Having produced wonders in two earlier novels (The Patron Saint of
Liars, 1992; Taft, 1994), Patchett here conjures up a striking tale
of pain and enchantment as an L.A. woman, who lost the love of her
life after a few short months of marriage, finds unexpected
consolation from her husband's family - a family she never knew he
had. When Parsifal the Magician died suddenly of an aneurism, he
left his assistant of 22 years, the statuesque Sabine, whom he'd
recently married after his longtime gay partner Phan's death,
heartbroken and numb. He also left a rude surprise: The family he
always spoke of as dead is in fact alive and well in Alliance,
Nebraska - and his mother and younger sister are soon on their way
to see Sabine. Seemingly decent folk, the two women return home
leaving her mystified as to why Parsifal (born Guy Fetters) would
have denied their existence. And so, lonely and still paralyzed
with grief, Sabine decides to visit them in the dead of a Nebraska
winter, hoping for relief and some answers. She gets more than she
bargained for when older sister Kitty, herself married to an
abusive husband, reveals that Parsifal had accidentally killed his
father in trying to keep him from beating their pregnant mother.
After he did time in the reformatory, his family lost touch with
him completely - until one night when they saw him and Sabine on
the Johnny Carson show. The nightly replay of a video of that show
became a family ritual of hope, especially for Kitty's two boys,
now teenagers as desperate to get away as their uncle had been.
Sabine, quite a magician herself, begins a process of healing for
them all, and with it comes realization of the hope that the family
had long cherished. Masterful in evoking everything from the good
life in L.A. to the bleaker one on the Great Plains, and even to
dreams of the dead: a saga of redemption tenderly and terrifically
told. (Kirkus Reviews)
A magician (with one memorable appearance on the Johnny Carson Show to his credit) takes the name Parsifal. He is gay. He has a Vietnamese lover, Phan. When Phan dies of AIDS, Parsifal marries the woman who has always adored him and who has lived with them both, his assistant Sabine.
Then Parsifal himself dies in California, suddenly and shockingly, of an aneurysm. Parsifal always said that he had no living family and that he came from wealthy upscale Connecticut stock. The reality is very different, as Sabine learns from his lawyer. He came from a poor Nebraska family and they are very much alive. Indeed his mother and sister are on their way to California to meet Sabine, the daughter- and sister-in-law they know nothing about. It is bad that her husband has died. What Sabine must now cope with is coming to terms with his horrific past and the reason he divorced himself from his family and roots.
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