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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I absolutely loved the beginning of this book, but towards the middle it seems that both the writing quality and the storyline go downhill. The plotline also gets progressively weirder. I must admit that I didn't yet make it to the end, and I'm not sure that I ever will. It started to seem like a waste of time, and reading the book was making me feel depressed.
I would love to say that I both fully enjoyed and fully understood this, but unfortunately neither of those statements would be true.
I’m trying to pin down my thoughts about it and it’s proving incredibly difficult. Here is what I can say about it:
- The language is gorgeous. It’s beautifully written.
- Nicholas Urfe is the most awful protagonist from anything I’ve ever read. That being said, I did find myself rooting for him.
- The characters are fascinating.
- I was quite enjoying it until after the ‘trial’. I felt like the plot lost any sort of momentum after that, as key characters were swiftly discarded and the island (a huge draw for me) was abandoned. I have a notion that that was intentional (it left the reader feeling the same dissatisfaction as Nicholas I suppose), but to me it felt like a mistake.
- I was left so completely dissatisfied by the plot. I had the feeling that Fowles himself didn’t know where he was going most of the time. Even if that is not true, that’s the impression I got. The story lacked any coherent flow for me.
- It was bloody hilarious at times, but I’m not sure it was intentional? I think that the bits I found funny were meant to be sincere? I couldn’t tell.
Anyway, that’s all I have to say about it. I feel like I could have loved this book, but I just didn’t. Unfortunately it’s not a book that I’ll ever be able to revisit, because I think that rather defeats the point!
I’m trying to pin down my thoughts about it and it’s proving incredibly difficult. Here is what I can say about it:
- The language is gorgeous. It’s beautifully written.
- Nicholas Urfe is the most awful protagonist from anything I’ve ever read. That being said, I did find myself rooting for him.
- The characters are fascinating.
- I was quite enjoying it until after the ‘trial’. I felt like the plot lost any sort of momentum after that, as key characters were swiftly discarded and the island (a huge draw for me) was abandoned. I have a notion that that was intentional (it left the reader feeling the same dissatisfaction as Nicholas I suppose), but to me it felt like a mistake.
- I was left so completely dissatisfied by the plot. I had the feeling that Fowles himself didn’t know where he was going most of the time. Even if that is not true, that’s the impression I got. The story lacked any coherent flow for me.
- It was bloody hilarious at times, but I’m not sure it was intentional? I think that the bits I found funny were meant to be sincere? I couldn’t tell.
Anyway, that’s all I have to say about it. I feel like I could have loved this book, but I just didn’t. Unfortunately it’s not a book that I’ll ever be able to revisit, because I think that rather defeats the point!
4.5 stars
So...OK...here we go!
This book is so insane it might just be the most sane thing I've ever read...which is the type of statement you should be ready to try and make sense of, if you are going to attempt to read this book!
John Fowles can certainly write his ass off! This book is so well written and so beautifully crafted that the plot, which is so complex I don't know if I'm even going to be able to start to explain it, becomes secondary to the extraordinary language he uses.
The Magus, is one of the most convoluted and shifty stories that I have ever experienced. There were so many twists and turns I thought I was going to get vertigo trying to keep track of it all. While occasionally the complexity of the plot became a little tedious and tiresome, the point of it all is to make the reader mirror the thoughts and reactions of the main characters. We, like Nicholas Urfe, feel like we are on an unknowable and elaborate quest that has no end in sight and no easy answers. This is frustrating in the extreme, the same way that it is frustrating for the main character. The book is exploratory in nature and requires patience and an ability to stay mentally nimble and open minded.
Because of the amount of work the author, I believe deliberately, places on the shoulders of the reader, I can't say that I ENJOYED reading this novel. Enjoyment was not Fowles' intent, at least in my opinion. This book instead is meant to be pondered, considered in depth, and discussed. It is a thought experiment of the highest order and an attempt to explore psychology, social mores, philosophy, human nature, war, and mankind's place in the universe...and these are just SOME of the main points being made.
