The Magus by John Fowles Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Magus
Book Review: Stunning
Summary: 5 Stars
Ever read a book that you couldn't put down but actually you never wanted to end? The Magus is a book quite like any other I've ever read and, what saddens me, is I doubt I'll come across anything quite as good again. It twists, turns, plays with your emotions, messes with your mind and when, it's all over leaves you longing for more, questionning yourself and leaving a deep impact on your memory. I know I'll read it again and again but if anyone out there can recommend a book that comes close to this one please let me know.Book Review: The conjuror's greatest illusion
Summary: 4 Stars
Upon learning that The Magus had won a place in the BBC's Top One-Hundred Books list, I decided to give it a read. It is often - quite rightly - referred to as a cult classic, and it is only around two hundred pages into the book that it becomes clear why. The story follows a young teacher by the name of Nicholas Urfe. Deciding he wishes to get away from dreary London, Nicholas takes a job on the sparsely populated Greek island of Phraxos. As his departure date draws nearer, the young Mr Urfe becomes reluctant to leave his Australian girlfriend Alison (a character who, although rarely making an appearance, becomes more and more significant as the book progresses). He does leave however, and although captivated by the island's majestic scenery and untouched landscape, he finds he is incredibly lonely with only one of his fellow schoolmasters to easily converse with. Out walking one day, Nicholas spots a charming villa and decides to go for a closer look. This, as he puts it himself, is 'when the mysteries began.'
The other main character of the book is a rather eccentric elderly gentleman by the name of Maurice Conchis. Conchis, it is revealed later in the book, is the Magus (being the magician figure in the Tarot pack), and he takes great pleasure in bringing said mysteries before Nicholas. Conchis introduces his new friend to a young lady he calls Lily. This may seem perfectly normal, but it is only when you take into account that the previous evening Conchis informed the young teacher that his former fianc? - Lily - was killed many years previously that it becomes rather eerie. This is one of many bizarre experiences the old man has in store for Nicholas, and although Conchis does all in his power to lead Nicholas to believe all the strange events are ESP-related, the young man is having none of it, and soon finds himself confronting Conchis and in the process falling for the beautiful Lily.
I have never read a book quite like The Magus, and I don't expect I ever will. There were times when making my journey through the six-hundred plus pages that I thought, 'I really don't want to read on.' Fowles' narration is incredibly rich, and although the story itself is nothing short of genius, I frequently found the author's storytelling somewhat difficult to follow; the regular exchanges in Greek and French for example, as well as the conversations between the two primary characters, which was often a fierce battle of intellect.
However, the parallels between the relationships of Conchis and Nicholas, and the author and reader are apparent: Conchis entices the young schoolmaster into his 'godgame,' all too aware that Nicholas will not be able to walk away - he will be forced to keep going back for more in his desperation to find the truth behind the old man's games. The same is true of the reader - by the second half of the book I literally couldn't put it down, even though the 'mysteries' became more and more frequent, and Conchis told more and more lies. I find it difficult to convey the level of imagination the author has put into the book, you need to read it in order to understand the mystical quality of The Magus. It really is unlike any other book.
Book Review: Hmm...
Summary: 3 Stars
This is - or seems to be - a book about a human being entering into a new life and being taken advantage of repeatedly by other people, coming back for more and still more of the same adverse treatment despite having surely already received enough information to make him wake up to the fact he should no longer be doing so - until, finally, damaged, he gets the message and learns that the worst side of human nature is untrustworthy and that only fools trust naively - then he refuses to be the victim of others any longer and forced to play their games, and walks away, no longer naive. Such is life. We are all, often, the victims of other people. The writer, determined to teach the message to those willing to understand it and take it on, makes the book deliberately long, meandering, unclear, obscure, and so takes advantage of the reader's na?ve and trusting nature in much the same way as the main character, Conchis, and his accomplices, take advantage of Nick.
The book is a lesson in life. The book symbolises aspects of how badly life/God/others/our environment treat us (and how authors do, sometimes!) and how we treat each other too.
The closing Latin words quoted in the book ('cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet') apparently mean "Tomorrow let him love, who has never loved; he who has loved, let him love tomorrow." Presumably the writer is trying to say, we should love each other better than we do.
The writer says in his 1976 Foreword that the book 'means' "...whatever reaction it provokes in the reader, and so far as I am concerned there is no given 'right' reaction...". So, take from it what you will.
This is not a book I would recommend anyone to read (at least, unless they have a lot of spare time on their hands to which they attach little value, with nothing much better to do with that time) as it is too obscurely written, but at the same time it is an interesting book.
Book Review: Waiting for the climax that never comes
Summary: 2 Stars
You know you get those novels that try to be really clever? Well this is one of them. And it fails. Wading through this I found myself constantly waiting for the moment of revelation that would make everything slot into place. And I waited. And waited. It never came. This novel had the potential to be something really different and exciting but I think the concept stumbled somewhere along the way. Avoid, unless you want to write an alternative ending yourself!Book Review: readable but annoying
Summary: 3 Stars
Halfway through this book, I thought 'This is too ludicrous and annoying to finish' but as I had got so far I thought I may as well finish. The plot is strained and ridiculous, the book is far too long, the narrator totally unsympathetic, and the main female love interest such a drippy male fantasy figure - unattainably pure and virginal yet with a hidden raunchiness that only our heroic narrator with his throbbing 'loins' can reveal - at times I wanted to throw the book across the room in fury. And yet, it is very readable, atmospheric in a sub-Lawrence Durrell Alexandrian Quartets type way.
But it is basically a deeply silly novel, very sexist, dated and certainly not the work of genius that some of the reviewers on Amazon claim.