Another excellent story from this extraordinary author. Kirkus: 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, NebraskaÂ¥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 completelyÂ¥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.

I gave this book four stars -- a rating i usually reserve for exceptional literature -- because while I don't usually like this kind of story that has no plot and is all about emotions -- plus using flashbacks a cionvention I also dislike -- this book held my interest all the way through. Quite the achievement. ( )

What makes someone family? What's magic and what's a trick? Very human characters just trying to make sense of the world they find themselves in. ( )

I enjoyed this book a long and but there are a few things that keep me from rating it higher. The biggest of those things is what I felt to be a very dissatisfying ending.

I’d still recommend it to friends, though. I’d give it a 3.5 stars but rounding down. ( )

Loved the story and the protagonist. Felt like the last bits were a bit muddled but that could be my own obtuseness. A wonderful book. ( )