The Magicians: A Novel, by Lev Grossman (2009)

Friend recommended this. Told me it was "Harry Potter for adults." Yeah, I thought. Riiiiight.


The Facts
Length: 402 pages.
Publisher: Plume Publishers.
This is Grossman's third novel. It is part one of two - so far (a third novel is expected).

Quick Summary
Hey!

You!

You liked Harry Potter, right?

Yeah, of course you did. And Narnia, while a bit of a theological stretch, was still pretty dope. You wanted to fall into a wardrobe and out into another world; you waited, on your eleventh birthday, for an owl that never came, to deliver a letter that never existed. And now you're in your early twenties. Coming out of school, the cold and distant reality of life, of work, of sexual frustration, of joylessness hits you in the face like a sack of potatoes, over and over and over again.

So here it is: your book. The Magicians follows the oncoming adulthood of Quentin Coldwater, straight-A Ivy League testblitzer (also depressed). The kick? Quentin gets into the one school he never believed existed: Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy. But the sudden influx of magic into Quentin's world doesn't help his depression; it's just another world for him to wander through, somewhat aimlessly, in frustration and exhaustion.

The story is told in third person.

The Good
The characters are great, believable and halfway us. Quentin frustrates the hell out of me, but I understand his emotions or lack thereof. He's dead inside and grasping at any way out. When he finally hits the lottery, he does what all down-on-their-luck lotto winners become, after a while: exactly the same (full disclosure: I know, personally, absolutely no actual lotto winners). But even the zombified Quentin has all this history of grueling hard work and the test grades to prove it, and so he falls into the same form at Brakebills. The result is we don't see a "I'm a good wizard because I believe in love" Potter role; Quentin's skill, due to familiar stoic dedication, alienates him from the rest of classmates and forces him to compete on a near suicidal level of heroism (the Antarctica chapter is beautiful).


The Bad
The pacing is a little off; the story isn't some now-classical "Quentin goes to school and at the end of his year he fights the boss I mean the bad guy." Quentin graduates about halfway through the novel's content. Which is great - I can't get enough of this series, and was nearly jumping for joy when my roommate told me it was going to be a trilogy - but it means the climax is a little rushed and alien to the reader.

Secondly, Grossman isn't the greatest at identifying who's speaking. Because Quentin eventually falls in with the Physical Kids, there's a lot of dialogue among the group. Sometimes, Quentin will be having a conversation, but the pattern is interrupted because of the number, and though Quentin supposedly would know who said what, we don't, and that hinders characterisation.

Final Thoughts
Grossman makes ennui, adulthood, and existential angst somehow magical. Great novel to pick up if you've done two things: a) read Harry Potter and/or Narnia; and b) have entered your twenties and found out the world fucking sucks. And even if that hasn't happened, hey. At least give it a shot.

Arbitrary Score: 4.7 out of 5.

Next book: The Magician King, by Lev Grossman (2011)

Absurdistan, by Gary Shteyngart (2006)

I first heard about Shteyngart through a Super Sad True Love Story interview, and when that novel was currently unavailable, I took a look at Shteyngart's former novel, Absurdistan.


The Facts
Length: 333 pages.
Publisher: Random House.
This is Shteyngart's second novel.

Quick Summary
Exiled from his beloved United States of America, Russian-born Misha Vainberg tries anything to get back in. So he goes to oil-rich Absurdistan, home to the rival ethnicities of "Sevo" and "Svani", in an attempt to buy a fake Belgian passport. Ever unfortunate, however, Misha finds himself wrapped up in a conspiracy of ethnic conflict and international apathy.

The story is told in first-person.


The Good
Protagonist Misha Vainberg, with all his oddball stupidity and obsessive eating habits, is somehow quite charming. He's oblivious to the schemers around him, but he's rich enough not to care. He laughs, he eats, he cries, he eats; he falls in love, girl after girl after girl - but really, based on his weight, you wouldn't want to imagine him having sex.

Secondly, Shteyngart scores points on his eerily apathetic international community. When the state of Absurdistan breaks down completely, everyone finds time to look the other way. Blood pours hot onto the streets in a sickly sort of pseudo-reality; I couldn't help but think of videos that came out of the Rwandan genocide.

The Bad
It ended all too soon and in so much chaos (Absurdistan is a good Cross-Currents). I was never sure the extent of the damage, what was going to happen to Absurdistan, or if Misha finally makes it across the border (we can, however, guess at the outcome of his US-gamble, due to a nice timeline which ends on a particular date). The fighting erupts - Misha is imprisoned in his hotel rooms - and then the fighting seems to be over. Maybe "bad" is a little bit too strong, but I would've had a little bit of a longer middle.

Final Thoughts
I'm starting to see Shteyngart's style with this one - a weird sort of blend of humour and horror and human weakness. Absurdistan succeeds in this respect, but I'd be unwilling to place it far above (or below) Super Sad True Love Story. Overall, a pretty good read.

Arbitrary Score: 4.2 out of 5.

Next book: The Magicians, by Lev Grossman (2009)