wrote the morning paper. That way I could wake up and read her sentences all day long.
If you've glanced at the editorials above, you know the novel's plot. Two of the most fascinating characters are already dead when we begin reading; they occupy the heroine's dreams, refusing to rest like peaceful corpses should. Among her other talents, Patchett is masterful with adolescents-- a notoriously tough breed to write about. And she's excellent with violence, too. Not the habitual, ritual violence of genre fiction, but the quick, mean violence of unhappy men.
I don't want to tell you too much. Read the book. If you don't like it, e-mail me and complain about what an idiot I am.
I don't think I'll be hearing from you.
3 Comments 241 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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1.0 out of 5 starsShamefully bad editing - riddled with typos
By Movie Mom on July 10, 2011
Format: Kindle Edition
I don't know if the print version is similarly flawed but the kindle version of this book is so full of typos that I believe I deserve a refund. My favorite typo thus far: "the twenty two feces of famous people staring vacantly in her direction"

The problem is pervasive enough to interfere with the meaning of the text. This is a decent and interesting book (though not Patchett's best) but the kindle version is substandard and should be pulled and corrected. It's just ridiculous.
21 Comments 147 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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4.0 out of 5 stars"Magic is sometimes like love."
By Dick Oliver on July 21, 1998
Format: Hardcover
Subtle, beautiful, poignant prose--if you're like me, you were starting to wonder if it could still be found in a book written in the 90s. Here it is. Never mind the plot, which has none of the knife-blade intensity we're so used to these days. And never mind the characters, which are unique and real, though not particularly complex or surprising. Read this book for the sentences, the paragraphs, the feelings and descriptions and quiet inner musings of the Magician's Assistant herself, the ultimate almost-X-gen expert in not-quite-tragic infatuation, Sabine Parsifal. This book is as much poem as novel. The voices echo eerily, as if you'd heard every line in the "real" world but you can't remember where. On the other hand, if subtlety and unending depression bore you, or positive portrayals of homosexual relationships freak you out, better skip this title and head for the bestseller list instead.
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3.0 out of 5 starsDisappointing
By A Customer on October 22, 2003
Format: Paperback
After loving Ann Patchett's wonderful novel, 'Bel Canto,' so much, I decided to read her other novels, in the order in which they'd been written. While not on the same level of writing as 'Bel Canto,' I liked her first novel, 'The Patron Saint of Liars' very much. Her second novel, 'Taft,' was a real letdown, but I figured this was just a glitch and that surely her third novel would be even better than her first, or at least as good. So I was really disappointed to find that though a readable book, it was what I'd call ordinary writing, with characters that didn't get under my skin (the way they did in her first and fourth novels), and with very little complexity and little to think or ponder about.
It's true that after I finished the book, I tried every which way to look at it symbolically, to see how the magic tricks, the sleight of hand and the distraction of attention could be applied to what happens, especially with the ending. And yes, OK, I had some theories, such as maybe Sabine had been so distracted by her 22 years with the glamorous, gay Parsifal that she had failed to realize that she was really gay herself, and thus her attraction to Kitty at the end.
But I found that I just didn't really care, partly because I didn't care that much about the main characters. I found the trio of Sabine, Parsifal and Phan all too good, too unflawed, too beautiful, and Sabine's worship of Parsifal for over 2 decades a little hard to fathom, as is her relationship with him for that long. I had a similar relationship with a gay man for several years, but it certainly wasn't without terrible heartache nor without disagreements (which Parsifal and Sabine seem to never have had, not a one!). Well, everything in L.A. is good and charming and wonderful, including Sabine's parents and L.A. itself.Read more ›
4 Comments 68 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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4.0 out of 5 starsA deceivingly simple story works its magic
By Fanoula Sevastos on April 28, 2002
Format: Paperback
The first thing you notice when reading The Magician's Assistant is that Ann Patchett really cares for her characters. She quietly nurtures them, even the minor ones, and offers the reader a gentle yet revealing view of their complex lives.
At the opening of the novel, Parsifal the magician, has suddenly died and Sabine, his assistant of twenty years and recently his wife, is trying to cope with her loss. Their relationship had always been a unique one - Sabine loved him and dedicated her life to him despite his inability to love her in the same way: he was gay. What complicates her grief is the discovery that Parsifal has family living in Nebraska - a mother and two sisters - family he had always told her died many years earlier in an accident. In fact, everything she knows about the history of his life, turns out to be a fabricated story. As Sabine struggles to comprehend the reasons for Parisfal's deceptions, she embarks on an emotional journey, traveling to Nebraska to try and connect with the Parsifal she never knew through the family she never knew he had.
Patchett effectively uses two elements throughout the book that bind this story together: the dream world and the world of magic. Descriptions of Sabine's dreams, where she reunites with Parsifal as well as his gay lover Phan, are used to relate Sabine's emotional awakenings as she forms relationships with Parsifal's family and learns of his early life; the magic that Parsifal and Sabine performed throughout their union serves as the tool that brings Parsifal's family an understanding of the son/brother they lost years ago.
Lovingly written and gracefully rendered, The Magician's Assistant is a deceivingly simple book and a very rewarding experience.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsWaste of time

Didn't finish

Published 4 days ago by klm
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

This was an excellent book that I read all too quickly. Interesting and enchanting. Buy it. Now.

Published 10 days ago by Timothy Dalton
3.0 out of 5 starsEnding was too abrupt. It seemed that the author ...

Ending was too abrupt. It seemed that the author just stopped writing.

Published 22 days ago by Virgina
5.0 out of 5 starsLoved this book

Loved this book. Like most of Patchett's book , it explores the lives of quirky characters who are complex, interesting and certainly worthwhile getting to know.

Published 22 days ago by Marilyn Winkelstein
3.0 out of 5 starsok

Ok story

Published 24 days ago by Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 starsMagic

Such a fine writer. Characters you "believe" and care for. It doesn't seem to matter what her books are about, it's the wonderful journey Ann takes you on every single... Read more

Published 27 days ago by Chuck
4.0 out of 5 starsThis was a good read, although not Ann Patchett's best work to ...

This was a good read, although not Ann Patchett's best work to date. It didn't have exactly the ending that I thought it might, but that seems to be part of Ann Patchett's style. Read more

Published 29 days ago by Judy Miller
5.0 out of 5 starsA favorite read of mine, so glad my friend recommended it!

This was such a wonderful book, so much in it to love! I couldn't put it down and was really sad when it ended!

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsMagical and surprising

Frankly I had forgotten this book lived in my Kindle. Saw Ann Patchett interview Diane Rheem on KET recently. Remembered I had read and enjoyed Bel Canto. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Kelby Bookworm
4.0 out of 5 starsOh how life could be...

Excellent view of how life could be.....intriguing story which could definitely have a sequel!

Published 1 month ago by Amy Glinski

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