Nora's characterization is a crimp in the novel's otherwise solidly-plotted court life, with its glimpses into wizardly machinations, and the Faitoren standoff that threatens Nora's place in this world. Gentlewomen in Ors are socially and politically repressed, unable to own property or be recognized in their own right, so they assume the independent Nora must be Aurendiel's "whore." And while Nora understands the dynamics enough to recall the tribulations of tragic literary heroines, that doesn't stop her from immediately concluding, "Inristian and her friends, they were the real whores." It's a lingering blind spot in her judgment - and unlike her cultural misconceptions about black lesbian magician Hirizjahkinis, it's a judgment she's never made to question. And for a scholar, she's often remarkably clueless about her new world (particularly interesting if one reads portal fantasies as metaphors of cultural immersion).
A little incredulity is healthy, but to have Nora still questioning magic halfway through the novel seems disingenuous. Unfortunately, the novel explains Nora's intelligence more than demonstrates it. Maggie Soladay/Courtesy The Penguin Group The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic is her first novel. She does receive some supernatural assistance in the irascible Aruendiel, a magician who becomes Nora's teacher and protector as the Faitoren attempt to reclaim her.Įmily Croy Barker is the executive lawyer for The American Lawyer. When Nora realizes she's been enchanted, she risks her life to escape-but with no way home, she has to start over from scratch. In The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic, debut novelist Emily Croy Barker gives us Nora, a floundering grad student who trips dimensions and finds herself in the land of the Faitoren, which seems wonderful at first: a whirl of endless parties, a magical makeover from the Faitoren queen Ilissa, and a princely marriage proposal from Ilissa's son Raclin. A balance of magical aid and real-world social smarts is often enough to win the day, but those who cross between worlds must tread carefully here there be, quite literally, dragons. After all, some of folkore's most notable archetypes were supernatural threats who crossed from their world to ours to beleaguer us. But despite the iconic image of a paradise just beyond the doorway, the portal fantasy is often, at heart, a cynical work. It's one of the most familiar stories in fantasy: someone from our world stumbles on a gateway to a world entirely other - usually magical, sometimes dangerous, and always ripe for a great adventure.
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