Saturday, October 27, 2007

The Prestige (by Christopher Priest)

Ian told me about the movie version of this, and it sounded incredibly stupid, but I'd heard the book was different, and someone sent it to me for free, and I needed something to read, and there you go. I read it. I found it an engrossing and quick read. It's not so different from the film, but it sounds like it's a little more subtle, which I liked. I don't know; I'm kind of interested in the film too, except I hear that Something Bad Happens To Animals, so forget it. The book didn't have that.

The book is about rival magicians, as you may remember from the trailer of the film. It's told in a diary form, where both magicians keep diaries telling their sides of the stories. There are also descendants of the two magicians in the present day, although their storylines are basically left hanging at the end.

I guess I'm really wondering if anyone understood the very ending, which will sound absolutely ridiculous to anyone who hasn't read the book, and which will spoil all the fun, so don't read it. (Attempting to spoiler tag...) Okay so Nicky, the brother whose body was in the vault, was silent when Andrew came and picked him up. Then Andrew put him down and he was screaming... so he's kind of in his half-dead, half-alive state. Does Andrew basically have to carry his twin's corpse around for the rest of his life? Is there any way to allow Nicky to rest in peace? Does he have to take him home and prop him in a chair and have conversations with him? I really don't get it.

If you know the answer or have a theory, let me know!

2 Comments:

Blogger BC said...

One of the main reasons I liked the movie better than the book is that the movie ditched the modern part of the story, so that totally incomprehensible ending didn't happen. But at the same time, the ending of the book was creepy and spooky, and the movie just kind of ended, so I guess they each had strengths and weaknesses.

The movie added several plot elements that I thought were really good. As for the book, I sort of loved it even though it was full of huge plot holes and was also totally ridiculous.

4:56 PM  
Blogger mo pie said...

Now I kind of want to rent the movie, even though Ian saw it and thought it sucked. He's such a judger.

11:09 AM  

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