Book Review: Magic Street

[jennythereader]

Magic Street
Orson Scott Card
Copyright 2005
ISBN: 0-345-41689-9

Mack Street is an unusual young man. As an infant he was found in a local park, and adopted by a woman who raised him with the help of one of the neighborhood children. Mack is always surrounded by people who care for him, but there is something that sets him apart, something different about his dreams. When he is 17 he learns what that something is.

I enjoyed this book a lot. The plot was amazing, and Card wove elements of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and British legend in almost seamlessly. The characterizations were less wonderful, but still good. All of the characters in the novel are African-American, and I couldn't help but wonder if they would have felt more three dimensional in the hands of an African-American author. In the acknowledgments Card thanks several people who helped him grasp the differences between what he lived as a white person and what a black person experienced in similar circumstances.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Comments

[bodhichitta0.livejournal.com]

Well, they were recommended to me by psomom, who has never even read the Bible or anything. She said they reminded her in a good way of "The Red Tent". And that is a book in my top 25 list--the retelling of the story of Dinah, one of Jacob's daughter, all from a female somewhat pagan, perspective. It was like finding Mists Of Avalon again. (I'm a big Mists of Avalon fan.)

But I'm so backed up! I have The Historian from the library and I'm dying to get started on that. I have to re-read To Kill a Mockingbird for my bookclub. I ordered some paperbacks. It's really kind of funny, how much quicker I accumulate than I read. And I read pretty fast, that's the sad part! :-)

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

I adore The Red Tent! It's such a wonderful book. My only complaint about it was that I wanted a bibliography so I could follow her research and find out which parts of it she made up and which parts there are actual archaeological evidence for. Mists of Avalon and Too Kill a Mockingbird are great too.