The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Review Part One

Originally published on May 2nd, 2021 on Instagram.

The Magicians is weird. Indeed, it boasts one of my greatest turn-offs. You see, long chunks of the book contain almost no dialogue at all. I much prefer the "show, don't tell" approach, and scenes focusing on moments and character interactions. Here, such things are usually glossed over.

But here, this approach actually works. Usually, I would be forcing my eyelids to stay open while reading pages upon pages of narration. Here, I was devouring it with glee. And it all comes down to an important point about style and genre.

So here is a little Literature lesson for you, kids!

You see, The Magicians is as much literary fiction as it is a fantasy novel. And what exactly is literary fiction and how do we know it from genre fiction? Easy:

• Is the book's Wikipedia page devoid of any genre mention? This is because the book is literary fiction, the only kind of truly good literature.
• Has it never been mentioned by any of the major English language newspapers? Yuck. Genre.
• Does your literature professor have a fit if he or she even smells the book? Then, my dear, you are carrying a disgusting genre book.

Basically, if the intelligentsia frowns upon it, it is genre fiction. And to readers of SFF, it is usually very, very boring. But, since it often contains no magical elements and very little plot, literary fiction had to come up with a different way to be actually interesting. And that is with prose.

And for a fantasy novel, The Magicians has some of the best prose I've ever read. It's not flowery or purple. It's clear and explicit, but it is also incredibly true and soulful. There is a saying about authors having to know what they shouldn't say, and Lev Grossman seems to often cross that line in favor of truth, and it makes the book even better.

So try this on for size:

"Night after night Quentin would return home toward dawn, alone, deposited in front of his building by a solemn solitary cab like a hearse painted yellow, the street awash with blue light-the delicate ultrasound radiance of the embryonic day."

Review Part Two

Originally published on May 5th, 2021 on Instagram.

Meet Quentin Coldwater, a seventeen-year-old living in Brooklyn whose life is absolutely the worst: He has two friends, is one of the smartest kids in the country, his parents sometimes try to talk to him, and he has an Ivy League interview coming up. Oh yeah, and he can even go outside without having to wear a mask. Truly makes me reevaluate my own life and makes me thankful for all that I have.

But things are finally looking brighter: his interview is pushed because the interviewer died! But oh no, Quentin is suddenly teleported to Brakebills, the only college for magical pedagogy in the entire North America, where he is invited to take an entrance exam and is admitted! *sniff*

So, as you may have noticed, Quentin is a bit of an a-hole. He is this entitled and bitter brat who constantly feels like his own life is beneath him. And he is also our main character.

In The Magicians, we follow Quentin as he progresses through his five years of Brakebills education (after which he can literally be whatever he wants—yes, dear reader, even a duck), and becomes increasingly more snobbish and disdainful. We see him refuse to be happy even after one good thing after another happens to him, and all of that because of some books.

You see, when he was a kid, Quentin read Fillory and Further books, The Magicians' equivalent of The Chronicles of Narnia. It is reading about the Chatwin kids going to Fillory and having magical adventures there each summer that ruined his life (just like The Kingkiller Chronicle ruined my life because it's never going to be finished). It is the knowledge that the world wasn't, and couldn't be perfect like the world in those books, that makes him miserable and depressed. Or so he thinks.

The Magicians works really well as a character study. So, well, you won't even notice that it is one until you're three-quarters of the way through, and suddenly realize that wait, this is what the story has been about this whole time!