The Magus by John Fowles

[free]

I look forward to the day when I read another book as wonderful as this one.

Yes, you are right. "Magus" is one of those, rare, novels that give you a beautiful time of reading. "Magus" is really magical.

[Darth Fett]

Hello, everyone. I thought I'd make my first post a review here on LitNet.

I just read John Fowles' The Magus, and after finishing it, I had mixed feelings. The Magus is about a man, one Nicholas Urfe, who, on an attempt to take a new direction in his disheveled life--part of the dishevelment coming from a breakup with an eccentric girlfriend--by moving to Phraxos, a Greek island, and working at the boarding school there as an English teacher. While on the island, he makes the acquaintance of Maurice Conchis, a mysterious man who lives on the other side of the mountain. It soon becomes clear that Mr. Conchis is not just an eccentric rich guy, but someone who is toying with Nicholas, causing Nicholas to question what's real and what isn't, why Conchis is doing it, and what the ultimate purpose is.

First, the prose is quite good. It's a well-written novel, with a poetic tone and clear style. It's not difficult . . . at least not because of the writing. The novel is definitely plot-driven, and Fowles does quite a good job of making the reader want to keep reading--he ends chapters with cliffhangers, but doesn't do it so much or make it so far-fetched that it feels derivative. The plot on the whole is very good--it's very mysterious, it keeps you guessing. You really get pulled into the world of the story, and you begin to feel like Nicholas--I was always questioning a character's motive, if they were telling the truth, and sometimes get frustrated with Nick for doing something I wouldn't do.

The problem I had with this novel is the ending. And I'll say there may be some spoilers ahead--nothing major or specific, but if you're like me you don't like knowing anything about an ending, so here's your warning: I'm going to talk about it.

For me, a lot of this book and whether or not I'd ultimately like it in the end depended on the ending. Some books are this way, some aren't. Some can have a mediocre ending bit it doesn't matter because the journey to the end was so good, and some books really hinge on those last fifty pages. The Magus is one of those. It did for me because the story WAS so mysterious; it brand about so many questions and ended giving what I felt to be an insufficient amount of answers. And, even aside from that, the resolution we do get wasn't satisfying to me at all. I guess it's supposed to be one of those books that we're supposed to figure out on our own, but sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. For me it didn't.

If it wasn't for such an unfulfilling ending, I would give The Magus by John Fowles a 9/10, but since I finished it and felt such a sense of "that's it?" I give it a 6/10.

[ladderandbucket]

I enjoyed The Magus, in fact I remember becoming quite obsessed by it and reading it every spare minute, but I think at some point it stretched my credulity too far and I suddenly realised it could only resolve itself badly. I had a similar experience with Haruki Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicles.
I think there was a really great book in The Magus somewhere - certain parts of it were very well written - but it got lost amongst all the twists and turns. It is as though John Fowles couldn't stop having new ideas and felt he had to include every single one into his book.
I remember thinking the last scene was quite interesting and hinted at the kind of existential book The Magus might have been if it had just been toned down a bit.

[Darth Fett]

I'm confused . . . can there only be one review (i.e., thread) for each book? I don't really understand why my review had to be integrated into this thread. I read the rules on writing reviews and said nothing about not creating multiple reviews for one book. I'm curious because what I wrote isn't a response to the review written here, so 1) people may assume and not read it and 2) it doesn't have much relevance to this thread's OP . . . not to mention my review is a bit more substantial, too.

[Scheherazade]

I'm confused . . . can there only be one review (i.e., thread) for each book? I don't really understand why my review had to be integrated into this thread. I read the rules on writing reviews and said nothing about not creating multiple reviews for one book. I'm curious because what I wrote isn't a response to the review written here, so 1) people may assume and not read it and 2) it doesn't have much relevance to this thread's OP . . . not to mention my review is a bit more substantial, too.

We aim to keep one single thread dedicated to each book in this section of the Forum to prevent cluttering.

Everyone can share their own reviews in this thread and the OP was careful not to give much away not to spoil others' reading experience.

If you would like to discuss particular aspects of the book, you can start a thread in the General Literature section.

[Darth Fett]

Okay, got it.

[dekadrachma]

Its rare to identify with every character in a story. This is the real reason we returned to high school day after day. This kind of genre is better than fantasy, mythology etc. This is better than everything!

[ashulman]

It is a great book, I loved every page of it. The first time I read it, the end caught me by surprise and I admit that I was a little- but only a little- disappointed. I understood the quality and the significance of the end, in my second reading, and I loved the novel even more.

I felt the same way. I was transfixed up until the end where it dropped off abit for me. But maybe I need to read it again too. Overall a wonderful book.