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The Magician's Assistant Hardcover – October 15, 1997
Ann Patchett (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarcourt
- Publication dateOctober 15, 1997
- Dimensions6.14 x 0.88 x 9.21 inches
- ISBN-100151002630
- ISBN-13978-0151002634
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Editorial Reviews
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From Library Journal
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Review
The real appeal of The Magician's Assistant lies in the small, accumulating ways in which Sabine and the Fetters family assist one another out of isolation and sorrow. By the end, they have all been somewhat transformed--yes, by the magic of love. If it is hard not to squint at some of the flashy paradoxes Patchett uses to construct her narrative, then perhaps a struggle with credulity is precisely what she wants to encourage. Improbably relationships can flourish; strange havens do exist. Becoming accustomed to sad endings may be more naive than believing, now and then, in happily ever after. -- The New York Times Book Review, Suzanne Berne
There is something of allegory in Patchett's novel. There are times when its insistent current toward redemption risks flooding the life along the way, and there is a suggestion of the author's hand hovering at the sluice gate. Rarely does it do more than hover, though; rarely does the flood level do more than lap at the ingenious life and liveliness that Patchett has devised. -- Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Richard Eder
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Product details
- Publisher : Harcourt; 1st edition (October 15, 1997)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0151002630
- ISBN-13 : 978-0151002634
- Item Weight : 1.35 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.14 x 0.88 x 9.21 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,422,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,906 in LGBTQ+ Genre Fiction (Books)
- #132,912 in American Literature (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Ann Patchett is the author of six novels, including Bel Canto, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction. She writes for the New York Times Magazine, Elle, GQ, the Financial Times, the Paris Review and Vogue. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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This is a wonderful book by a very talented author that I am happy to recommend.
Sabine, the main character, is working as a waitress in a comedy club in Los Angeles. The magician onstage picks her to come onto the stage and assist him in an act of magic. Sabine is gorgeous and young, and at first she is too shy to go up on stage but when she finally relents she falls in love with the magician whose stage name is Parsiafal. He is handsome, caring, and sensitive and he is also gay but that does not stop them from staying and living together until the day he dies. His lover, Phan, lives with them and buys them a huge house, which they all live happily in. When Phan dies of AIDS, Parsiafal marries Sabine because he also has AIDS and wants to make sure that all that he leaves her when he dies is not contested by anyone. They are married for about a year and a half when Parsisfal dies, not from AIDS, but from a brain aneurism.
Suddenly, left alone in this big house with all these wonderful memories she finds it impossible not to live without Parsiafal. She can't let go, and then it occurs to her that she knows very little of Parsiafal's younger life... just tiny bits and pieces that she quickly finds out do not add up.
His so called family that he told her all died in a car accident, are mostly alive and living in Nebraska. His mother and younger sister come to visit Los Angeles when they find out he has passed away and he has left them a sizable chunk of money. Sabine meets them, and gets along so well with them that she visits them in Nebraska and it is here that she discovers the tragic history of her husband's youth, as told by his mother, younger sister, and his twin sister Kitty.
Parsiafal is once again in her life through his mother and sisters and her love for him only grows, and the family's love for him has always been there, even though they have never seen him since he left at eighteen. He, until the end of his life, has send his mother money but never have they communicated.
Yes, this beautiful and amazing book tells you that you can go back to your younger days, that love is eternal even at a distance, and that in the face of a twin sister that looks very much like the deceased, you can once again find the love of your life for a second time.
I Loved this book and I highly, highly recommend it.
I find it so remarkable that every novel that Patchett writes is so totally different from all the others, very much to her credit.
Top reviews from other countries



Completely enjoyable.
sfd

