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A review by sindri_inn_arsaeli
The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I'm going to call this one Did Not Finish with no hard feelings. The writing is emotional, honest, and highly cathartic, but it just never came at me with a sense of urgency or drive to see it through. I've been plugging away at one novel in between other reads for, no joke, a year and a half. I could enjoy the work but I couldn't get into it. The way Patchett deals with the theme of grief seems sympathetic and genuine, and perhaps at a different stage of life it would have been exactly the right book, but I find it unfair to drag it out this long, for reader and book. Besides, I've just picked up dumb dumb dumb: My Mother's Book Reviews by Mary Jo Pehl, and the grief told in this memoir has gripped me much more immediately. I'm a capricious and inconstant reader, so off I go with someone younger and thinner, and all the best to Sabine and the fam from Nebraska!
I am going to update, since I owned the book and it was a gift, I did finally bring myself back to it, and it only took around four months to finish the second half. I am not unhappy to have finished the book, but I still don't know that I'm truly glad to have read it. My main take away remains that the telling is beautiful and emotional, but needs to be emotionally matched to the reader, and I still wasn't in the right head space. I can now say that the ending brought about a well crafted and satisfying conclusion to the story. I will be more than happy to keep this title as a recommendation to the right readers, I just can't find myself raving about it without prompting.
I am going to update, since I owned the book and it was a gift, I did finally bring myself back to it, and it only took around four months to finish the second half. I am not unhappy to have finished the book, but I still don't know that I'm truly glad to have read it. My main take away remains that the telling is beautiful and emotional, but needs to be emotionally matched to the reader, and I still wasn't in the right head space. I can now say that the ending brought about a well crafted and satisfying conclusion to the story. I will be more than happy to keep this title as a recommendation to the right readers, I just can't find myself raving about it without prompting.