Earlier this month I asked Feldman what he was reading. His reply:
I just finished reading Ann Patchett’s The Magician’s Assistant. To say that I loved this book would be an understatement. The protagonist, Sabine, is a devoted resident of Los Angeles. Her gay husband has recently died, and through an evolving series of odd events, she ends up visiting his estranged family (mother, sisters, and nephews) in Alliance, Nebraska. I have never lived in L.A., and I don’t live in Nebraska. But I grew up in New York, lived in San Francisco, and currently reside in Laramie, Wyoming, only a few hours from Alliance. Patchett’s comedic contrast between life on the coast and in the heartland is brilliant. Her depiction of life (and winter) in the heartland is sensitive and subtle, particularly when compared with today’s New York Times (November 19, 2012) article describing Wyoming as if everybody in the state is a white, male, Protestant conservative (I can attest that this gross oversimplification is untrue). The Magician’s Assistant leaves one contemplating family relationships, both nuclear and extended, as well as the meaning of magic in the real world.Learn more about Neoconservative Politics and the Supreme Court at the New York University Press website.
--Marshal Zeringue