Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Penguin Books Ltd (1994), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 448 pages
Description
Fourteen-year-old Jilly Farina was enthralled with Millroy the Magician at the Barnstable County Fair. After all, he once turned a girl from the audience into a glass of milk and drank her, But when Jilly stepped into the wickerwork coffin during a performance, she had no idea he would transform her dreary life into something truly magical, and a touch bizarre. For Millroy was no ordinary magician. He could smell the future, and Jilly was going to be part of it. Yet not even Millroy could foresee how far determination and a dream could take him, as he and his new young assistant hit the road -and the airwaves -- to save America's unhealthy appetite and floundering soul....
Media reviews
One can only hope that the magical transformation in the final chapter may linger with readers long after too easily conjured biblical satire fades away, and that those who reach the end of Mr. Theroux's three-ring circus of a novel see its final act as worth the price of admission.
Theroux's satire--waggish, broad, ambitious, spotty--keeps all the characters but Millroy and Jilly at a cool distance, and the relationship between them isn't nearly as engaging as it's apparently meant to be. Even fans may find themselves glancing at their watches.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Smiley
Another good novel by Theroux. A completely American setting.
LibraryThing member workgman
theroux comes up with another controlling, out of control character in millroy.
LibraryThing member Crewman_Number_6
A little too bizarre for my tastes. I was never quite sure until the end if he was supposed to be a real magician. I don't think I would recommend this book.
LibraryThing member bherner
I enjoy Theroux's nonfiction much more than his novels. This one wasn't bad though ...
LibraryThing member dbsovereign
Millroy is a charmingly-flawed character who nevertheless convinces himself that it's critical to try to be heroic ALL the time - he is successful part the time. I would like to see someone compare this book to Nabokov's _Lolita_...And Millroy is by far one of Theroux's most thoroughly realized
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characterizations. Show Less
LibraryThing member Lake_Oswego_UCC
Fourteen-year-old Jilly Farina was enthralled with Millroy the Magician at the Barnstable County Fair. After all, he once turned a girl from the audience into a glass of milk and drank her, But when Jilly stepped into the wickerwork coffin during a performance, she had no idea he would transform
For Millroy was no ordinary magician. He could smell the future, and Jilly was going to be part of it. Yet not even Millroy could foresee how far determination and a dream could take him, as he and his new young assistant hit the road -and the airwaves -- to save America's unhealthy appetite and floundering soul...
Show More
her dreary life into something truly magical, and a touch bizarre.For Millroy was no ordinary magician. He could smell the future, and Jilly was going to be part of it. Yet not even Millroy could foresee how far determination and a dream could take him, as he and his new young assistant hit the road -and the airwaves -- to save America's unhealthy appetite and floundering soul...
Show Less
Original publication date
1993
Physical description
448 p.; 7.64 inches
ISBN
0140235280 / 9780140235289