Title: The Man Who Was Magic
Author:
Paul Gallico
Author's (memorial) web page: http://www.paulgallico.info/
Date:
1966
Publisher:
Doubleday
ISBN:
none
Length:
203 pages
Quote:
“Welcome to Mageia. Are you sure you’re a magician? You see, only professional
and bona fide ones are allowed in here.”
In this
“fable of innocence,” Paul Gallico postulates a whole city where all the male
residents are professional stage magicians and all the females are “assistants.” Naturally one little girl, Jane, wants to be a magician and
bickers with her older brother about whether this can be allowed. Meanwhile, a would-be magician whose stage name is Adam the Simple comes to the city, with his dog Mopsy, to qualify for the
magicians’ guild. Adam is required to let Jane be his official assistant during
the trials, but Adam and Mopsy, as a team, really have Magical Powers. When
they do tricks that are more than sleight of hand they could teach the other
magicians, they are accused of witchcraft.
In order
not to spoil the ending, all I’ll say here is that it’s happy, and includes
some warbles about the “magic” and mystery of everyday real life.
Who
should read this book? Well…I’d have to say…people who like Gallico. He wrote The Snow Goose
and Thomasina
and the book on which Lili
was based, and many other works of fiction. Personally I find his fiction
sentimental yet uncharming, but it sold well in its day; it's still supporting a commercial web site, forty years after the author's time. Some people who enjoy
gentle fiction may still find any of Gallico’s novels, including this one, as
delightful as mid-twentieth-century audiences did.
and Thomasina and the book on which Lili
was based, and many other works of fiction. Personally I find his fiction
sentimental yet uncharming, but it sold well in its day; it's still supporting a commercial web site, forty years after the author's time. Some people who enjoy
gentle fiction may still find any of Gallico’s novels, including this one, as
delightful as mid-twentieth-century audiences did.
For what
age group? That was one of the things about
Paul Gallico. Even when his stories were about grown-ups, they were generally
“suitable” for sharing with children, if the children showed any interest. The Man Who Was Magic calls Adam a man,
but a very young one; Jane isn’t even ten years old yet, and the case may be
made that the real hero of the story is the talking dog. It’s long
enough to pass as an adult book, and it was originally addressed to adults, but
it’s open to children as old as seven
or eight if they’re willing to read 203 pages of normal-sized type.
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