Carrie's review
The Magus
by John Fowles
I agree, Carrie: an enjoyable book with lots of interesting ideas but it falls shy of being brilliant. I also found the prose clumsy in places and found many of the philosophical ideas interesting but a little underdeveloped.
Still, the plot is full of enjoyable misdirections and you are never sure if anyone is who they say they are (or who they say they are when they admit that they are not who they say they are).
I sound a bit negative but I did really enjoy the book even if I felt that there was something unresolved about the story and many of the ideas but, alas, not in an intriguingly ambiguous way.
Carrie's review
The Magus by John Fowles
Carrie's review
rating:
I put off reading this book for two years after receiving it as a gift. I had asked for it, but I had trouble reading The French Lieutenant's Woman in 85 and The Collector in 98, so quite expected it to be a difficult read. Who knows why I accepted Steve's challenge to read it, but I managed to make it through to the end in just a few days. My hands hurt holding 650 pages, but it was a real pageturner. Just when you think you might have it sussed, it takes a different direction. The story kept my interest, but I have to admit some disappointment in the writing. Maybe I have been editing too long, but I found myself wanting to criticise him throughout. I found all of the sex descriptions tedious and unimaginative. I noticed after reading the forward that he had edited these for the later release to compensate for the lack of nerve he had in 1953 when he wrote it. Perhaps he should have left it alone. The end was a bit anticlimactic, but I don't know how I would have done it any differe...more
I agree, Carrie: an enjoyable book with lots of interesting ideas but it falls shy of being brilliant. I also found the prose clumsy in places and found many of the philosophical ideas interesting but a little underdeveloped.
Still, the plot is full of enjoyable misdirections and you are never sure if anyone is who they say they are (or who they say they are when they admit that they are not who they say they are).
I sound a bit negative but I did really enjoy the book even if I felt that there was something unresolved about the story and many of the ideas but, alas, not in an intriguingly ambiguous way.