Krystyn read and liked Kirby's review of Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician:

"This is possibly the first time that national mood has significantly affected my ability to enjoy a book. I finished it, but kept returning to the beginning scenes, where an elderly Black magician repeatedly fails in front of a white audience that h...more This is possibly the first time that national mood has significantly affected my ability to enjoy a book. I finished it, but kept returning to the beginning scenes, where an elderly Black magician repeatedly fails in front of a white audience that has paid to see him do just that. It has the effect of soothing their racial anxieties and signaling that the social upheaval around them has left their position undisturbed. An admittedly long excerpt: "A black man with green eyes- a Negro- and this, in the end, is why Jeremiah hired him. A marketing tool of these dimensions was not something he could let pass by. For a magician was nothing, really, the same way a cow was nothing. But a Negro magician- or, say, a two-headed cow- now that was something. Better even than a Chinese acrobat. Jeremiah felt that Henry's inability to do anything truly amazing (Henry thought of it as a kind of impotence, after so many potent years) might actually work in his favor, at least with the crowds of the small southern towns where Jeremiah made his living. So he hired him, and his prediction came true. Watching a Negro fail was amusing. It was life-affirming. A white magician who performed as Henry did- fumbling his cards, accidentally smothering a bird in his jacket, and who, while sawing a woman in half, almost actually did (she was fine, after they bandaged her up)- would have been a sad and pathetic display of simple ineptitude. But Henry, the Negro Magician- the extremely unmagical Negro magician- well, it was comedy, and the crowds could not get enough of it. He played to a full tent every night."

In an election year where too many folks are hoping, needing, and praying that Obama will fail mightily and that even some who support him severely confine the terms on which he should succeed, I didn’t ever really move beyond this scene because I needed the book to resolve this. I wanted Wallace to make it right. And he didn’t. Yeah, yeah he had a different project and the story ends up miles away from this, but I couldn’t go along for the ride. Price was too high for my psyche these days.

I do love a misfit so I enjoyed the self-described circus freaks who rotated around Henry’s character – in particular the Ossified Lady who was well-employed in concept and in dialogue. But again, all that is eventually revealed about Henry through various characters, perspectives, and truths did not move me past the scenes in the tent. As I watch the Obamas contort themselves in every way possible to drag this country along the road to maturity, I need the magic to be real for a minute. So maybe a post-November revisit is best.
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Krystyn read and liked Erin's review of Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician: A Novel:

"This book wasn't bad, but it was very much like Big Fish. Near the end I thought to myself, if I wanted to read Big Fish again, why didn't I just read Big Fish? The ending was kind of dull and I had a hard time getting through it. I finished it in 4 ...more This book wasn't bad, but it was very much like Big Fish. Near the end I thought to myself, if I wanted to read Big Fish again, why didn't I just read Big Fish? The ending was kind of dull and I had a hard time getting through it. I finished it in 4 days but it was burdensome for me to pick up the book, which isn't a good sign.(less) "