Love, the Magician

By Brian Bouldrey

Book Overview

In April of 1997, Tristan Broder makes a pilgrimage of sorts from San Francisco to the prickly desert and scalped mountains around Tucson, Arizona, the place where he helped bury his partner Joe five years before. Guided by a comet that crossed the spring sky that year, he wanders toward renewal and resurrection, memory and mystery, deadly secrets and dark intentions.
There are plenty of people in the desert who still love Tristan as much as they did Joe. There's Maria, Joe's wild sister, now a converted Pentecostal; her truck-driving husband Earl; Joe's mother with the dog Murphy she found one day abandoned in the desert; and Joe's best friend Mik, a tough-minded Punjabi Muslim whose one vanity is his long silken hair. With open and glad hearts, they join Tristan to help him make a memorial to the whole-souled man he loved. Yet, despite the fact that they are all bound, like Tristan, by the memory and love for the saint who once lived among them, every one of them is hiding something.

Originally published in 2000, this new edition includes a foreword by Miriam Wolf and a new introduction by the author.

"Brian Bouldrey's Love, the Magician is operatic in its passions, as well as in its themes of love, mortality, and the struggle to sustain faith. And yet the author never loses sight of his novel's human dimensions, giving us fresh and memorable characters. This book is, to quote the protagonist, Tristan Broder, an awesomely dark story about a prolonged mistake.' It is also a book that sheds a bright, uncompromising light on one man's reckoning with fate." - Bernard Cooper, Truth Serum

"Brian Bouldrey's writing is so smart, and so risky, and consistently carries that precarious, curious balance between humor and heartbreak. I'm never certain whether to bust out laughing or burst into tears. Love, the Magician is filled with examples of what its narrator calls 'the little node of miracle that every human must have.' It's a really, really terrific novel." - Scott Heim, Mysterious Skin

"Love, the Magician is a modern-day pilgrimage to the intersection of love and death, faith and its loss, the rituals of worship and the rituals of pleasure. By turns comic and unsettling, lyrical and brutal, it is a tour de force of storytelling - a passionate voice in search of miracles." - Jean Thompson, Who Do You Love

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1951092805
• ISBN13: 9781951092801
• Release Date: October 2022
• Publisher: Requeered Tales
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Wes Tattinger

With your son reading this book, understand that sexual orientation is an human quality that we are born with. As a counselor, I see more and more studies find that it is a matter of nature. What you choose to "nurture" in your son depends on you. Will you teach him ignorance, fear, and hatred. If you give him those things he may become a sad statistic. GLBT youth are atleast three times more likely to attempt or actually complete a suicide. Do you want to give your son love and an interest in the kind of person that he might become as human being? Think very carefully about what you have to offer him and your family on this issue. Will your contribution to him and your family bring all of you closer together or drive a wedge between you. You may have just given him something more that a colorful story. It sounds like this book spoke to who he is on some level. Walk a few miles in his shoes and show him you care by taking up an interest in this core area of his life. Making the effort to learn more about your son is an act of love. Wes Tattinger

Literary Magic

Ignore the stupid cover. Brian Bouldrey is a great writer. I loved "The Genius of Desire," and all the anthologies he's edited.The AIDS element is woven in naturally, not reactionary or politicized. Tender sweet, faithful, and erudite are only a few adjectives.Also recommended: K.M. Soehnlein's "The World of Normal Boys" Jim Provenzano's "PINS" Thomas Glave's "Whose Song?"

Beautifully rendered

Well, I couldn't disagree more with the previous reviewer. Love, The Magician is not a stereotypical anything. The writing is crisp and evocative. Sure the characters are all flawed, but that means they are interesting and complex. The main character, Tristan, is completely believable in his love/hate relationship with his dead partner's family and friends. And as for this being an "AIDS novel" (a term I hate), all I can say is that it's a damn good novel about loss and the spell love can cast over someone--for good and for bad. The writing alone is worth the price of the book--particularly the scene with Tristan and the Mexican hustler, which is brilliant. Add to this the unusual setting of the Yaqui Indians' bizzare weeklong Easter celebration and you have an absorbing novel that will have you thinking about it long after you finish reading it.