The Magician's Assistant

By Ann Patchett
Harcourt Brace, $23

ISBN 0151002630


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Review by Laurie Parker

What is a magician's assistant to do when her magician dies? If she's strong and lucky, she learns to create her own magic, just as Ann Patchett does with her masterful new novel "The Magician's Assistant."

Sabine had worked with and loved Parsifal for more than 20 years, since she had put down her cocktail tray at the age of 19 to step up onto the stage in response to Parsifal's glamorous smile and beckoning hand. But Parsifal was gay; he loved Phan, the soft-spoken Vietnamese software designer who shared Parsifal's life and who became Sabine's dearest friend. Having decided long ago that a platonic relationship with Parsifal was better than living without him, Sabine contented herself with learning the new acts, sharing a deep, almost familial bond with Phan and Parsifal and building her painstakingly detailed architectural models.

I know of no other
writer who is able to
-- or who is brave
enough to -- tackle
the challenge of
creating characters
of such varied races
and backgrounds
But then Phan dies of AIDS, and Parsifal is diagnosed with the disease. Ironically, it is under these tragic circumstances that Sabine achieves the impossible dream of marriage to Parsifal, though the marriage is one in name only, Parsifal's way of insuring that Sabine will be financially secure after he is gone. Parsifal's own death is as surprising as one of his magic tricks -- one minute he is sitting at the kitchen table, the next he is gone, leaving Sabine with her memories, an aching depression, a large Flemish rabbit and strange dream visitations from Phan which she doesn't remember when she awakens.

She is also left with the startling news that Parsifal wasn't all he claimed to be. It's a discovery that sets her on a journey to take control of her life, and to claim a surprising new love of her own.

"The Magician's Assistant" is the third of Patchett's novels, following the justly acclaimed "The Patron Saint of Liars" and "Taft." Each novel is markedly different from the others. The characters could not be more disparate, ranging from the residents of a home for unwed mothers in Kentucky, to a black nightclub owner in Memphis, to a native Angelena set down in wintry Nebraska. At times it seems Patchett's books arenšt fiction at all; it is as if they are oral histories recorded by a kind and forgiving transcriber. I know of no other writer who is able to -- or who is brave enough to -- tackle the challenge of creating characters of such varied races and backgrounds, making each one's voice and life so utterly believable.

With "The Magician's Assistant," Patchett once again astounds us with the extraordinarily wise talent she displays. And, like a good magician should, she does it seamlessly and flawlessly, making it all look so very easy as she takes our breath away.

Laurie Parker lives and writes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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