The Magus
Ratings65
Average rating3.8
Another nod to the neighborhood swap libraries I often visit. This one was a battered 1975 release that I picked up while heading out on my daily commute to work. Unlike a few I pick up and put in the TBR pile, I read a few pages and was hooked. I knew the author from The French Lieutenant's Woman, I had seen the film but had never read the book. The blurb of The Magus gave nothing away, not a single clue as to what it was about. To say it has been an eventful read would be an understatement.
Nicholas Urfe, a young Englishman, takes a teaching job on a Greek island, and life gets weird. So weird that I had no idea what was really happening up until the end—and even then? Does that make for an exceptional read, personally—the not knowing, the wanting to know? Yes.
Told in the first person, the character of Nicholas Urfe is not particularly likeable, but then neither are many of the characters that make up the cast in what, to me, was a book about an existential crisis Nick was having.
Even after the final sentence, I found myself wondering about all the characters in the book, what part they had played in Urfe’s crisis and what his awareness was of what he had been put through. Psychological manipulations? Illusion?
For a novel set in the 1950s, it has certainly stood the test of time for the modern reader.
Highly recommended for those who like their minds played with.
Another nod to the neighborhood swap libraries I often visit. This one was a battered 1975 release that I picked up while heading out on my daily commute to work. Unlike a few I pick up and put in the TBR pile, I read a few pages and was hooked. I knew the author from The French Lieutenant's Woman, I had seen the film but had never read the book. The blurb of The Magus gave nothing away, not a single clue as to what it was about. To say it has been an eventful read would be an understatement.
Nicholas Urfe, a young Englishman, takes a teaching job on a Greek island, and life gets weird. So weird that I had no idea what was really happening up until the end—and even then? Does that make for an exceptional read, personally—the not knowing, the wanting to know? Yes.
Told in the first person, the character of Nicholas Urfe is not particularly likeable, but then neither are many of the characters that make up the cast in what, to me, was a book about an existential crisis Nick was having.
Even after the final sentence, I found myself wondering about all the characters in the book, what part they had played in Urfe’s crisis and what his awareness was of what he had been put through. Psychological manipulations? Illusion?
For a novel set in the 1950s, it has certainly stood the test of time for the modern reader.
Highly recommended for those who like their minds played with.
