From Publishers Weekly
In this mesmerizing study of the effects of a dark secret on the people who must live with it, the author of Charades proves herself a magician with words and narrative structure. Moreover, she seems to have an artificer's skill for re-creating her fictional approach each time out: each of her novels is different from the others in theme, tone and method. The constants are her impeccable, sensuous prose and her fiercely intelligent imagination. Set in the rain forest near Brisbane and in the city of Sydney, in Hospital's native Australia, the narrative slowly unwinds in elliptical scenes and oblique references, like photos in which the subject is blurred but discernible, and will gradually come into focus. The "last magician" is Charlie Chang, a photographer and filmmaker who devotes himself to unraveling the puzzle at the heart of this tale. Twenty-five years ago, he was one of four children who witnessed the death of a fifth. One of them caused the event; blandly amoral, narcissistic and seemingly without guilt, Robinson Gray is now a famous judge, "Australia's golden boy." Charlie and the others--one woman named Catherine and another named Cat--remain emotionally maimed. The judge's son and the woman who loves him become catalysts in reopening the drama and are sucked into the whirlpool of evil it again sets in motion. Hospital enriches her story with allusions ranging from Virgil and Dante to James Joyce and Christina Stead. She offers crackling social commentary as she contrasts the lives of the homeless squatters (who live underneath Sydney's streets in a warren of caverns and tunnels called "the quarry") with the cream of Sydney's society folk. Her characters' observations about truth and illusion, about memory and precognition and the nature of moral responsibility, are provocative and insightful. Most important, this novel is an example of the storyteller's magical art. 25,000 first printing; major ad/promo; author tour. (Sept.) .Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
This work is complex and disturbing, ultimately grappling with the darkest side of love. Readers who stick with her through the first slow pages will find themselves enmeshed in a chilling drama of personalities revealed through innuendo, reminiscence, and memory. Hospital pastes together her story like a photographic collage. The effect is disjointed and startling, requiring the reader to piece together the narrative, to make connections and find meaning. In barest outline, here are the lives of four people who share an ugly secret, a secret whose power becomes the driving force in each life. Charlie, a photographer, says, "Photographs beckon . Photographs seduce." So too this novel. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/92.-Linda L. Rome, Middlefield P.L., OhioCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
Complex, wordy, sometimes compelling novel of obsession, revenge, and the threatening shadow-world underlying daily life. At the heart of Hospital's story (following Charades--not reviewed; Isobars, 1991; Dislocations, 1988, etc.) is an incident involving four children in 1950's Australia: Charlie Chang, racial outsider; Catherine Reed, upper-class girl with brains and heart; Robbie Gray, rich boy with ravenous ego and a veneer of social grace; and witchily powerful Cat, fearless outcast. After her brother's ``accidental'' death, Cat testifies against Robbie, is scapegoated, and sent to the girls' reformatory. Aftershocks continue in the lives of all four as Robbie becomes a prominent judge; Catherine flees Australia; photographer/filmmaker Charlie collects and shuffles images to re-envision the past and get the upper hand on Robbie; Cat disappears after years of prostitution and self-mutilation. Their story is pieced together by Lucy, a ``brainy sheila'' and prostitute who has lived in the quarry (a subterranean underclass community carved out beneath respectable Sydney); she is Charlie's friend and the lover of Robbie's son. As observer at secondhand, Lucy--who considers herself a tourist in the underworld--makes an interesting narrator. But when the novel begins, she too is emotionally overwhelmed; her overwrought and very literary telling often detracts from the central story's impact. Charlie Chang, who finds truth through almost magical coincidence, would not be surprised that Hospital's fellow Australian expat Peter Conrad has recently published a florid, intellectual novel (Underworld, p. 200) looking at a postmodern subterranean inferno; Hospital's version has more story. Flawed, sometimes annoying, often resonant. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times
A story of high tension and terrifying allure....Her writing has perfect pitch.


New York Times Book Review
Evocative settings, characters we care deeply about, and language that is entrancingly lyrical.


Times Literary Supplement
One of the most powerful and innovative writers in the English language today.


Chicago Tribune
From tantalizing start to dizzying conclusion, the novel's pleasures...operate on a grand scale.


Book Description
The Last Magician is about power and betrayal, sexual obsession and social ostracism. At its center is Lucy, a good girl and a whore, whose nights are spent in a kaleidoscope of identities as she dons the masks her customers demand. Charlie is a photographer, filmmaker, voyeur, and the last magician—monitoring Lucy, piecing together the splinters of evidence surrounding the death of a child and a murder that happened half a lifetime ago. A New York Times Notable Book. Reading group guide included.


About the Author
Janette Turner Hospital is the author of nine books of fiction, including, most recently, Due Preparations for the Plague. Originally from Australia, she now lives and teaches at the University of South Carolina at Columbia.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Last Magician is about power and betrayal, sexual obsession and social ostracism. At its center is Lucy, a good girl and a whore, whose nights are spent in a kaleidoscope of identities as she dons the masks her customers demand. Charlie is a photographer, filmmaker, voyeur, and the last magician—monitoring Lucy, piecing together the splinters of evidence surrounding the death of a child and a murder that happened half a lifetime ago. A New York Times Notable Book. Reading group guide included.

About the Author:: Janette Turner Hospital is the author of nine books of fiction, including, most recently, Due Preparations for the Plague. Originally from Australia, she now lives and teaches at the University of South Carolina at Columbia.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In this mesmerizing study of the effects of a dark secret on the people who must live with it, the author of Charades proves herself a magician with words and narrative structure. Moreover, she seems to have an artificer's skill for re-creating her fictional approach each time out: each of her novels is different from the others in theme, tone and method. The constants are her impeccable, sensuous prose and her fiercely intelligent imagination. Set in the rain forest near Brisbane and in the city of Sydney, in Hospital's native Australia, the narrative slowly unwinds in elliptical scenes and oblique references, like photos in which the subject is blurred but discernible, and will gradually come into focus. The ``last magician'' is Charlie Chang, a photographer and filmmaker who devotes himself to unraveling the puzzle at the heart of this tale. Twenty-five years ago, he was one of four children who witnessed the death of a fifth. One of them caused the event; blandly amoral, narcissistic and seemingly without guilt, Robinson Gray is now a famous judge, ``Australia's golden boy.'' Charlie and the others--one woman named Catherine and another named Cat--remain emotionally maimed. The judge's son and the woman who loves him become catalysts in reopening the drama and are sucked into the whirlpool of evil it again sets in motion. Hospital enriches her story with allusions ranging from Virgil and Dante to James Joyce and Christina Stead. She offers crackling social commentary as she contrasts the lives of the homeless squatters (who live underneath Sydney's streets in a warren of caverns and tunnels called ``the quarry'') with the cream of Sydney's society folk. Her characters' observations about truth and illusion, about memory and precognition and the nature of moral responsibility, are provocative and insightful. Most important, this novel is an example of the storyteller's magical art. 25,000 first printing; major ad/promo; author tour. (Sept.) .

Library Journal