Take a photo of a barcode or cover
andiecurlybooks 's review for:
The Magus
by John Fowles
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! :)