Millroy the Magician
by Paul Theroux
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Jilly Farina is fourteen. Her father is drunk on the day of the Barnstable County Fair, so she goes by herself, and that night her life is transformed. When she walks into a tent to see Millroy the Magician, his eyes lighten from brown to green and fasten upon her. He performs miracles before her spellbound eyes. He tells her that he will train her to be his assistant, and he will give her a sequined costume.But this is only the beginning. Millroy is a magician not just of mere conjuring show more but of true, baffling magic. He is a healer, too, a vegetarian and health fanatic with a mission to change the eating habits of the United States. In search of the perfect platform, he finds it in television as an evangelical preacher, touting hygiene and the simple pure foods mentioned in the Bible. From fairground magician to cult leader, Millroy is unstoppable.
. Literature. Fiction. show less
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Member Reviews
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...
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...
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 characterizations.
The book is unfinished, possibly never to be finished, because I couldn't get into it. The opening chapters weren't very good and I didn't feel motivated to try to read more.
I enjoy Theroux's nonfiction much more than his novels. This one wasn't bad though ...
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.
theroux comes up with another controlling, out of control character in millroy.
Another good novel by Theroux. A completely American setting.
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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.
added by John_Vaughan
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.
added by John_Vaughan
Author Information
112+ Works 32,275 Members
Paul Edward Theroux was born on April 10, 1941 in Medford, Massachusetts and is an acclaimed travel writer. After attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst he joined the Peace Corps and taught in Malawi from 1963 to 1965. He also taught in Uganda at Makerere University and in Singapore at the University of Singapore. Although Theroux has show more also written travel books in general and about various modes of transport, his name is synonymous with the literature of train travel. Theroux's 1975 best-seller, The Great Railway Bazaar, takes the reader through Asia, while his second book about train travel, The Old Patagonian Express (1979), describes his trip from Boston to the tip of South America. His third contribution to the railway travel genre, Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China, won the Thomas Cook Prize for best literary travel book in 1989. His literary output also includes novels, books for children, short stories, articles, and poetry. His novels include Picture Palace (1978), which won the Whitbread Award and The Mosquito Coast (1981), which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Theroux is a fellow of both the British Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Geographic Society. His title Lower River made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012. Currently his 2015 book, Deep South , is a bestseller. (Bowker Author Biography) Paul Theroux is the distinguished author of numerous award-winning books, including "The Mosquito Coast," "Kowloon Tong," & "Half Moon Street." (Publisher Provided) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Millroy the Magician
- Original title
- Millroy the Magician
- Original publication date
- 1993
- Dedication
- For Sheila
- First words
- I was supposed to meet my father at the Barnstable County Fair, and in a way I did, though he was not Dada.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Never mind, Millroy would come back to me - back to us.
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Statistics
- Members
- 330
- Popularity
- 96,085
- Reviews
- 8
- Rating
- (3.19)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 17
- ASINs
- 2
