Whew, thought I would never get through the first half of the book. But, like Quentin trudging through Antarctica, I made it. Just kidding, it wasn’t so awful. Especially since I was reading it in Graham Memorial and kept imagining I was at Brakebills. If you’re having trouble getting into the book, I highly recommend you try that relocation.
Anyway, moving on, I’m still not in love with this novel, but I think I’ve nailed down why. I can’t throw myself into a story line I don’t particularly feel a part of, if that makes any sense. For example, in The Hunger Games, Collins writes the story so that we, as readers, feel like we are a part of it. We are invested in Katniss’s life and possibly impending death, so we keep reading to protect her (so to speak) and ease our minds. In The Magicians, though, I feel like Grossman writes from a very severely third-person perspective, where we aren’t so much flies on the wall but watching through a security camera, completely removed from the environment and, to some degree, context. This is demonstrated pretty clearly when Grossman writes that days, weeks, and even many months pass without any remark. “Six months later and…” doesn’t give the reader any real insight and, personally, I felt pretty left out. I get that he needed to move the plot along and make Quentin a fourth year, but I’m not sure I like that approach. Maybe I just got spoiled with Harry Potter, where we follow the gang for one year in each book. It’s been a while since I read that series, but I don’t recall Rowling ever writing “Six months later and Harry was still kind of mopey and Ron still had red hair.” I like being in the action with characters, even if that means being a bit boring sometimes.
Oh, and the title is a reference to my favorite quote so far: “Gotta get my quidditch costume. I mean uniform. I mean welters.” – Josh
No comments:
Post a Comment