The Magician's Assistant

By: Ann Patchett

Narrated by: Karen Ziemba

Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

When a gay Los Angeles magician named Parsifal dies suddenly, he leaves behind his heartbroken assistant, Sabine, and a secret past that leads her to Nebraska and a father she never knew he had.

©1997 Ann Patchett (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"The kindliness of The Magician's Assistant is beguiling, and Patchett is an adroit, graceful writer. . . she is especially practiced at the razzle-dazzle of odd juxtapositions." (New York Times Book Review)

"A saga of redemption tenderly and terrifically told." (Kirkus Reviews)

Poignant and lovely

I've listened to several Ann Patchett books, and this is one of my favorites. Great writing, great narration, it is worth your time and book credit.

Fantastic narration, abrupt ending

I found myself very entertained throughout most of the story; however I cannot get past the abrupt ending. The narration was fantastic. Karen Ziemba absolutely brought these characters to life. I will try another Patchett offering based on other reviews. She does write beautifully.

well done but not exactly uplifting

Patchett is a solid author - good stories, well conceived with highly developed characters. Her stories do draw you in, but this one felt too "down" most of the time.
Not even "ups and downs" in the story as much as just a sad (but well depicted) reality of people struggling and not too happy.
This story could have been non-fiction or biographical in that it was too 'real' feeling in some ways.
I don't need fiction to always be happy and upbeat - but this felt like it was portraying a consistently downer theme...3/4 of the way thru, I almost didn't want to continue listening, but she is a good author and despite getting depressed listening to it, I felt committed to the story.
The reader was excellent.

Rabbit

Good. story, wish the ending was a bit more detailed. Narration was done very well!

Talk about being kicked out of the story!

It would've been so easy to give the story 5-Stars had it not been for all the little things that kicked me out of the story. For example, Sabine's parents were said to live in 'Fairfax', which is a quaint little town in Northern California, when in fact they lived in 'The Fairfax', i.e. the Fairfax district in Los Angeles. I couldn't count the number of times that the traditionally Jewish district was mislabeld.
Then, there was the 'Phish' poster that the narrator "couldn't understand the meaning of". Really? Was this supposed to be ironic? Or was the author dumb enough to not know that Phish was a band. Also, it seems to me that Phish is far too much of a jam-band for a fifteen year old in Nebraska to have on their radar...
I think Ms. Patchett needs a good editor. Since this was written many years ago, and she's written and published several more books, I'm hoping this means she has found such an editor!

Dropped At The End

All of the build up and then no resolution. It was like having the last two weeks of a calendar without numbers. Maybe it would have been "obvious." Maybe the author thought she didn't need to write it because it was "obvious" but it could have ended a little farther down the path of obviousness. It would have been nice to hear it in the author's voice.

Cute story

I loved the flow of the story and the way the characters “lived” in her dreams.

The story is very captivating. The reader captured the personality of the mother of the magician really well.

I think the music didn’t work so well. Most of the time it did not match the mood of the moment, clashing with the story. If you insist in playing some music between the chapters, which may not be so bad, please find something that goes well with the story, perhaps different tunes for different chapters that are more appropriate. Also, play the tune only once and never together with the words since it makes it difficult to hear what is being read and is distracting. Thanks!

Good love story

Good character development-she supported the magician throughout his life. Good story line and very likable characters.
The narrator was good and the story moved along at a good pace.

What's with the cheesy music?

I liked the narrator. The story kind of limps along, never really developing fully into anything. And then it just ends. The characters aren't quite convincing to me, and I guess I didn't really feel invested in them enough to care when the story abruptly ends. I won't miss them, like I do characters in stories that have more richness, complexity and depth. What really annoys me about this audio book is the cheesy jazz riffs they put at the beginning and between chapters, often continuing it over the narration. It doesn't fit at all. What were they thinking?