If you are looking for a book to read during the long nights this winter, try this one! It really is a wonderful novel about love, loss and the power of possibilities.

I have a the unabridged CD version of this book (10 cds in all). After listening to half of the first CD I thought I had made a mistake, but by the end of that CD I was hooked. When I got to the 9th cd I was a little sad that it would be over. When I finished the 10th CD I went to the computer to see what else I could read by Ann Patchett.

Alas, it did not. I really wanted to like this book. I like Bel Canto with exception for the absurd (in my opinion) ending. Maybe I just did not understand the main character at all. While I understand her motivations to learn about her husband's family I never made the leap to an understanding of her decisions prior to the start of this book. It seemed like such a strange and sad illusory way to live. And I truly felt sorry for the fact that she was so in love with this man that could not possibly love her in the same way. I also predicted the way this one ended about half way through the book...so sorry no good plot twists and turns along the way. This was easy and not really that interestin.

There are many brilliantly realized scenes in "The Magician's Assistant" and readers who enjoy strong writing will enjoy the whole book. The plot is well described elsewhere--the story of a woman who realizes her now-dead husband had a family he kept hidden from her. "When Parsifal died she lost the rest of his life, but now she had stumbled on eighteen years. Eighteen untouched years that she could have; early, forgotten volumes of her favorite work. A childhood that could be mined month by month. Parsifal could not get older, but what about younger?"

Mix in the role of the main character (she is his assistant as his magician-stage persona) and the fact that he preferred men for partners and, well, I think Ann Patchett is one of the few out there who could pull this off. Even Sabine's paying job is an odd one: she crafts miniature model homes and buildings for architects. Yet Patchett makes Sabine just another regular person with just another normal life.

The structure is wonderfully simple. Husband dies. She discovers his hidden family. They come to visit Los Angeles and learn about his wife and life. She (Sabine) goes to visit Nebraska and learn about his life and what propelled him to keep it so secret. Along the way, the Nebraskans learn a little about magic and Sabine learns much, much more about who she really is. There is blood, there are magic tricks learned and taught, there are slowly-revealed secrets that tear at the fabric of her new family. If there aren't enough subtle parallels between the two distinctly different settings, each set of scenes includes a trip to the hospital.

Three scenes jumped out at me. First, the inter-woven scene as Sabine and her new family watch the old Johnny Carson reel of their act on The Tonight Show. Patchett flips back and forth from what's on the VCR and what Sabine recalls from experiencing the act as one of the performers, on stage. The split-view on one page is a magic act by itself. Second is the Wal-Mart shopping scene. The third is the scene where Sabine confronts an angry relative in the snowy street. The actions are driven by a swirl of emotion and logic and every moment is taut.

Sabine is a second-fiddle by nature--both in her role with Parsifal professionally and at home, given her subordinate position in the complicated relationship. Readers wanting more of a take-charge protagonist may not relate to Sabine. But the story is rich, every character is carefully drawn, and the result is a memorable, one-of-a-kind book.

I loved everything about this book. The story is compelling, the characters are well developed (if only I could meet them), and the writing is sublime. I would recommend this to almost anyone. Read it!

I absolutely devoured this book and already have plans to pick it up again. This is not a book for people that need a lot of action to keep their attention; most of the action in this story takes place through uncovering the past. However, with a plot that seems nearly impossible to fathom, this novel completely won me over and I was a little sad to come to the final page. This may be in part due to the fact that the ending is a little abrupt, but in life so many endings are so abrupt that it seems somehow fitting.