wayneg 's review for:

The Magician by Colm Tóibín

4.25

adventurous reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This is where the novel and the biography come together - and very successfully. Toibin’s slightly cool, almost detached tone, carries one along, so one languidly enters into momentous events through the  often trivial day to day and the not so trivial familial ups and downs. The Mann’s are an extraordinary family and the world they initially inhabit disappears totally in their lifetimes: the urbane, cultured world of the German bourgeoisie. Their attempts to understand and even shape the events of the 20th Century view to the book.
In some ways the key character is not Thomas Mann here, but Katie Mann, enormously resourceful, withholding emotions, making things happen behind the scenes. And Tommy takes to his study to avoid anything close to conflict whether at home or on the wider stage.
This is a grand book, epic really