MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewFantasy novels involve magic and are a little bit like magic themselves ... Lev Grossman’s third novel is a homage to that early wonderment ... Grossman has written what could crudely be labeled a Harry Potter for adults. He takes the rudiments of that story — an alternate society of magicians bumpily coexists with our own — and injects mature themes ... Grossman’s story is most entertaining when documenting life at Brakebills. The school has a cantankerous dean whom I particularly liked ... It’s the original magic — storytelling — that occasionally trips Grossman up. Though the plot turns new tricks by the chapter, the characters have a fixed, \'Not Another Teen Movie\' quality ... It’s similar to inviting everyone to a rave for your 40th-birthday party. Sounds like fun, but aren’t we a little old for this?
Sam Lipsyte
RaveSlateLipsyte’s usual dartlike details abound in The Ask. Who among us has not taken a \'hot, khaki-moistening\' walk along a busy boulevard? He also has a knack for presenting grander statements in an undercutting way that’s not insufferable ... I...urge you to read his book twice ... Lipsyte is kinder and gentler in this novel, but maybe it’s his most cutting creation yet. He’s telling us, with a friendly punch, that there are winners and losers in life.
Jeffrey Eugenides
PositiveSlateIt would be easy to recommend The Marriage Plot as a pleasurable but shallow book—a well-produced, HD nostalgia trip … By giving us a graspable DFW character, Eugenides saves his book and trumpets the merits of his realistic style. Of course there's no real answer to why DFW committed suicide … Count me as someone who was taken in by The Marriage Plot. I enjoyed spending time with these familiar people, with their familiar cultural references, and discovering some dark unfamiliarity, too. In the best possible way, it's like reading a long, detailed, acutely observed Alumni Notes in the back of some Ivy college monthly.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
