Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician (thoughts)

This is what love is, of course, this second sight, this spyglass to the soul.

She was like a poem. There was nothing extraneous about her.

“Luckily, Mr. Mulvaney, I had a home. And how fine a thing is that-a home. A place that’s always here for me to com back to. That’s all a person really needs, I think. As long as that’s out there, this haven, you can afford to make a couple of mistakes. When you have a home, mistakes have time to turn into blessings.”

All excerpted from Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician.

Honestly, here’s what was going through my head after I stayed up past my bedtime and turned the last page of Daniel Wallace’s Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician.

OMG! I can’t believe how good this was! Everyone should go read Daniel Wallace! I should put the rest of his books on hold! OMG! This is what reading should be! How can people not read?!

But that isn’t a very coherent way to review a book, now is it?

Here’s the most delicious aspect of reading this book: Wallace is a damn good storyteller. So when his characters tell stories, they truly are mesmerising. I don’t know how he does it, but the pacing, the images, the words themselves…everything is simply perfect. I was almost afraid to breathe, in case I broke the spell.

We know from the beginning that the book is a collection of information from various people who knew Henry Walker (the Negro Magician). So different chapters are told in different voices, and Wallace is great at differentiating them. It’s one of his strengths. I can’t tell you too much about the plot, but it does exist and it has a strong driving force. The book is about unravelling Henry’s life, slowly but surely. He’s had a crazy adventurous life, though, and much of it is told via his circus freak friends, so I promise you won’t be bored. Instead you’ll be like me, torn between turning the pages as fast as you can to find out what happens and wanting to savour each wonderful word.

The characters are the kind you remember forever. There’s an ‘Ossified Girl’ who was in love with Henry, and tells the story of why he could never even want to love her. There’s a private investigator who finds himself apologising to clients for not looking like Humphrey Bogart. And at the heart of it all is Henry, who used to do real magic but now fumbles the simplest card trick, Mr. Sebastian, who taught Henry magic long ago, and Hannah, Henry’s beautiful, ethereal little sister.

And oh, the themes the book explores. Love, hate, how the past can haunt your present and destroy your future, the connections people forge, and of course magic.

Go read this book. Right now. I promise you will love it.

(P.S.: Have you asked a question to help me write a review yet? I’ll love you forever if you do!)