I am really looking forward to reading this right after I read a bit of Mann, perhaps-along with The Master after I read Henry James. Both sound so fascinating-especially the discussion of sexuality and how it works in his life. Thank you for your thoughtful review.
Thank you so much! And yes, I love that Tóibín has reached into the lives of two queer male writers and tried to get into their heads! He’s such an interesting writer, and I hope you enjoy them (along with Mann/James)!
Because of my own peculiarities, I've avoided all of your Booker book reviews so far - look forward to checking them out later! So it was a particular delight to sink into this one, about a book I'm interested in yet have no plans to read anytime soon. I watched the review from start to finish, because I'll have forgotten all the spoilers by the time I get to reading it for myself! You've outdone yourself with this masterful review, Bob. I listened to the first part of Pamela Paul (of the NYTimes book podcast) interviewing Toibin about this novel and if you haven't already heard that interview you might be interested - he talked about a memoir Mann's wife published after his death wherein she reminisced about an early trip they took together to Venice where she couldn't help notice (bemusedly, it seemed, at least in retrospect) how his gaze was continually drawn to a cherubic young boy.... ;)
Ahh, there’s no hurry or pressure, Shawn! And thank you so much, that’s so lovely of you! I’m the same- my memory is shocking, so I’ll quite happily watch reviews of books that I might only get around to months in the future! Ooh, I haven’t heard that podcast/interview, but that sounds great! And yes, his wife Katia knew a lot more than she let on! That’s hilarious! 😂
Colm Toibin is one of my favorite writers. He’s written quite a few books that I haven’t read yet, but the ones I have I found to be powerful and gorgeously written. My favorite is Nora Webster. I had pre-ordered The Magician and am looking forward to immersing myself in it this week. Thanks for the great review.
Yes! He’s so good- there’s a real tenderness and attentiveness to his language that I just find so beautiful! I’ve not read Nora Webster yet, but I really want to read it (and everything else by him!) Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy The Magician!
Hi, so glad to see this review and that you enjoyed it as much as I did. The part where he was awaiting the fate of his diaries was so suspenseful. I also loved The Blackwater Lightship and how wrenching the relationships between the protagonist and her mother was.
Oh gosh, that diaries scene! I had a real lurching feeling in my stomach throughout that part. So brilliantly written and imagined! Yes! The Blackwater Lightship is remarkable! The ways that they keep hurting each other as a family whilst trying to make it better was beautifully captured.
I just finished reading Brooklyn and Long Island and have The Magician next up. I did a search to see who had reviewed it and was happy to see your channel at the top. I was once subscribed and not sure what happened there. Anyway, subscribed again. I did not know this was about Thomas Mann. I loved Death in Venice so now I am even more interested in reading it. I will stop at the half way mark and return once I have read the book.
I agree with your review. I love the book. Thank you. Before I read it, I decided to dive into Thomas Mann’s novels so I read Buddenbrooks and Magic Mountain. Both are masterpieces and both are amazing. They are long but they are so immersive and beautifully written that the pages fly by. I recommend starting with Buddenbrooks which is an epic story of the decline of a German mercantile family in the late 19th Century, based on Thomas Mann’s early life and that of his family. It’s not necessary to read them before reading The Magician, but I suspect that you may not be able to resist once you finish reading The Magician.
Thank you so much! Ooh, that’s good to hear about Buddenbrooks and Magic Mountain! The more I hear about them, the more I’m convinced that I would adore them. But yes, I believe Thomas Mann will be an author I return to regularly!
A great review! This story sounds fascinating! I loved Brooklyn and The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín and I have The Blackwater Lightship on my TBR, which I really must get to soon. I didn’t know how to pronounce Tóibín; I’ve clearly been saying it wrongly for ages! 😂📚
Thank you so much! I keep on meaning to read Brooklyn, and The Testament of Mary is so good! I’m not sure if I’m getting his name right, but I think I saw somewhere that it was something like ‘toe bean’- I may be wrong!
Aha! Sorry to hear you didn’t like it! But yes, I’m going to approach it the other way around, so hopefully I’ll get on with The Magic Mountain now! Wish me luck!
