The Magician's Lie (28 page)

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The Magician's Lie
by Greer Macallister.

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1. The action of
The
Magician's Lie
alternates between a single night in 1905, with Arden imprisoned by Officer Holt, and the story of her life that Arden tells him, which ranges over a number of years. Did you find one storyline more intriguing than the other? Were you eager to get back to one or the other?

2. As the novel opens, Virgil Holt has just received the bad news that the doctor won't operate on the bullet lodged near his spine. How does this affect his actions? Do you think he would have behaved differently if he were uninjured?

3. “The law is perfect. The men in charge of executing it are not.” Officer Holt decides early on that if Arden is innocent, it's his responsibility to free her instead of turning her in, since the courts can't be trusted to determine guilt or innocence. Do you believe this? Do you think he should have turned her in either way?

4. fter Ray breaks Arden's leg, preventing her from dancing for Madama Bonfanti and having the chance to enter ballet school, she says, “There were so many what-ifs.” What do you think would have happened if he hadn't done this?

5. Arden's unique gifts set her apart from the other characters in the book, but she also has a lot in common with them. Who in the book is the most like Arden? Her mother? Ray? Clyde? Adelaide? Who is she least like?

6. When Arden confesses that Ray has hurt her, her mother tells her, “You must be mistaken…we all depend on that boy's father, for our lives, for everything…I think you know Ray won't be the one he'll punish. We will all suffer instead.” Do you feel Arden's mother bears some responsibility for what happened to Arden at Ray's hands? Should she have spoken up, even though it could have endangered their family's well-being?

7. Fleeing Tennessee for Biltmore is a huge, pivotal moment in Arden's life. Do you think it was the right choice? Should she have stayed with her family and tried to find another way to fight Ray?

8. In a key scene, the master of Biltmore tells Arden, “We all have agency,” and she later repeats it to Holt. What does this quote mean to you? Do you think it applies to your own life, and if so, how?

9. Arden is surprised that Holt easily believes in magic. Did this surprise you as well? Did you believe from the beginning that the disappearance of the bruise on Arden's throat was magical, or did you suspect some sort of trick?

10. Ray pursues Arden for years, eventually finding her first in Chicago and then again in Savannah. “My God, Ada, I've missed you so much. You're my other half. The only one like me. I haven't felt complete without you.” Why do you think he was so obsessed with her?

11. During their romance at Biltmore, Clyde is a slightly shadowy figure, and Arden learns that he's not entirely trustworthy during their trip up the coast. Is Arden right to distrust him when they meet again years later? How hard is it to reevaluate your relationship with someone you've known for a long time?

12. Arden is suspicious of rich people at several points in the book and feels she can only fit in at Biltmore as a servant. Yet she was raised in wealth by her grandparents. Why do you feel she identifies so strongly with the life she led starting at age twelve instead of her life before that?

13. Adelaide Herrmann maintains emotional distance from everyone who works for her, except for Arden. Why does Adelaide choose Arden as her protégée?

14. Adelaide Herrmann was a huge success as a female magician. Does she seem satisfied with that life, up until the ill-fated Second Sight act? Does she seem satisfied after her retirement, when Arden visits her many years later?

15. Virgil is convinced that he was his wife's second choice after her childhood love Mose married another girl. Do you think this prevents him from being honest with her about his hopes and fears?

16. Arden's near-death experience at the Iroquois Theatre, including her unhappy reunion with Ray, frightens her deeply. Yet she doesn't share the full extent of her feelings, or the truth of what happened, with Clyde. Why do you think she keeps this from him? Does it contribute to their problems later in the story?

17. Arden's illusions, such as the Fair Shake, comment on gender relations in a time when that would have been very controversial. How would the same illusions be received today? Do you think a woman cutting a man in half onstage would still be shocking to some audiences?

18. When Clyde asks her to marry him, Arden refuses, telling herself, “It was a trap… We were too strong-willed to be locked together in marriage, a permanent institution. If we tried to hold each other too close, it could destroy us.” Did you believe this reasoning? What other reasons would she have to accept or refuse his offer of marriage?

19. “I let him damage me and try to heal that damage with his delusions of magic. I talk a good game about risk, but when it all came down to it, I chose something awful and safe.” When Ray threatens Clyde, Arden gives up and allows him to hurt her and essentially keep her captive. Did you feel she had other options? If so, what should she have done instead?

20. Arden claims that “in different circumstances, she might have liked Officer Virgil Holt, and he might have liked her.” Do you think this is true? What about their interactions makes it seem more or less likely?

21. Arden isn't guilty of the murder of Ray, but she did cut his throat in Chicago, and she tells Holt she was “ready to kill him” before Clyde did so. In your mind, does this compromise her claims of innocence?

22. As the book ends, Holt has resolved to begin living his life anew, without letting his fear of death get in the way. Do you feel he has been profoundly changed by his experience with Arden? Or do you think these resolutions will fade in the harsh light of day?

23. Where do you think Arden and Clyde's story might go from the ending onward?

24. Whether or not Arden is telling Officer Holt the truth is a key question throughout the book. When did you most believe her? Were there times where you were sure she was lying?

What inspired you to write
The Magician's Lie
?

