Book Review

The Magician's Assistant

Parsifal is dead. That is the end of the story.

Let me give you a little piece of advice. If you open a book and the first sentence reads anything like that, just settle in for a heaping helping because you have found yourself a delicious book. This book was like the perfect piece of cake. It satisfied me completely and left me wanting more all at the same time. This is the kind of book that I really need to own because there were so many great sentences. I'm a big fan of the great sentence. I have to underline them. It's a sickness really...

Unfortunately, this book came from the library so I'm just gonna record the great ones here.

"I love my children, " she said. "No one will tell you otherwise, but just between the two of us I have to say I admire you for not having any. The ways they break your heart, Jesus, and it never stops. I mean it, it simply does not stop."

"But there was never a man she wanted to run to when she saw him, a man in whose neck she longed to bury her face and recount every detail of her day. There was never a man she felt could make every difference simply by holding her to his chest and saying her name."

"She had been mothering people in one way or another for forty-six years. Her energy for the project had faded."

"Dot didn't smoke, but pushed far enough, most anyone will have a cigarette."

It's a great story that feels really original. Anyone who reads with any regularity can tell you that,after a while, original stories feel few and far between. I wanted to give a brief description of the plot but when I typed it out, it seemed really ridiculous. Just trust me here...read it.