I am interested in this book because I like Mann’s work. The Magic Mountain is one of my favorite novels. I’ve only read Toibin’s short stories (through them I glean his talent) and picked up a copy of his novel, The Testament of Mary. I had to forward past the spoilers but I hope to read this soon. And also Bohler’s book on Mann!
Ahh, I really want to read The Magic Mountain! It was also referenced in another book I liked this year (The Listeners by Jordan Tannahill) and so I feel like 2021 is telling me to read it! 😅 Ooh, I didn’t realise Tóibín had published short stories! I’m keen to check those out now! I really enjoyed The Testament of Mary! And yes, Britta’s book sounds so good!
@@BobTheBookerer yes, one of my favorite Toibin short stories is “One Minus One.” The Magic Mountain is a feat to read (and not for everyone to be sure) but you are dauntless and I would love your thoughts if you get to it!
@@user-iu4ws6vh5s Ooh, nice! I’ll check it out- thank you! And yeah, I’ve heard that about The Magic Mountain, but I’m excited by the challenge of it (I might not still be saying that halfway through the book 😂)
I am intrigued by the concept of "The Magician" being a novel rather than a literary biography. It gives you certainly the sense that Tóibin has done the research for a biography but does calling it a novel mean that there are fictional (made up parts) elements to the story. In Massini's Lehman Trilogy which is based on the biographies of three generations of Lehmans in America There were two things that made it "distanced" from the biographical genre it was in verso libero (free verse) and it was the novelisation of a stage play. My response to the Massini was to check did this happen? did these people exist? was the chronology right? was the implied chronology right? I checked a lot of articles about the various Lehmans I still wonder why Colm Tóibin (a skilled writer) wrote a novel rather than a biography.
Yes, it’s fascinating- there are passages that feel like a biography, but then we flit back into Mann’s head in a way that feels like we are part of a novel. I know that style hasn’t worked for everyone, but I really appreciated it- it made the real-life historical moments (like the rise of Hitler) even more startling for me. And that sounds interesting about the Lehman Trilogy! There are some notes I saw where Tóibín acknowledges that there are some scenes that are factual, and others where he used poetic licence to imagine conversations and locations that were probably likely.
@@BobTheBookerer I was wondering if Tóibin (and the marketing people at his publishers) think a "new novel" by Colm Tóibin sells better than a "new literary biography" by Colm Tóibin I suspect the market for novels by writers with a track record in writing fiction is much bigger than the market for literary biographies in toto
@@johncrwarner ahh, that’s a fair point. Although Tóibín did the same for The Master- I think it works well as a novel, especially as he seems to write in the style of the author he’s writing about.
Interesting how many people have read the Testament of Mary, but no one mentioned yet the stage production which was transcendent. I highly recommend it as a theatrical experience that was singular in its production and literary achievement. I think the actress I saw was Fiona Shaw in the Broadway production, it’s a great role for any ambitious actress to tackle. There was also a live bird in the production, either a vulture or hawk.
Ooh, I think I heard something about it at the time, but it was before I read the book, so by the time I read the book, I think I’d forgotten it had taken place- I need to hunt down a recording of it, if one exists! That does sounds like a particularly ambitious role and production!
@@BobTheBookerer Here’s an interesting conversation about it, I didn’t remember it started in NYC and then went to London or the controversy when it opened. I do remember that we entered behind the stage and had to walk on the stage and explore the set before going to our seats and saw all the props laying about. I don’t know if that entry from behind was because of protests at the front of the theater, or a specification of the script, but it did set the mood and intensity, especially with that large live bird on stage. ruclips.net/video/bjjdrlIVrmQ/видео.html
@@bookofdust Ahh, thank you so much! And that sounds fascinating- some additional experiential parts there (both intentional and not) that seem to have really added to it!
Hey Bob :) hope you’re having a good weekend that’s now over because you’re in the fuuuuuture. I’ve only read Testaments of Mary previously by him, read by Meryl Streep. Absolutely stunning. Blew my mind a little bit, how good that was. Would certainly follow up that with more of his works. Should I start here? Or with the other one you were gushing about?
