"Of course he was a charming man. A delightful person. Who has ever questioned it? But not a great magician.""By what standard do you judge?"
"Myself. Who else?"
"You consider yourself a greater magician than Robert-Houdin?"
"Certainly."
Description:
OK, I just couldn't wait. Once I finished Robertson Davies' Fifth Business last week and learned it was the first book in a trilogy, I had to read the other two. And World of Wonders is the most satisfying of the three, so wanted to share it with you immediately.
World of Wonders is an intoxicating, Arabian Nights-like extended storytelling as narrated by Magnus Eisengrim, magician extraordinary, who paints the grim, fascinating details of his life story that made him the world's leading magician. Eisengrim (The Wolf) is filming a documentary about Robert-Houdin, another famous magician. After the daily shoots, he settles in with the filmmakers and friends around lavish meals to leisurely reveal what a wild life he experienced that brought him to his current position position of skill and celebrity. Each night he leaves the story at a critical point, making his listeners (and us readers) hungry for more.
Also in attendance are his lover, Leisl Vitzliputzli, and boyhood friend, Dunstan Ramsay, both major characters in the first book in the Deptford trilogy, Fifth Business. The first secret is that Eisengrim is really Paul Dempster, the boy we met in the first book who was born prematurely to his mother when Ramsay dodged a snowball that hit Dempster's mother, causing her to fall and give birth prematurely to Paul, then go slowly insane. Strap yourself in. The story is a wild one.
At age 10 Paul is abducted by a traveling carnival, the World of Wonders, where he becomes a magician's "assistant" and more for the next ten years. He learns some skills but mostly is trapped in a card-playing mechanical robot illusion, and observes life at its lowest level from his jaded eyes as a carny worker. His only relationships are with the other sideshow acts like the fat woman, a sword-swallower, the knife-thrower, an orang-outang, a fortuneteller, and the wild man.
Later he strikes out on his own to survive in the harsh world, relying only on his few skills as a performer.
Occasionally during his travels, he sees his childhood acquaintance, Ramsay, in the audience but rebuffs him, uninterested in the fate of his mother or life in Deptford. World of Wonders unravels Paul's life to the last pages of Fifth Business (which had been narrated by Ramsay about his own life) and continues on to explain how Paul (now called Eisengrim) shapes his skills and persona into the premier magic act in the world.
But hanging over Paul/Eisengrim and Ramsay is the fate of Boy Staunton, the boyhood friend who originally threw the fateful snowball that caused the birth of Eisengrim. Staunton has risen to become a powerful and rich man, but at the end of Fifth Business was found dead of an apparent suicide. Did Eisengrim commit murder as revenge as Ramsay believes, or is there another explanation? Only the tantalizingly slow unfurling of events contained in Eisengrim's narrative storytelling in World of Wonders reveals these secrets.
This is a fascinating telling of a unique and highly personal story, with plenty of unusual characters and actions which promote discussion and arguments among the listeners as they try to interpret and debate events once Eisengrim leaves for the night. What is the truth? How much can events of one's life influence one's final personality, and how much is simply fate?
The story is gripping, the characters both good and evil, and the conclusions continually surprising. The aura of mystery and magic permeate the narration set in the struggles of life for one person trying to achieve dreams, but always trying just to survive and improve.
Highest recommendation possible. Read Fifth Business first, but make World of Wonders the cherry on top of this delicious trilogy.
(P.S. I found out that Davies has written two other equally acclaimed trilogies, The Cornish Trilogy and The Salterton Trilogy, so my bedside table is going to be piled high with his wonderfully-written books. Can't wait.)
World of Wonders is an intoxicating, Arabian Nights-like extended storytelling as narrated by Magnus Eisengrim, magician extraordinary, who paints the grim, fascinating details of his life story that made him the world's leading magician. Eisengrim (The Wolf) is filming a documentary about Robert-Houdin, another famous magician. After the daily shoots, he settles in with the filmmakers and friends around lavish meals to leisurely reveal what a wild life he experienced that brought him to his current position position of skill and celebrity. Each night he leaves the story at a critical point, making his listeners (and us readers) hungry for more.
