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Review: The Magicians, by Lev Grossman
Oct. 21st, 2009 11:48 amRight from the get-go, you kind of think "This can't end well" and yet magic... schools of magic, that's the stuff of pleasant daydreams and good triumphing over evil, right? Well not so much. There's not a lot of jolliness going on here.
Quentin Coldwater believes that somehow magic will make his life better, richer, happier. He's always believed in magic, specifically a magical world called "Fillory" which obsesses him. When he's invited to attend a school of magic called "Brakebills, he's overjoyed. This is it, this is the first day of the rest of his life. His real life. Only it's not Fillory and it's not an invitation into wonder and enchantment. It's a lot of hard, frustrating work for what appears to be very little return. And in fact, by the end of his five years at Brakebills, you have to wonder if magic really means much in the greater scheme of things. Magicians don't seem very happy, but whether that's an effect of being magicians or whether they're magicians because they're unhappy is something we never quite work out.
Grossman has created a clever metaphor for the years of late adolescence and early adulthood in which we are all fairly certain that there is something waiting for us just beyond our line of sight, and if we can only find the right path, our lives will be perfect. The magical world of Fillory -- a kind of promised land to the characters -- is a crazy, pointless, dangerous place. Some find their place there, more do not. Pretty much like life.
I suppose you can read this as a fantasy, clearly many people do. But mostly I think it's a coming-of-age story and not a particularly joyous one either. And yet it's compelling, and well worth reading.
As a side note I would suggest that you search for "Fillory" at Wikipedia. You'll find links there to a lot of very interesting material.
The Magicians: A Novel
Quentin Coldwater believes that somehow magic will make his life better, richer, happier. He's always believed in magic, specifically a magical world called "Fillory" which obsesses him. When he's invited to attend a school of magic called "Brakebills, he's overjoyed. This is it, this is the first day of the rest of his life. His real life. Only it's not Fillory and it's not an invitation into wonder and enchantment. It's a lot of hard, frustrating work for what appears to be very little return. And in fact, by the end of his five years at Brakebills, you have to wonder if magic really means much in the greater scheme of things. Magicians don't seem very happy, but whether that's an effect of being magicians or whether they're magicians because they're unhappy is something we never quite work out.
Grossman has created a clever metaphor for the years of late adolescence and early adulthood in which we are all fairly certain that there is something waiting for us just beyond our line of sight, and if we can only find the right path, our lives will be perfect. The magical world of Fillory -- a kind of promised land to the characters -- is a crazy, pointless, dangerous place. Some find their place there, more do not. Pretty much like life.
I suppose you can read this as a fantasy, clearly many people do. But mostly I think it's a coming-of-age story and not a particularly joyous one either. And yet it's compelling, and well worth reading.
As a side note I would suggest that you search for "Fillory" at Wikipedia. You'll find links there to a lot of very interesting material.
The Magicians: A Novel
