Julian the Magician

The most recent novel that I finished reading, sometime last month, was JULIAN THE MAGICIAN by Gwendolyn MacEwen. I have the 2004 paperback reissue. The novel, MacEwen's first, was first published in Toronto by Macmillan and in New York by Corinth Books in 1963.

She was born in Toronto in 1941, so in 1963 she was only 22. An Afterword by her sister says that a 1962 marriage to Canadian poet Milton Acorn (1923-1986) lasted but 6 months, while Wikipedia says they were divorced after 2 years. MacEwan wrote numerous books of award-winning poetry and died in 1987. Wikipedia says she was one of Canada's greatest poets, that her poems had themes of magic and mythology, and that she died at age 46 of health problems related to alcoholism.

The novel is strange and perplexing. It is vague about the location and time of its story. In it a professional magician and his assistants travel in a horse-drawn wagon from country village to country village earning their keep by giving performances. The story is full of references to alchemy and arcane books. Julian identifies with the greatest magician, Jesus Christ, and ends up getting crucified. That is three quarters of the way through the book. The last quarter of the book is the epilogue, consisting of passages from Julian's Journal, which is very enigmatic.

A lot of the novel and its allusions went over my head. Still it fascinated me enough that I kept reading it. It's a short novel of only 168 pages. If someone in my writing group wants to read it, I'll pass it on.