Lev Grossman's The Magicians. It basically took the love of children's fantasy books like Harry Potter and the Narnia series and crapped all over them. What was the point of all that? Just the shock value of putting sex, drugs, copious drinking, depression and a general sense of dissoluteness into a book with magic and talking animals and such? I won't deny the cleverness of Grossman's constructions and world-building. But it mostly felt as if he just borrowed glory to tear it down. Like the scorpion stinging the frog in the middle of the river. If Narnia and Hogwarts are so empty and stupid, why do you think your book slagging them to be worthwhile?
The very worst touch was a silly little throwaway. Grossman posits a set of children's fantasy books called the Fillory series, which his main characters, teenaged magicians in the contemporary United States, all read as children. Some read it obsessively. Then they get to go to Fillory and find it a decidedly nonheroic, cutthroat place. At the very end, Grossman reveals that Christopher Plover, the author of the Fillory books, and something of a stand-in for C. S. Lewis, was a pedophile. It advances the plot not one whit. It does nothing to enrich the themes of the book.
Lots of people have problems with the Narnia series. The Christian allegories are sort of facile. The casual British Empire racism is barely concealed. There is the famous problem of Susan--the contempt Lewis shows for women who outgrow childhood. That's all real and worth much adult discussion and criticism. Philip Pullman has made countering C. S. Lewis practically his life's work. But I think that opposition is at least somewhat grounded in respect for the Narnia books as good, solid stories. I don't think he'd have bothered if he just thought the books sucked. At any rate, Pullman does not casually, gratuitously call Lewis a child rapist as Grossman does. It could be argued that Plover isn't a direct stand-in, but I think it's close enough.
I guess my anger means I similarly think The Magicians is also good enough to merit anger, rather than bored dismissal. That's reasonable. As I said, The Magicians is not an uninteresting book. Grossman is obviously trying for some larger thematic claims about the role of fantasy in complicated adult lives, among other things. It's a little too on-the-nose at times, particularly in a late scene in which the humans visiting Fillory interrogate the local god (an Aslan surrogate) with basic questions on the problem of evil. (It reads a bit like a prose translation of XTC's bitter Dear God.)
Not sure I'll read the sequel, The Magician King. If it's just more young magicians killing their lost illusions with alcohol, I may pass. I'm curious to see if anything better develops though. The reviews are somewhat encouraging.
