Customer Reviews

The Magician's Wife (A William Abrahams Book)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'm still baffled over the praise this novel has received. I'd never heard of Brian Moore but I read a review in the Boston Globe and was intrigued by the storyline and setting. I was totally disappointed. This book is bland and amateurishly written. Sketchy characterization at best. Everything is flat and plain. This has the potential to be an incredible story in the hands of an author who could actually flesh it out. Much of the dialogue is laughably cliched and the (very) brief and cursory passages of the heroine's "awakening consciousness" made me groan. This could've been a rich, evocative novel. It'll make a great movie (cashing in on the "English Patient" desert thing.) The novel actually feels like a plot treatment for a movie. It's very superficial, with characters who never for a moment feel as if they are remotely real. There is practically no visually descriptive passages to give you a true sense of place. And the characters and their stilted, generic dialogue only further displace the reader from any sense of being immersed in this potentially vivid scenery. Indeed, this novel could've used some "bloated" descriptions to give it some weight. It's very slight and artificial and not the slightest bit provocative. It's "alleged" insights into faith, cross-cultural experiences, etc. are entirely pedestrian. (It reads like an undergrad writing workshop paper.) Again. This could've been a great story. Like someone mentioned earlier, it's a disappointment. (And I'm still confused as to what all the hubbub is about.) (p.s. -- The only thing I really liked about this novel is the cover art!)

I read this book only because it was the assigned book for my book club. I did not expect to like it. Was I ever surprised. I loved it! The vivid descriptions of everything, the landscape, the people, the food, the events as well as the author's ability to let the reader into Emmeline's head made me feel as though I were part of the story. And what suspense!! Now I want to read Mr. Moore's "The Statement." Also, the cover art is really pretty!

While the story seems as if it should have been a good one, the retoric of this novel is so boring that it hardly kept my attention. Moore's novel has potential, but he ruins its development and makes what could have been a magical and enchanting story into a long winded boring novel, reminiscent of a book your English teacher would have made you read in high school.

Here's a very good novel with something for everyone. Written by an Irish man who lived in California about a French woman in Africa--and all this multicultural material comes together with amazing naturalness. It's about cultural and political awakening in the 19th century. The title character accompanies her husband to North Africa. He's on a secret mission: his magic act is a cover for French imperialistic goals in the region. Partly because she is a highly sensitive and observant person, and partly because she is attracted to a native man, she becomes aware of the attractions of the area's culture and consequently leery of the French machinations. This is not a political sermon--it's thoroughly dramatized and stylistically beautiful. The Fox.

The only thing mystifying about this novel is why it was necessary to write it. Through a fair amount of stilted writing, we follow the tale of a couple from Tours - a magician and his wife - as they are pulled from their complacency in small town France and are convinced by Napoleon III to embark upon a rather ridiculous mission to bedazzle the native populace of colonial Algeria. The story meanders without drama or poetry through their audience at court, vague flirtations with powerful, transparently manipulative men, and the exoticism of Algeria before finally getting around to the moral you knew was coming all along: colonialism was alienating and evil. There are many more interesting texts on the subject, two of the best being about the situation of the French in Algeria (Camus' "The Stranger" and Fanon's "Black Skin, White Masks"), which only makes this effort seem more twee. I cannot recommend this novel unless you have a specific fascination with French North Africa, and even then only if you are stranded without other options for killing the afternoon.

Anyone interested in the historical relationship between Algeria and France or between fundamentalist Muslims and Christians will find the story uniquely absorbing. The characters, however, seem created almost exclusively for the purpose of advancing the plot. We do not really get beyond the surface with the characters of Emmeline, or Lambert, or Deniau, and that limits the reader's involvement. More intriguing than any "beach book" you may read because of its subject matter, I'd have enjoyed it better if its characters were not so hollow.

Anyone interested in the historical relationship between Algeria and France or between fundamentalist Muslims and Christians will find the story uniquely absorbing. The characters, however, seem created almost exclusively for the purpose of advancing the plot. We do not really get beyond the surface with the characters of Emmeline, or Lambert, or Deniau, and that limits the reader's involvement. More intriguing than any "beach book" you may read because of its subject matter, I'd have enjoyed it better if its characters were not so hollow.

I had heard high praise of Brian Moore comparing him to Graham Greene; however, I found that to be very misleading. Although The Magician's Wife does have a moral quandary, I wouldn't liken it in any other way to the writings of Graham Greene. There is one exciting/interesting scene in this novel and it doesn't happen until the near end, and it isn't worth reading the rest of this dull novel. None of the characters are fully developed. The main character is such a boring and emotionless woman it makes it difficult to read the tale told from her point of view. Three-quarters of the novel is just filler, meaningless description, not even beautifully detailed description, just padding. I give it two stars instead of one because it was an interesting idea and it does have the one good scene (the magician truly put to test). I, like one of the previous readers, will give Brian Moore one more chance. Perhaps this isn't representative of his work. I would recommend instead Graham Greene's well-written The End of the Affair, The Heart of the Matter, or A Burnt-Out Case, or for a truly thrilling and mysterious tale Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost.

This book is compelling, has well drawn characters, and has such a powerful ending that it's easy to picture it as a wonderful film. We see the story through the eyes of the protagonist, Emmeline, as she watches and is affected by the shady motivations of the characters that surround her. The reader's suspense builds with hers and the wonderful ending will not disappoint anyone. Well worth your time.

More fabulous storytelling from Brian Moore. An intelligent and sensitive woman, married to a controlled and remote, but fascinating man, Emmeline is bored, self-indulgent, contemplative, and aware of all of these. Thrust into an episode in high society, she is seduced by its glitter and facade of importance, and repelled by its cruelty and pettiness. Her husband is recruited by the Emperor himself to use his magician's illusions to overawe the superstitious and religious people of Algiers. Reluctantly impressed with the beauty and simplicity of the Algerians way of life, and humbled by their religious sincerity, Emmeline finds her already strained loyalty to her husband tested further by her sympathies for the people he intends to dupe.

Moore does a wonderful job of carrying us along in Emmeline's inner struggles with her best and worst selves. She faces her own petty fascinations with social foolery and meaningless connections, and struggles to act on her inner sense of rightness. At the same time, she does not spare herself the knowledge of her own weaknesses.

Wonderfully crafted and absorbing - as have been all the Moore novels I have read so far.