Hello! It’s going well, thanks! I hope yours is too! Ahh, I really enjoyed Testaments of Mary! And read by Meryl Streep sounds perfect- I had no idea! How did he make all that happen in 100 pages? Blackwater Lightship is incredible, in my opinion, and I’ve not read them, but Brooklyn and Nora Webster are meant to be great too! The Magician is a bit of a longer, more sweeping, book, but I think it’s still beautiful and worth checking out! So basically, I’ve not answered your question at all haha, but I feel like starting almost anywhere with Tóibín is good.
@@BobTheBookerer mine is pretty low key. I am on the second to last Mitchell novel now! So I’ll be done those soon. Funnily enough going from the very first book he wrote to the very last; that’ll be interesting. I’ll just give the premise…s… a browse and go then. Glad you are doing well~
@@SpringboardThought Yes, I saw that go up! Excited to check it out! And well done you on tackling those beasts! number9dream wore me out, so I’m impressed you’re on top of it all! And great! I’m keen to read more of his work, so I’m up for that! Let me know if you want to buddy read any Tóibín, post-Mitchell!
@@BobTheBookerer I’d be game to buddy read anything at all with ya - long as I can get it here, of course. If there’s something you’re keen to get to and want to discuss, let me know. I’ve been reading other books as well as the Mitchell ones, so it won’t slow me down. I read books so quickly, typically, that the Mitchell series will be going into next month before it’s done but I’ll be done it this week, most likely. I think I’ll do a series on tabletop game reviews/design as well. I am so bad at reading all the incredible games I’ve got lol should be a good push to get to them. Number9dream might have been the only book of his I, like, appreciated quite a bit… but hated the voice? It was a really weird read for me. I still ended up giving it 4 stars but my enjoyment was like 2 stars? I appreciated so much of the craft that I was like yesss. But Eiji was so frustrating. And also, Mitchell is praised often for handling Asian/Japanese culture in his books, yet… it felt like Eiji was like a western foreigner and not just a rural foreigner? But I don’t know. Certainly the most complicated of his books for me. How did you get on with it?
@@SpringboardThought Perfect! It might need to be later in October, but I’ll have a think! Haha, yes, that sums up a lot of my thoughts on the book! And I absolutely assumed Eiji was a foreigner too. I really struggled with it and wanted it to just end in various parts, but also thought that I was probably just missing something.
One of my favorite sections is when he’s building the Pacific Palisades house and asks about the scrawny tree on the grounds and finds out it’s a pomegranate tree. It causes a flood of memories back to his childhood and the special occasions when they had them and the secret his mother had to removing the seeds and how happy and excited he is that the tree is part of his garden in the California house.
Yes! I’d almost forgotten about that part, but that was beautiful! I love the attention to detail of this book, and all of the little asides and memories. Thanks for the reminder!
i think we need to find you a nice woman to get married to bob the bookerer
😂 Is Larryna free these days? 😂
@@BobTheBookerer lmao she's saving herself for harry styles
@@LarryHasOpinions Aren’t we all?
The whimsical conversation you two have on each other videos is 100% my favourite thing about BookTube at the moment.
@@GunpowderFictionPlot Haha, thank you! I can confirm that our conversation in person in just as whimsical, but with even more mocking.
I am really looking forward to reading this right after I read a bit of Mann, perhaps-along with The Master after I read Henry James. Both sound so fascinating-especially the discussion of sexuality and how it works in his life. Thank you for your thoughtful review.
Thank you so much! And yes, I love that Tóibín has reached into the lives of two queer male writers and tried to get into their heads! He’s such an interesting writer, and I hope you enjoy them (along with Mann/James)!
