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twilsonovi 's review for:
The Magus
by John Fowles
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.