Also in attendance are his lover, Leisl Vitzliputzli, and boyhood friend, Dunstan Ramsay, both major characters in the first book in the Deptford trilogy, Fifth Business. The first secret is that Eisengrim is really Paul Dempster, the boy we met in the first book who was born prematurely to his mother when Ramsay dodged a snowball that hit Dempster's mother, causing her to fall and give birth prematurely to Paul, then go slowly insane. Strap yourself in. The story is a wild one.
At age 10 Paul is abducted by a traveling carnival, the World of Wonders, where he becomes a magician's "assistant" and more for the next ten years. He learns some skills but mostly is trapped in a card-playing mechanical robot illusion, and observes life at its lowest level from his jaded eyes as a carny worker. His only relationships are with the other sideshow acts like the fat woman, a sword-swallower, the knife-thrower, an orang-outang, a fortuneteller, and the wild man.
Later he strikes out on his own to survive in the harsh world, relying only on his few skills as a performer.
I, too became cynical, with the whole-hearted, all-inclusive vigour of the very young. Why not? Was I not shut off from mankind and any chance to gain an understanding of the diversity of human temperament by the life I led and the people who dominated me? Yet I saw people, and I saw them very greatly to their disadvantage....When the Pharisees saw us they marveled, but it seemed to me that their inward parts were full of ravening and wickedness...and their greed and stupidity and cunning drove them on....
Occasionally during his travels, he sees his childhood acquaintance, Ramsay, in the audience but rebuffs him, uninterested in the fate of his mother or life in Deptford. World of Wonders unravels Paul's life to the last pages of Fifth Business (which had been narrated by Ramsay about his own life) and continues on to explain how Paul (now called Eisengrim) shapes his skills and persona into the premier magic act in the world.
But hanging over Paul/Eisengrim and Ramsay is the fate of Boy Staunton, the boyhood friend who originally threw the fateful snowball that caused the birth of Eisengrim. Staunton has risen to become a powerful and rich man, but at the end of Fifth Business was found dead of an apparent suicide. Did Eisengrim commit murder as revenge as Ramsay believes, or is there another explanation? Only the tantalizingly slow unfurling of events contained in Eisengrim's narrative storytelling in World of Wonders reveals these secrets.
This is a fascinating telling of a unique and highly personal story, with plenty of unusual characters and actions which promote discussion and arguments among the listeners as they try to interpret and debate events once Eisengrim leaves for the night. What is the truth? How much can events of one's life influence one's final personality, and how much is simply fate?
The story is gripping, the characters both good and evil, and the conclusions continually surprising. The aura of mystery and magic permeate the narration set in the struggles of life for one person trying to achieve dreams, but always trying just to survive and improve.
But part of the glory and terror of our life is that somehow, at some time, we get all that's coming to us. Everybody gets their lumps and their bouquets and it goes on for quite a while after death.
Highest recommendation possible. Read Fifth Business first, but make World of Wonders the cherry on top of this delicious trilogy.
(P.S. I found out that Davies has written two other equally acclaimed trilogies, The Cornish Trilogy and The Salterton Trilogy, so my bedside table is going to be piled high with his wonderfully-written books. Can't wait.)
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Davies, Robertson. Fifth Business
Dunstan Ramsay. retiring history teacher, writes his memoirs in a letter to his headmaster to set the record straight. And what a record it is, from boyhood in Deptford, Canada to heroic actions in World War I to his acquaintance with the mysterious Paul Dempster, alias Eisengrim, the world-famous magician, all of whom hold secrets about themselves and each other. Highest recommendation. (Previously reviewed here)
Gold, Glen David. Carter Beats the Devil
Based on the real life of Charles Carter, a magician who performed before President Warren Harding who died later that night under suspicious conditions. Fantastic details of the man and his magic. One of my favorite books of all time. (previously reviewed here)
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