Because of my own peculiarities, I've avoided all of your Booker book reviews so far - look forward to checking them out later! So it was a particular delight to sink into this one, about a book I'm interested in yet have no plans to read anytime soon. I watched the review from start to finish, because I'll have forgotten all the spoilers by the time I get to reading it for myself! You've outdone yourself with this masterful review, Bob. I listened to the first part of Pamela Paul (of the NYTimes book podcast) interviewing Toibin about this novel and if you haven't already heard that interview you might be interested - he talked about a memoir Mann's wife published after his death wherein she reminisced about an early trip they took together to Venice where she couldn't help notice (bemusedly, it seemed, at least in retrospect) how his gaze was continually drawn to a cherubic young boy.... ;)
Ahh, there’s no hurry or pressure, Shawn!
And thank you so much, that’s so lovely of you! I’m the same- my memory is shocking, so I’ll quite happily watch reviews of books that I might only get around to months in the future!
Ooh, I haven’t heard that podcast/interview, but that sounds great! And yes, his wife Katia knew a lot more than she let on! That’s hilarious! 😂
I want read this book. Yes, I known some Toibin`s book and many Mann`s book. I will find THE MAGICIAN.
Oh nice, I hope you like it!
Colm Toibin is one of my favorite writers. He’s written quite a few books that I haven’t read yet, but the ones I have I found to be powerful and gorgeously written. My favorite is Nora Webster. I had pre-ordered The Magician and am looking forward to immersing myself in it this week. Thanks for the great review.
Yes! He’s so good- there’s a real tenderness and attentiveness to his language that I just find so beautiful! I’ve not read Nora Webster yet, but I really want to read it (and everything else by him!)
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy The Magician!
Read Mann's The Confessions of Felix Krull .... magnificent!
Ooh, that’s one of the ones I hear spoken about a bit less, but keen to check it out! Thank you!
Hi, so glad to see this review and that you enjoyed it as much as I did. The part where he was awaiting the fate of his diaries was so suspenseful.
I also loved The Blackwater Lightship and how wrenching the relationships between the protagonist and her mother was.
Oh gosh, that diaries scene! I had a real lurching feeling in my stomach throughout that part. So brilliantly written and imagined!
Yes! The Blackwater Lightship is remarkable! The ways that they keep hurting each other as a family whilst trying to make it better was beautifully captured.
Looking to read this one soon. I’ve only read Brooklyn and really liked it
Ah nice! I hope you enjoy it! And I’ve been meaning to read Brooklyn for a while!
I just finished reading Brooklyn and Long Island and have The Magician next up. I did a search to see who had reviewed it and was happy to see your channel at the top. I was once subscribed and not sure what happened there. Anyway, subscribed again. I did not know this was about Thomas Mann. I loved Death in Venice so now I am even more interested in reading it. I will stop at the half way mark and return once I have read the book.
Ahh, thank you! And yes, RUclips has a weird habit of doing that to people sometimes!
And I hope you enjoy it!
Just finished reading The Magician. Absolutely brilliant.
Glad you enjoyed it! I agree- I wasn’t expecting to be as moved by it as I was, but I think about the book fairly often.
I agree with your review. I love the book. Thank you. Before I read it, I decided to dive into Thomas Mann’s novels so I read Buddenbrooks and Magic Mountain. Both are masterpieces and both are amazing. They are long but they are so immersive and beautifully written that the pages fly by. I recommend starting with Buddenbrooks which is an epic story of the decline of a German mercantile family in the late 19th Century, based on Thomas Mann’s early life and that of his family. It’s not necessary to read them before reading The Magician, but I suspect that you may not be able to resist once you finish reading The Magician.
Thank you so much!
Ooh, that’s good to hear about Buddenbrooks and Magic Mountain! The more I hear about them, the more I’m convinced that I would adore them. But yes, I believe Thomas Mann will be an author I return to regularly!
A great review! This story sounds fascinating! I loved Brooklyn and The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín and I have The Blackwater Lightship on my TBR, which I really must get to soon. I didn’t know how to pronounce Tóibín; I’ve clearly been saying it wrongly for ages! 😂📚
Thank you so much! I keep on meaning to read Brooklyn, and The Testament of Mary is so good! I’m not sure if I’m getting his name right, but I think I saw somewhere that it was something like ‘toe bean’- I may be wrong!
