A Review of "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman

A New York Times best seller, the book jacket states if you loved Harry Potter and Narnia, then you have to read this. Glowing reviews from a myriad of papers and authors crowd the initial few pages. George Martin, of the Song of Ice and Fire series, tells the reader that this book is to Harry Potter as a shot of strong Irish whisky is to cup of weak tea.

I love a well-done fantasy novel. Judging by all the accolades and recommendations on its cover, as well as by the few paragraphs my girlfriend typed to me over skype, it seemed certain that I would love this book. To be sure, Lev's writing is top-notch. The story itself, if I consider a summary of the themes and the plot, seems like it would make a fantastic novel. So why, when I was finished with it, did I feel so mixed?

As I do with all the books I read, I brought it to every meal and read a portion before going to sleep at night. Unlike some books I've read recently, I had a strong urge run straight home after work and pick it up. I frequently thought about stealing time to go read it. But overall I don't think I liked it very much. It is a strange book that ropes me in such that I want to steal time from my work day to go read, but that I also wind up having such a healthy loathing for.

This is not a book I want to read more than once. I'm relatively certain that I don't want to read the sequel. This is for the simple reason that I couldn't stand Lev's main character, Quentin.

The unashamed theme for the story is that life is life, no matter where you are. Happiness and fulfillment are hard to find, whether you live the daily grind in your cubicle, or you get accepted into a prestigious school for magic. Everything requires hard work and misery, and no amount of pursuing a dream will leave you with contentment if you don't know why you're pursuing the dream in the first place. Lev forces every character to deal with these lessons to some extent, but Quentin, his main character, is the epitome of self-loathing and is constantly being reminded of how all the things he thinks will make him happy are actually devoid of meaning. While I agree that finding true fulfillment in life is a difficult endeavor, Lev explicitly throws this fact in the reader's face so often that reading the book begins to feel like a constant exploration of hitting bottom, which isn't fun to read. It's hard to believe that Lev didn't do this on purpose, and again, I think his point about happiness is a good one, but I don't think it's necessary for me to hate the main character, and large parts of the story, to get it across.

There are allusions to other works throughout Lev's story. Some of them are simple nods, but others make me wonder if Lev thinks that other authors let their characters get off easy with regard to learning magic, or finding happy endings. I get the feeling that Lev thinks these other fantasy stories aren't "true". And yet, parts of Harry Potter are quite dark. The characters have to deal with many facets of real life, as Lev would define it. Perhaps the point about life's struggles doesn't come across so clearly, but the themes are still there, AND they're fun to read. The parts of The Magicians that are uplifting and fun to read are few and far-between, albeit some of the best and most enjoyable writing I've read recently. Quentin's time as a goose is especially delightful. But they're so buried by depression and misery that it was a struggle to finish the book. By the end, I have so little regard for most of Lev's characters that I don't particularly care what he does with any of them. When you have everyone experiencing such loss and emptiness throughout the story, it's hard to feel any lower when you start killing them at the end. Instead of feeling the tragic sense of loss when Sirius dies (I actually cried at that part), I just thought to myself - yes, of course so-and-so was going to die. It was just another event in a litany of misery and unhappiness.

Quentin himself is so devoid of any sort of real, positive, self-appraising thought that it takes an effort to stay with him. Making a poignant point about the world is great, but if you do it in a way that revolts your readers, then I don't think as an author you're serving your own interests. In addition, Quentin is so incredibly useless in every situation that he only serves as a pitiable clown, instead of something driving the story. In fact, by the end of the novel, I got the sense that Lev himself was getting tired of it all, because he started throwing in numerous meta-ironies about writing, lambasting his own story IN the story. This type of writing is creative, and fun for the author to write, but reading it is incredibly annoying. It's like the reward for getting to the end of his book is that he starts playing an elaborate joke on his readers, which may or may not go over their heads. Are you in the "I'm so tired of it all?" club yet?

Also, why does Lev have such contempt for the idea that doing magic could be relatively easy to learn? Not everything in life requires hard work to master. I like the idea that learning magic in The Magicians is more complicated than in other fantasy stories, and that idea should provide some great material to explore. But I don't like to feel like Lev looks down on these other works for the way they treat their magic system. I think each interpretation is equally valid. It's magic for god's sake.

At the end, I'm not sure what I'm more disappointed by: the taste in my mouth when I finished reading, or how much I feel like Lev missed some golden opportunities to write a deep and satisfying book. I brought up the dark parts of Harry Potter earlier to show that there were probably ways for Lev to still make his points about life, but leave the reader wanting to stay in his world. I couldn't wait to get out. I understand that others may have a different philosophy regarding what a book Should Do, and if you are content with reading something that leaves you thinking more deeply about life, but doesn't necessarily leave you feeling fulfilled, then this book is perfect. I, on the other hand, want to enjoy the book first and foremost. There were sections here and there I enjoyed as much as anything, but at the end, I'm not sure it was worth it. As Quentin himself sort of learned but then suddenly didn't for some reason, perhaps I should have just stayed home and done (read) something else.