What I’ve Been Reading

Tag: Lev Grossman

29Jan 2012
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What I’ve Been Reading

The Magician King  by Lev Grossman is a must read for fantasy nerds who enjoy
pop culture references.

Bossypants  by Tiny Fey.  I’m not embarrassed to admit that I love Tina Fey.  The sarcastic and self-deprecating humor that was her forte on Saturday Night Live  and remains on 30 Rock  is apparent in her memoir.  She’s just a genuinely funny writer and performer without the vulgarity of Sarah Silverman or the quirkiness of Maria Bamford.  And she doesn’t make me think “How the hell did this woman get famous?” like I do when I see Kathy Griffin.  If you didn’t enjoy Fey’s turn as anchor on “Weekend Update,” then Bossypants  isn’t for you . . . but if you enjoy her humor and want more, then it’s worth the read.

The Magician King  by Lev Grossman.  This is the sequel to a book I reviewed in 2010 called The Magicians.  It continues the story of Quentin Coldwater, a modern-day Harry Potter . . . minus the whole “Chosen One” theme.  Quentin is just one of many magicians who matriculate through Brakebills, a Hogwarts-style boarding school for magicians.  He starts off this novel as one of the four rulers of Fillory, a Narnia-like alternate universe.  He takes on an adventure through worlds and time, mostly because he’s bored . . . but his adventure turns into a quest to save magic throughout the entire universe.  I thoroughly enjoy Grossman’s writing, but unlike the initial volume in this series, he intertwines the story of Julia, a queen of Fillory who took a different path to royalty than Quentin did.  Julia’s story, which takes up probably 25% of the novel, is largely boring and seemingly unrelated until the very end.  Grossman has a way of mixing a fun and exciting fantasy story with gruesome details that make it exciting to see what physical or emotional torment he’ll come up with next.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  by Stieg Larsson.  Okay, I’m a follower.  A few months ago, when I was vacationing in the Caribbean, every third person lounging on the beach or around the pool was reading this book.  I had heard bits and pieces about the plot and wasn’t impressed, but I thought to myself, “I must be missing something.”  After football season I snagged a copy and burned through the 640+ pages in about a week.  I normally like to learn new words or laugh during my reading, but I did neither for this one.  Well, I did learn a few new words, but they’ll only ever do me any good if I take a class in Swedish Geography.  I did enjoy the plot and the three-mysteries-in-one nature of the book, but the hype was a little much.  Here’s a brief plot synopsis: A disgraced journalist gets hired to investigate the 1966 disappearance of a millionaire’s grandniece, and in the process of the investigation, an alternative rock girl is hired to help him out with some computer sleuthing.  Then everyone dies.  (Just kidding about that last part.  Or am I?  I’m not.)

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk  by David Sedaris.  Acclaimed essayist Sedaris writes a series of stories involving hypocritical animals.  Yes, wild animals and barnyard animals are the vehicles for telling morality tales, using some generally accepted stereotypes about each species.  Some of the stories seem a little forced, and as the book goes along, Sedaris seems to run out of gas.  But the first few tales are worth reading, especially “The Toad, the Turtle, and the Duck,” which made me laugh out loud.  I wouldn’t buy this book if I were you, but if you see it sitting on someone’s coffee table or have a couple minutes while browsing at Borders Barnes and Noble, it’s worth the five minutes to read a couple tales.

18Jun 2010
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Self-Indulgent Post of the Week: The Magicians

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

If Harry Potter had “relations” with Hermione Granger, met up with a Bret Easton Ellis character, found a Portkey to the Wood Between the Worlds, and then faced off with a ‘roid raging Lord Voldemort . . . that might begin to approximate the events in The Magicians.

A Brooklyn high school student named Quentin has an unhealthy level of interest in a magical place named Fillory, which is essentially C.S. Lewis’s Narnia. With few friends and not much of a relationship with his family, Quentin finds a Hogwarts-like school named Brakebills. He finds that he fits in well with the school and some of the other students, and being infatuated with magic, Quentin devotes himself to the tedium of learning magic. Unlike J.K. Rowling’s Potter, however, Quentin isn’t exactly a leader or “The Chosen One.” He’s just a regular wizard with a shortage of self-esteem.

Amid love triangles, drug usage, and heavy alcohol consumption, a fellow student named Penny finds a magic button (sounds familiar?) that transports its possessor to the Neitherlands, an endless city of fountains that are gates to other worlds. Penny convinces Quentin and a few of their friends to visit the Neitherlands in the hopes of finding Fillory. Once Quentin finds the enchanted land that he thought was only the figment of an author’s imagination, he’s tasked with a mission to save Fillory’s equivalents of Narnia’s Aslan – two rams named Ember and Umber.

Holding degrees in comparative literature from both Harvard and Yale, Grossman doesn’t attempt to hide the derivative nature of his novel. The appearances of some of his characters and, especially, locations are almost laughable at times. He might as well be Gregory Maguire elaborating on the story of Snow White. But I suppose Snow White having a sex drive and an addiction to painkillers might sully the children’s story. The story was so dependent on the series by Lewis that I stopped mid-novel to familiarize myself with The Chronicles of Narnia, the reading of which had somehow alluded me as a child.

One issue I had with The Magicians was the inconsistent pacing. At 402 pages, there are bound to be a few slow spots. The vast majority of the novel takes place in Brooklyn and Brakebills, with only the last sliver depicting the more exciting Fillory. Only the occasional exciting event occurs at Brakebills, and while developments happen with sufficient frequency, there is a bit of a lull in the middle. Fortunately, the last section of the novel flies by at a breakneck pace, concluding with one of the most terrifying fantasy scenes I’ve read. Lord Voldemort could learn a thing or two from Grossman’s villain.

Overall, The Magicians was a fantastic read. Not only did Grossman build an excellent amount of tension, but he also has an impressively deep vocabulary. I’m a fairly intelligent individual, but more than a handful of times, I found myself cracking open a dictionary to keep up with the language. The climax left me wanting more, which is the perfect time for an author to close up shop.