Book Review

The Red Magician
by Lisa Goldstein

This short novel is a fairy-tale style magical realist work about the Holocaust. The story centers around Kicsi, a young girl living in a small village in Hungary during the 1940s. A stranger, Voros, arrives in the village; he turns out to be a sorcerer. Voros' attempts to warn the village of the impending disaster of the Holocaust bring him into conflict with the well-meaning but hidebound village rabbi, who is also gifted with magic.
This book was a bit disappointing - it certainly wasn't as good as Goldstein's other novel The Alchemist's Door. I found The Red Magician a little too "standard" in its approach to the Holocaust - it didn't tell me anything I hadn't heard before and it made the usual points.

Good Weekend

Other Kenjari and I spent Saturday visiting with zfarcher, and eating his scrumptious mac and cheese. Plus, we got to see ladybird97. We watched some DVDs, which included introducing zfarcher to Spinal Tap and Wallace and Gromit. It was a nice, mellow day.