The Magus by John Fowles Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Magus
Book Review: UGH. Maybe it's because I'm a girl.
Summary: 3 Stars
I picked up "The Magus" two summers ago, in a lazy few weeks between ending work and going to grad school. The only thing I really enjoyed about this book was that it was like taking a trip to Greece, and it certainly made those weeks seem a lot longer.
basic, basic plot: Young British rake moves to Greek island to teach at a boys' school, having nothing else to do. Meets mysterious man who lures him with his wealth and various inexplicable happenings at his house. Psychological games and various unusual events ensue.
Out of fairness for this book, although I despised the main character for his subpar treatment of women and for not being a remotely sympathetic character, you WILL NOT see what is coming in this book. Fowles should be lauded for writing a book that is really not like anything I've ever read, and I found it utterly unpredictable.
Perhaps my main problem is that so many people over the years have told me how reading "The Magus" in younger years, often in the summer as it is quite long and demands time, proved to be a life-changing moment. It was not for me, but I think it must come from the theme of taking responsibility for your actions, and to realize that other people may be in on something that you cannot have access to because of your attitude. This is what I got out of it, but I would not be surprised if all of us came together with different takes on the ambiguous message of the story. It sometimes seems to me that men like this book in greater numbers than women. I have no explanation for this, aside from the obvious one about the ability to empathize with the main character, but that seems a bit too pat for a book that is built upon women acting as the tormentors of men, even when they appear to be the victim.
Book Review: Unbreakable Spirit
Summary: 5 Stars
Great book. Addictive. I didn't much care for the last few pages, (the dialogue between Nicholas and Alison), but it did drive home the point, once and for all, that Nicholas Urfe would not be dominated by another person.Book Review: What the heck is going on??
Summary: 5 Stars
...was my reaction while reading this book....
Not every book can captivate its reader with the continuous chain of events that don't really seem to converge at any particular point in the story. In other words, just as one wants to say "okay, now i got the trail"...it just disapears under the influx of the new events, many of them grotesquly gothic, with a streak of pagan mysticism.
However, within that, the novel is many a time about human interraction, relationship between a man and a woman, and i think it does a very good job at captivating that part of it, that we don't necessarily like to talk about in the shallow of our day to day relations. Other than that, author has quite a lot to say about our relationship to the Universe herself, the kind of Universe that is sort of unobstructed by the news media, a world that we see when we are utterly and profoundly alone with ourselves.
Book Review: Whoa....whatta rollercoaster
Summary: 4 Stars
To be honest it was a struggle to get through the first 100 pages...not alot happens and I was skeptical it would pick up but once Nicholas got onto the island the fun begins! Alot of twists and turns and not knowing who to believe and what was real and what wasn't was just a joy to keep up with...you didn't want to put the book down as you knew something or someone would change and you just had to know who or what it was. The ending killed me as well...not in a bad way but in a way as if I was Nicholas himself and had gone through this experience personally instead of just reading it. Great fun and one that I will likely read again.Book Review: he should have left it alone
Summary: 4 Stars
actually, I need to re-read the revised version while the original is still fresh in my mind. I first read this when I was 15 or so, & long before JF "tampered" with it. a few days later, it was my great misfortune to see the filmed version of the story. despite JF having written the screenplay himself, I would urge you to avoid it... it's likely that a better director would have made a better job of the (presumably) abridged version of this convoluted tale, but I doubt anyone could've directed their way out of the woeful miscasting of the lead... I tried to keep this out of my mind as I re-read this original version, but sadly I couldn't help thinking that the skillfully engaging prose only served to heighten my lack of sympathy/empathy with any of these self-absorbed misfits & sociopaths.
nothing excuses the behaviour of any of them, it wouldn't then (1953) nor would it now. the actions are utterly at odds with the assumed wrongdoings. our narrator is in his early twenties & really doesn't know any better. he has a brief fling- perhaps too brief, or too young, to realise it's proper place in his life-story, but he's then "punished" by an enormously elaborate & quite literally fantastic conspiracy. neither nicholas nor alison have kept anything back from each other vis a vis their future plans- they have their job interviews on the same day, & speculate about how the relationship might continue when each is employed away from london. I can't figure out why it is that nicholas "deserves" all the subsequent charadery or how it is in any way justified in teaching him some sort of lesson. instead I view the whole tale as an overbaked allegory for the harsh treatment that young people often mete out on each other when first exploring life partnerships, & on this occasion I'm giving JF the points purely for the quality of the writing. I didn't enjoy being in nicholas' head while all this was happening to him, no.