Believe it or not, The Magician's Assistant is not my normal fantasy fare involving magic and fairies (although for full disclosure there is some magical realism in there). It is the story of Sabine who was in fact a magician's assistant performing in Vegas, on Johnny Carson, at the Magic Castle in LA, etc. She falls in love with her magician, Percival, but he is gay. He finds a life partner, but she is never able to move on, preferring to keep Percival as a friend/co-dependent. When Percival's life partner dies of AIDs, Sabine and Percival marry so that she can inherit their possessions when he dies as well. But then he has an aneurysm and ends up dying sooner rather than later. That is the beginning of the story.
Percival had always said he had no living family, but it turns out that he has a mother and two sisters living in Nebraska. Sabine is depressed and reeling from his death, and she decides to get to know this family to try to understand him better and feel closer to him even though he is gone.
So. The book is just watching a moment of this woman's life as she gets to know the family. If you're looking for action, keep looking. If you want emotion and melodrama, you have found it. I found the book tolerable. I finished it; I wanted Sabine to get better; I wanted her and her new family to learn from each other. That said, I often wanted to slap her upside the head - never the magician, only the assistant. Lover? No, just companion. Budding career as an architect? Nah, better to quit and just build architectural models of someone else's design. Certainly I could be accused of being too achievement focused in life, not able to just relax and enjoy things. But I really wanted Sabine to find a way to take ownership of something in her life and really go for it, but no.
Long Story Short: If you're in the mood for a Lifetime movie but your cable's out, you have found your novel.
Percival had always said he had no living family, but it turns out that he has a mother and two sisters living in Nebraska. Sabine is depressed and reeling from his death, and she decides to get to know this family to try to understand him better and feel closer to him even though he is gone.
So. The book is just watching a moment of this woman's life as she gets to know the family. If you're looking for action, keep looking. If you want emotion and melodrama, you have found it. I found the book tolerable. I finished it; I wanted Sabine to get better; I wanted her and her new family to learn from each other. That said, I often wanted to slap her upside the head - never the magician, only the assistant. Lover? No, just companion. Budding career as an architect? Nah, better to quit and just build architectural models of someone else's design. Certainly I could be accused of being too achievement focused in life, not able to just relax and enjoy things. But I really wanted Sabine to find a way to take ownership of something in her life and really go for it, but no.
Long Story Short: If you're in the mood for a Lifetime movie but your cable's out, you have found your novel.
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