- Paperback: 327 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (7 Jan 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099268736
- ISBN-13: 978-0099268734
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 765,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The ordinary inhabitants of a small-town council estate turn out to hold extraordinary secrets in Paul Magrs' strangely compelling novel, Could It Be Magic?. Set in the grey wastelands of the north-east, Magrs has looked beyond the ravages of boom and bust Britain--with its council ghettos and widespread unemployment--to reveal a community brimming with passions. At first glance, the leading characters are exceptional only in their mediocrity: Elsie, old before her time, weighed down by a crippled son and depressive husband, whose only solace lies in a bottle of gin; tattooed Mark, who spends his days bodybuilding and nights babysitting his ex-wife's new baby; Penny, who left school too soon and fills her house with students; Andy whose gay lover left him for a better life. But the arrival of Penny's Mam on New Year's Eve (with her own startling secret) sets off a chain of astonishing events. Fantasy mingles with the mundane until it's hard to know what to accept as commonplace and what to dismiss as trivial. A frisson of sexual energy sparks from council roof to satellite dish as Magrs' characters discover their innermost secrets and how to live life to the full. --Carey Green
Product Description
When Andy has unprotected sex with a man tatooed from head to foot with animals, he believes he may be pregnant. Meanwhile Penny, the young woman whose council house he shares, has started an affair with a club-footed body builder whom Andy believes is beneath her.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Magrs has delivered here an ambitious and often very funny novel. Dripping in gritty Northern Council Estate parlance this really is a joy to read. Well developed characters and a taste of the macabre keep you ploughing through this at an incredible rate, the last chapter however was a bit of a let down. I guess he just couldn't keep up the pace ...
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first novel I read by Magrs, and after reading its prequel Does It Show? was impressed by the way Magrs develops his already established realist/surreal world on the north-east council estate. Like George Eliot before him, Magrs shows great understanding of his characters, and never patronizes or appears condescending. The realism is breathtaking, and the fantastical slant adds an extra dimension to the book, believable, yet not. A genuine disappointment when it was over, these are characters who you care for. The storyline grips, and the humour is exceptional, but not always a comedy, much of the book has the characters reflective and poignant. A masterpiece and a must read.
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