As someone who abhorred The Magic Mountain, you have done the impossible in making me want to read this book...I hope it gives me some insight🙆
Aha! Sorry to hear you didn’t like it! But yes, I’m going to approach it the other way around, so hopefully I’ll get on with The Magic Mountain now! Wish me luck!
What a beautiful review. I dipped out when you "lifted the spoiler curtain".
Thank you so much! And not a problem! If you do check the book, I hope you enjoy it!
I am interested in this book because I like Mann’s work. The Magic Mountain is one of my favorite novels. I’ve only read Toibin’s short stories (through them I glean his talent) and picked up a copy of his novel, The Testament of Mary. I had to forward past the spoilers but I hope to read this soon. And also Bohler’s book on Mann!
Ahh, I really want to read The Magic Mountain! It was also referenced in another book I liked this year (The Listeners by Jordan Tannahill) and so I feel like 2021 is telling me to read it! 😅
Ooh, I didn’t realise Tóibín had published short stories! I’m keen to check those out now! I really enjoyed The Testament of Mary! And yes, Britta’s book sounds so good!
@@BobTheBookerer yes, one of my favorite Toibin short stories is “One Minus One.”
The Magic Mountain is a feat to read (and not for everyone to be sure) but you are dauntless and I would love your thoughts if you get to it!
@@user-iu4ws6vh5s Ooh, nice! I’ll check it out- thank you! And yeah, I’ve heard that about The Magic Mountain, but I’m excited by the challenge of it (I might not still be saying that halfway through the book 😂)
Ok now I’m intrigued. I’ll have to read this one too and come back for spoilers later.
It’s an interesting book, definitely! And I’d recommend reading his other books- there’s a real beauty to his language.
@@BobTheBookerer very cool!
I am intrigued by the concept
of "The Magician" being a novel
rather than a literary biography.
It gives you certainly the sense that
Tóibin has done the research for a biography
but does calling it a novel mean that
there are fictional
(made up parts)
elements to the story.
In Massini's Lehman Trilogy
which is based on the biographies
of three generations of Lehmans in America
There were two things that made it "distanced"
from the biographical genre
it was in verso libero (free verse)
and it was the novelisation of a stage play.
My response to the Massini was to check
did this happen?
did these people exist?
was the chronology right?
was the implied chronology right?
I checked a lot of articles about the various Lehmans
I still wonder why Colm Tóibin
(a skilled writer)
wrote a novel rather than a biography.
Yes, it’s fascinating- there are passages that feel like a biography, but then we flit back into Mann’s head in a way that feels like we are part of a novel. I know that style hasn’t worked for everyone, but I really appreciated it- it made the real-life historical moments (like the rise of Hitler) even more startling for me.
And that sounds interesting about the Lehman Trilogy! There are some notes I saw where Tóibín acknowledges that there are some scenes that are factual, and others where he used poetic licence to imagine conversations and locations that were probably likely.
@@BobTheBookerer
I was wondering if Tóibin
(and the marketing people at his publishers)
think a "new novel" by Colm Tóibin
sells better than
a "new literary biography" by Colm Tóibin
I suspect the market for novels
by writers with a track record in writing fiction
is much bigger than
the market for literary biographies
in toto
@@johncrwarner ahh, that’s a fair point. Although Tóibín did the same for The Master- I think it works well as a novel, especially as he seems to write in the style of the author he’s writing about.
Interesting how many people have read the Testament of Mary, but no one mentioned yet the stage production which was transcendent. I highly recommend it as a theatrical experience that was singular in its production and literary achievement. I think the actress I saw was Fiona Shaw in the Broadway production, it’s a great role for any ambitious actress to tackle. There was also a live bird in the production, either a vulture or hawk.
Ooh, I think I heard something about it at the time, but it was before I read the book, so by the time I read the book, I think I’d forgotten it had taken place- I need to hunt down a recording of it, if one exists!
That does sounds like a particularly ambitious role and production!
