Imaginative modern fable | Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician

captivating, well crafted, frustrating | Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician | Daniel Wallace

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	• Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician Daniel Wallace Anchor, 2008 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A multi-layered tale where the truth becomes a bit too elusive.

Sometimes a good writer can become a bit precious when they tell a story with a number of different narrators. This is the approach Wallace uses here and while it often fascinates, it also frustrates. The reader can admire his talent, but that admiration is blunted by the loss of clarity it brings. I found myself getting annoyed rather than being intrigued. There is a lot to like here, an intriguing plot, and an honest examination of the racism that has plagued America, but I did find myself less than satisfied by the end. This novel ends up being more clever than it is compelling.

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Imaginative modern fable

Daniel Wallace has struck gold again with "Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Musician." The story of Henry Walker, once one of the world's greatest musicians through a deal with the devil--or so we are told--is a magical tale that shifts in time, place and storyteller. Whose truth should we believe? Wallace draws vivid characters and places that linger in the mind's eye of the reader. It is no accident that Big Fish made a wonderful film and this one has the same cinematic scope of the imagination. This is not the book for those who need a direct, linear narrative, but for those with imagination willing to go with the flow, this is a magical story that questions the nature of family, of love, of friendship, of truth. Enjoy!

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captivating, well crafted, frustrating

I've given this book four stars because it is beautifully written and creatively told through a series of narrators who each bring his/her own perspective on the truths about the life of the main character, Henry Wallace, the "negro" magician. The reader is drawn in from the get go and follows a path of anticipation that the next page will lead to something even more astounding than the one before. The author delivers.

I did genuinely enjoy the experience of reading this book in part because
the reader is advised early on not to believe everything that the narrators relate. Until the end though one is not sure where the truth lies. In that sense this period piece about a man's mostly tragic journey through life becomes a mystery story within itself. The theme of reality vs. illusion plays out with the main character's magical skills of illusion paralleling the manner in which the story is told. Kind of clever, really.

I did have two frustrations upon completing the book. One is that since our protagonist is such a long suffering victim of one loss after another, I found myself wondering at the end what the point of it all was. He wasn't a bad person that somehow deserved to suffer these losses. So what's the lesson here? Sure, bad things happen to good people and there is usually no good explanation for that; but every opportunity for something meaningfully good or redemptive that could happen to our lead character is snatched away like an unassuming butterfly caught in a net.

My ultimate frustration, however, occurs when the truth is revealed late in the book but not to the two characters who could benefit most from it. They live and die with their memories both real and illusory as the truth never arrives at their doors in time to save or heal them. To me that was the tragedy of the story and the disappointment as to how it ends. I guess I like my endings a bit more tidily wrapped than this one is. Nonetheless, a compellingly strong read.

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Let the Show Begin

Whoever stated that this should be a movie gets my vote. This is an entirely entertaining story with those twists that keep the reader guessing. The fantasy and magic and possibilities of fate meet in an intersection of the real and the surreal. Magic offers people possibilities - possibilities that are not available in the darkness and inhumanity of the lives of many. I found this to be a page turner with some passages that were absolutely riviting. Not only entertaining, but the underlying messages of love, devotion, and the treatment of people all swirl together in a dark mist that is more than meets the eye.

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Henry Walker was once a world-class magician, performing to sold-out shows in New York. But now he has been reduced to joining Musgrove's Chinese Circus (which at no point in its tour of the deep South has ever included a single Chinese person) as the shambling Negro Magician, whose dark black skin and electric green eyes bewitch most audiences. But one balmy Mississippi night in 1954, Henry disappears in the company of three rowdy white teens and is never seen again. Wallace pieces together Henry's incredible vagabond life ? from a deal with a bone-white devil known only as Mr. Sebastian, to the heartrending loss of his sister Hannah ? and creates an enchanting tale of love, loss, identity, and the limitation of magic.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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