Magic, desire and comedy
In Search of the Magic Theater by Karla Huebner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Two women, a generation apart though their lives intertwine, tell us in their most intimate voices of their quite different, sometimes comical and mostly but not always disappointing adventures with men. And careers, and cellos, and dope. When the quest for satisfaction of the elder and more pro-active of the two takes the stage, we are treated to a simultaneously comical and erudite ‘magic theater’ production, in which we see their present dilemmas as repetitions or reflections of the ancient myths of Endymion and the goddesses, with pictorial and poetic references through the ages.
In this short tale of two women, in which the men are also treated very sensitively, Karla Huebner calls on her deep knowledge of European classical paintings and verse for a story of desire denied, delayed, and sometimes precariously fulfilled.
Full disclosure: Karla is a long-time friend whose scholarly work on art and art history I have often found as clever and entertaining as her fiction.