@@BobTheBookerer Here’s an interesting conversation about it, I didn’t remember it started in NYC and then went to London or the controversy when it opened. I do remember that we entered behind the stage and had to walk on the stage and explore the set before going to our seats and saw all the props laying about. I don’t know if that entry from behind was because of protests at the front of the theater, or a specification of the script, but it did set the mood and intensity, especially with that large live bird on stage. ruclips.net/video/bjjdrlIVrmQ/видео.html
@@bookofdust Ahh, thank you so much! And that sounds fascinating- some additional experiential parts there (both intentional and not) that seem to have really added to it!
Hey Bob :) hope you’re having a good weekend that’s now over because you’re in the fuuuuuture.
I’ve only read Testaments of Mary previously by him, read by Meryl Streep. Absolutely stunning. Blew my mind a little bit, how good that was. Would certainly follow up that with more of his works. Should I start here? Or with the other one you were gushing about?
Hello! It’s going well, thanks! I hope yours is too!
Ahh, I really enjoyed Testaments of Mary! And read by Meryl Streep sounds perfect- I had no idea! How did he make all that happen in 100 pages?
Blackwater Lightship is incredible, in my opinion, and I’ve not read them, but Brooklyn and Nora Webster are meant to be great too! The Magician is a bit of a longer, more sweeping, book, but I think it’s still beautiful and worth checking out! So basically, I’ve not answered your question at all haha, but I feel like starting almost anywhere with Tóibín is good.
@@BobTheBookerer mine is pretty low key. I am on the second to last Mitchell novel now! So I’ll be done those soon. Funnily enough going from the very first book he wrote to the very last; that’ll be interesting.
I’ll just give the premise…s… a browse and go then.
Glad you are doing well~
@@SpringboardThought Yes, I saw that go up! Excited to check it out! And well done you on tackling those beasts! number9dream wore me out, so I’m impressed you’re on top of it all!
And great! I’m keen to read more of his work, so I’m up for that! Let me know if you want to buddy read any Tóibín, post-Mitchell!
@@BobTheBookerer I’d be game to buddy read anything at all with ya - long as I can get it here, of course. If there’s something you’re keen to get to and want to discuss, let me know. I’ve been reading other books as well as the Mitchell ones, so it won’t slow me down. I read books so quickly, typically, that the Mitchell series will be going into next month before it’s done but I’ll be done it this week, most likely. I think I’ll do a series on tabletop game reviews/design as well. I am so bad at reading all the incredible games I’ve got lol should be a good push to get to them.
Number9dream might have been the only book of his I, like, appreciated quite a bit… but hated the voice? It was a really weird read for me. I still ended up giving it 4 stars but my enjoyment was like 2 stars? I appreciated so much of the craft that I was like yesss. But Eiji was so frustrating. And also, Mitchell is praised often for handling Asian/Japanese culture in his books, yet… it felt like Eiji was like a western foreigner and not just a rural foreigner? But I don’t know. Certainly the most complicated of his books for me. How did you get on with it?
@@SpringboardThought Perfect! It might need to be later in October, but I’ll have a think!
Haha, yes, that sums up a lot of my thoughts on the book! And I absolutely assumed Eiji was a foreigner too. I really struggled with it and wanted it to just end in various parts, but also thought that I was probably just missing something.
Me before the video starts: "Let me guess, he adored it." 🤣
Hahah, yes, you got me there 😂 In fairness, I tend not to do solo review videos unless I liked it a lot, or it’s part of the Booker longlist. 😅
@@BobTheBookerer I've been thinking of creating a drinking game for your videos.
@@AJDunnReads Haha, don’t, you’ll end up with alcohol poisoning! 😂
@@BobTheBookerer 🤣
One of my favorite sections is when he’s building the Pacific Palisades house and asks about the scrawny tree on the grounds and finds out it’s a pomegranate tree. It causes a flood of memories back to his childhood and the special occasions when they had them and the secret his mother had to removing the seeds and how happy and excited he is that the tree is part of his garden in the California house.
Yes! I’d almost forgotten about that part, but that was beautiful! I love the attention to detail of this book, and all of the little asides and memories. Thanks for the reminder!