The Magician King by Lev Grossman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
For those of you following these reviews in anything like chronological order,
you'll notice that I just reviwed Lolita.
Now, in the aftermath of that bloodbath*, I am here to commit further literary blasphemy.
I am here to tell you that The Magician King is a similar book to Lolita in terms of its themes and plot, and also a vastly superior one.
First the theme, Lolita is about imprisonment, and about the desolation of fulfilling your innermost desires. The magician kings is about choices, and freedom, and the desolation of not having a purpose (e.g. because you've already fulfilled your innermost desires.) It's not a perfect match, but it really resonated with me reading them more or less side by side.
But where Lolita deals with this with clever word play, subtle manipulations of the characters,
and the readers expectations for them, and a never quite infocus view of a tremendously disturbing abusive realtionship,
the Magician King handles them head on, with characters for whom it is actually possible to have some true affection**, and a
plot that actually #$%^ing goes somehwere; one that has some real stakes, and produces honest challenges for the characters. And on top of that it's a wildly epic fantasy set in a very compelling multiverse with some fairly grand set pieces. (I'll see your moral apotheosis*** and raise you an ACTUAL apotheosis.)
Which is not to say the magician kings is sugarcoated. In some senses, it's more disturbing than Lolita is. The difference is the Magician King has the guts to present the world as is, not hiding behind literary tricks. Characters die, characters suffer
horrible physical and spiritual wounds, and learn to live with them. The don't all mysteriously expire off camera to make a literarily convenient conlusion.
Of course, I'm biased. I have said over and over that I like books with heroes not characters. No one in Lolita comes within a mile of being a hero.
but the heroes in the Magician king have the kind of resonance that truly good characters ought to, too.
So, dear readers, I say to you. Jettison your lit-ret-chaw! Find your literary pleasures in the world of the fantastic!
You can actually have your cake and eat it too.
* Actually, I mostly liked it, but where's the fun in that.
** You know, apart from mild distaste.
*** No, seriously, it's one of the main themes of Lolita. Google it if you don't believe me.
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