In the beginning, it was a very simple idea: I realized that I had read and seen countless references to male magicians cutting a woman in half but had never heard of a woman cutting a man in half. I decided to research it and found that stage magic is one of those fields that has really historically been dominated by men all along, with a few interesting exceptions. One of those exceptions was Adelaide Herrmann. I decided that her performance of the Bullet Catch in New York City in 1897 (a real event) would be the perfect inspiration for my protagonist to enter the world of magic. And the Amazing Arden was born.

Was that the reason you decided to set
The Magician's Lie
at the turn of the century?

Yes and no. Integrating Adelaide into the story intrigued me, but the main driving force was the place in culture I wanted Arden to occupy. In the present day, we're intrigued by professional stage magicians, but they don't occupy a central place in popular entertainment. Most people could probably name a couple of magicians: Criss Angel, David Blaine, David Copperfield, maybe Doug Henning (am I dating myself?). I wanted Arden to have true fame and true infamy because of the Halved Man. And for her to be a real pioneer in the field, I decided that right at the turn of the century was the best possible time.

So Adelaide Herrmann is real. What about the other characters? Fictional, inspired by real people, or somewhere in between?

George Vanderbilt, of course, was a real person, though I've played a little fast and loose with what we know of the early days of Biltmore. “Somewhere in between” fiction and fact would describe how I've integrated history throughout the book. The guests I mention attending that first Christmas party at the Biltmore—like the future President McKinley—are on record as visiting Biltmore, but not necessarily on that date. The prima ballerina assoluta Madama Bonfanti was real, though there is no evidence she visited Biltmore or even traveled seeking students for her school.

Some of the magicians Clyde and Arden discuss are real players of the time, and some aren't. Same with the theaters in which she performs. The Iroquois Theatre fire, tragically, was very real, resulting in more than six hundred deaths due to the exact conditions described in Arden's retelling—doors that opened in instead of out, locked gates between the levels of the theater, really terrible contributing factors that made the disaster so much worse. That was hard both to read about and to write about.

My intent throughout the book was to integrate history in a way that enriches and expands the story I wanted to tell, without feeling hidebound by exactly what happened to whom and when. After all, Arden has a magical power of healing her own wounds. This is a novel and not a historical document, clearly.

Speaking of that, where did Arden's healing power come from?

Actually, there were drafts of the story both with and without the magical element. But I was fascinated by the idea of a magician who really does have magical powers, and even more, by the idea of a man of the law who is practical and realistic, but also has no problem believing that supernatural things can happen. I wanted Arden's power to have limits. She's not a superhero. So her healing power only goes so far.

You said there were different drafts of the story. Was the ending always the same?

That was one of the few parts that stayed the same the whole time! The beginning changed, the characters changed, the magic changed, nearly everything changed. But I always knew what I was working toward: the reveal to the audience and Holt alike that Ray was the dead “husband” we saw at the beginning of the book, followed closely by Arden's successful escape. I just love that kind of pit-of-the-stomach realization as a reader, so as a writer, I wanted to deliver on that for my readers. Arden was never guilty of the crime in any draft that I wrote. I did want the reader to have lots of doubts about her along the way, but I always wanted her to get her happy ending, or as close to it as possible.

How long did it take you to write this book?

Sometimes it feels like forever! I think from the first moment I wondered “What if a female magician cut a man in half onstage?” to turning in the final draft to my editor was about five years. Part of that was the research. I'd been writing fiction for years, but never historical, and it really changed my writing process. I kept getting distracted—if there was a scene where I wanted a character to put on a hat, I wanted to know what kind of hat it would have been, so I'd stop writing and go to the Internet. And you know what happens with the Internet. Two hours later, you know everything about hats of the 1890s, but you haven't written a single word. Eventually I found a way to put in placeholders and come back later with details, but that took a while. There were also a couple of major revisions, and I'd set myself a pretty serious task by interweaving what happens in the “present” story (the 1905 police station scenes) and the story that Arden is telling in the “past” (from 1890 onward). Every change rippled through the whole book. I'm really thrilled with the result, but there were some tough days in there. Writing is rewriting.

Arden is very clearly the central character of
The Magi
cian's
Lie
. Is she the character you feel most closely connected to?

Well, yes and no. Arden keeps most people at arm's length throughout the story, and I felt like she was doing that to me a little too. I knew she was telling the truth to Holt, but I also knew she didn't entirely trust him. And even though she loves Clyde desperately, she's still suspicious of his motives. That's not really me. In a way, I identified more with Adelaide. She's brusque and sharp and imperfect, but you know where you stand with her. I admired her courage and intelligence just as much as I admired Arden's. Most of my early readers picked Adelaide out as their favorite character. I'm actually thinking about giving her her own book next.

What do you love most about writing?

I love creating something out of nothing. It starts with just the spark of an idea, some small inspiration, and grows into this entire world of the novel. A full cast of characters who feel real, all the words they speak, all the actions they take. It's all just words on the page. And then to have a real effect on readers? That's the most amazing thing. It's the closest thing to magic I think we really have in life, other than love. Writers are illusionists who work in words. I love being that kind of magician.

Raised in the Midwest, Greer Macallister is a poet, short story writer, playwright, and novelist whose work has appeared in publications such as
The
North
American
Review
,
The
Missouri
Review
, and
The
Messenger
. Her plays have been performed at American University, where she earned her MFA in creative writing. She lives with her family in Brooklyn.