Modern and Contemporary Literature

The class will be reading and discussing The Magician, by Colm Tóibín, published in 2021 (ISBN 978-1-4767-8508-0).

The Magician tells the story of Thomas Mann, whose life was filled with great acclaim and contradiction. He found himself on the wrong side of history in the First World War, cheerleading the German army, but had a clear vision of the future in World War II, anticipating the horrors of Nazism.
Mann had six children and kept his homosexuality hidden; he was a man forever connected to his family and yet bore witness to the ravages of suicide. He wrote some of the greatest works of European literature and won the Nobel Prize in 1929, but he never returned to the country that inspired his creativity. “Tóibín succeeds in conveying his fascination with the Magician, as his children called him, who could make sexual secrets vanish beneath a rich surface life of family and uncommon art.” Kirkus Reviews.

July 12: Chapters 1-5, pages 1-131
July 26: Chapters 6-9, pages 133-258
August 9: Chapters 10-13, pages 259-383
August 23: Chapters 14-18, pages 385-498

Facilitator: Mary Thompson retired in 2005 and now promotes deliberative democracy with the League of Women Voters and the San Diego Deliberation Network.
 

Presenter Biography