This is the type of book that deserves multiple readings (which would be easier if it wasn't such a beast of a book) to grasp all of the content, and even then I'm not sure if I would have a clue. Like the book professes, there are no easy answers, life is not wrapped up in a nice little package, life is complex and life's mysteries are to a great extent still unknowable...we try to make sense of it all, like the characters in the book, but ultimately we have to accept, learn to enjoy, and find wonder in the fact that we are ultimately clueless when it comes to some of the bigger mysteries of the universe. Asking questions, searching for answers, now that's where all the fun is at! :)
So...OK...here we go!
This book is so insane it might just be the most sane thing I've ever read...which is the type of statement you should be ready to try and make sense of, if you are going to attempt to read this book!
John Fowles can certainly write his ass off! This book is so well written and so beautifully crafted that the plot, which is so complex I don't know if I'm even going to be able to start to explain it, becomes secondary to the extraordinary language he uses.
The Magus, is one of the most convoluted and shifty stories that I have ever experienced. There were so many twists and turns I thought I was going to get vertigo trying to keep track of it all. While occasionally the complexity of the plot became a little tedious and tiresome, the point of it all is to make the reader mirror the thoughts and reactions of the main characters. We, like Nicholas Urfe, feel like we are on an unknowable and elaborate quest that has no end in sight and no easy answers. This is frustrating in the extreme, the same way that it is frustrating for the main character. The book is exploratory in nature and requires patience and an ability to stay mentally nimble and open minded.
Because of the amount of work the author, I believe deliberately, places on the shoulders of the reader, I can't say that I ENJOYED reading this novel. Enjoyment was not Fowles' intent, at least in my opinion. This book instead is meant to be pondered, considered in depth, and discussed. It is a thought experiment of the highest order and an attempt to explore psychology, social mores, philosophy, human nature, war, and mankind's place in the universe...and these are just SOME of the main points being made.
This is the type of book that deserves multiple readings (which would be easier if it wasn't such a beast of a book) to grasp all of the content, and even then I'm not sure if I would have a clue. Like the book professes, there are no easy answers, life is not wrapped up in a nice little package, life is complex and life's mysteries are to a great extent still unknowable...we try to make sense of it all, like the characters in the book, but ultimately we have to accept, learn to enjoy, and find wonder in the fact that we are ultimately clueless when it comes to some of the bigger mysteries of the universe. Asking questions, searching for answers, now that's where all the fun is at! :)
This book is a reminder that if you’re not enjoying a book then you should put it down and not finish it.
A wild puzzle where you’re never quite sure what’s real or imaginary. It was a little long for my tastes, but I admit it was hard to put down and escape the insanity. A satisfying literary thriller.
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
stunning and staggering, suspended, magical. I am stuck inside the story and spinning and it is all so beautiful
Pretty enthralling but a difficult book to review without spoilers. The layers of mystery and manipulation which lie behind the whole thing are intricately constructed, such that you feel Nicholas' disorientation with him. In the end they actually seem to hinge on a moral question much more mundane than the devices used to illustrate it. The erudition and prose style of the author is superb, and though for a while I wondered whether it was deliberate that he had put his narrative in the hands of a rather unlikeable main character, it seems in the end that it was. The portrayal of the conformist malaise and social preoccupations of England, and the contrast with Phraxos, in the immediate post-war period, was another interesting point.
Occasionally meandered, which is perhaps part of the point, but there's a fine line between circumlocution and circuitousness. The ending was a little bit Sally Rooney for me - not a bad thing, just a little jarring in the context - although I think it illustrated the enduring trauma of Nicholas' experience well.
Occasionally meandered, which is perhaps part of the point, but there's a fine line between circumlocution and circuitousness. The ending was a little bit Sally Rooney for me - not a bad thing, just a little jarring in the context - although I think it illustrated the enduring trauma of Nicholas' experience well.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes