Goodreads | The Prestige (Gollancz)

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Martine rated it:

12/16/07

bookshelves: british, film, magic-realism, modern-fiction, pseudo-nineteenth-century

Read in December, 2007

Like many readers, I came to this book after seeing the excellent 2006 film based on it. Like many other readers, I ended up preferring the film to the book as the film is a lot more tightly woven and provides better motivations for the characters' actions.

The story, for those of you who don't know, centres on two Victorian magicians who strike up a feud and spend the next twenty years sabotaging each other's shows and trying to outperform each other, each coming up with a spectacular disapp...more Like many readers, I came to this book after seeing the excellent 2006 film based on it. Like many other readers, I ended up preferring the film to the book as the film is a lot more tightly woven and provides better motivations for the characters' actions.

The story, for those of you who don't know, centres on two Victorian magicians who strike up a feud and spend the next twenty years sabotaging each other's shows and trying to outperform each other, each coming up with a spectacular disappearing act to which the other wants to find out the secret. The obsessive nature of the two men's relationship is drawn well, first from the working-class Borden's point of view, then from the aristocratic Angier's. Their feud isn't motivated particularly well, but that might be the point of the story; feuds often arise over trivial matters. At any rate, the resulting obsession and its destructive effects are painted vividly. The magic tricks are also presented well, although the words describing them of necessity lack the powerful quality of the film's images of them. And finally, there's a nice sense of mystery surrounding some of the tricks (although again, less so than in the film), bringing to mind the thrilling sensation fiction of the Victorian era, which I happen to love.

Sadly, though, the book has many shortcomings. For one thing, Borden's and Angier's diaries are unconvincing as Victorian documents; the language used is far too modern. Secondly, both of the protagonists are fairly unlikeable characters. I realise it's hard to write a story about an obsessive feud without making the characters quite unlikeable, but still, I think Priest could have done a better job on these two. Thirdly, Angier's part of the story is a bit of a drag. Some judicious editing would have been welcome here.

What really sets the book apart from the film, however, is the fact that Priest saw fit to include a modern frame in which the reader is introduced to two of the magicians' present-day descendants, whose lives are still being affected by the ancient feud. At first I hated the modern frame (which the filmmakers wisely left out), thinking it detracted from the main story. Towards the end I came to appreciate it. I actually quite liked the ending, which is spectacularly sci-fi-ish and gothic. It rather stands out from the rest of the book (which is fairly realistic), and as such could be said to be out of out of character, but as far as I'm concerned, it works. I wish the rest of the book were equally spectacular.

I'd give the book 3.5 stars if I could, but in the absence of half stars, I'm going to be tough and give it 3....less

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Spectrum rated it:

(review of isbn 0312858868)

10/09/07

bookshelves: borrowme, reviewed

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: people interested in magic or fans of the movie

"There is a kind of madness where delusion replaces reality, and many a kind of madness where delusions replaces reality, and many times such a malaise seemed to explain everything."

The Prestige is the story of two dueling magicians, Rupert Angier and Alfred Borden, living in Europe at the turn of the Twentieth Century. In a rather creative approach, the narrative is delivered through three different first person narratives. One narrative, told from the perspective of Andre...more "There is a kind of madness where delusion replaces reality, and many a kind of madness where delusions replaces reality, and many times such a malaise seemed to explain everything."

The Prestige is the story of two dueling magicians, Rupert Angier and Alfred Borden, living in Europe at the turn of the Twentieth Century. In a rather creative approach, the narrative is delivered through three different first person narratives. One narrative, told from the perspective of Andrew Westley, bookends the novel and is set in the present day. Andrew is a descendant of Alfred Borden who, through circumstance, encounters a descendant of Rupert Angier. Seemingly, the two are brought together in hopes of finding closure to the secrets and feuds that have plagued their families for over a hundred years. While the inclusion of this brief plot line is interesting, it is completely unnecessary and is more distracting than rewarding. Luckily, the bulk of the novel is told through the journals of the two magicians. However, Borden's journal is too short, lacking any real depth or emotion, and in the end leaves the reader with many unanswered questions. Angier's journal, on the other hand, drags on and becomes tedious in many places, revealing way too many of Angier's secrets and thus ruins the book's own 'prestige.' The multiple journal format is interesting, in that it offers the reader the opportunity to experience a handful of events from different perspectives, but its unbalanced nature fails to deliver.

Despite its narrative flaws, The Prestige is a story about jealously and obsession. Two men that should have been collaborators are instead rivaling enemies that manage to wreck each other's lives. Any success or wealth either man ever experiences is overshadowed by the obsession to either out do or sabotage the other. By the time either one of the magicians realize how far they have fallen it is much too late for redemption. Both men are forever lost. A life of jealously and envy has destroyed this pair leaving each soulless and regretful. Christopher Priest has crafted a bleak story about the self-destructive nature of obsession. Through Angier he declares that its "hunger is a monster." However, Priest reminds his reader that we are own constructors and captors of these self-made prisons as Angier realizes he has become "a pathetic denizen of a half-world that was as much of my own making as it had been of Borden's."

"My eyes, red-rimmed, stated out from the hollow mask my face had become, and for a few moments I stood there transfixed by the sight of myself."

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