The Magician's Assistant

In Part 2, Patchett establishes Nebraska as the antithesis of Los Angeles, and both the appearance and the social nuances of the midwestern state stand as sharp contrasts to Parsifal’s chosen home. This difference is also emphasized in physical ways, for Patchett makes it a point to describe the rural nature of the Fetters family’s home. Disconcerted by her surroundings, Sabine feels uneasy as the wind “circle[s] the house like a pack of howling dogs,” highlighting a sense of “emptiness” that “stretch[es] out flat in every direction” and seems vast and inescapable (157). As she longs for “the reassuring hum of civilization” (157), her visceral reaction to Nebraska implies that she does not belong there, and by extension, neither did Parsifal.

This section of the novel develops a different, edgier angle of The Importance of Family, for by getting to know the family Parsifal escaped, Sabine learns about the horrors of his past and can make educated guesses as to how those events shaped his later years. Even more importantly, she realizes that she knew the true Parsifal much more deeply than his Nebraskan family ever could, even if he did choose to hide his past from her. As she rifles through the faded era of his early life, Sabine finds herself feeling just as constrained by Nebraskan culture as Parsifal himself once did. Because she is forbidden from revealing that Parsifal was gay, she cannot truly tell his family anything meaningful about the essence of who he was; she cannot even talk about Phan, the true love of his life. She must also juggle Parsifal’s different names, and as she is forced to call her husband by the name he renounced decades ago, her uncomfortable sense of “performing” for the Fetter family tells her more about Parsifal’s childhood than his family can explicitly relate. Thus, it is clear that Parsifal’s escape from Nebraska played a key role in his quest to reinvent himself more authentically. With the freedom he found in Los Angeles, he built a more fulfilling life, embracing both Sabine and Phan as his chosen family. As Sabine reflects, “[Parsifal] had remade his life, and when he was finished it was the only life he knew” (165). Ironically, changing his name, lying about his past, and becoming a professional liar as a magician has allowed Parsifal to live his life more authentically than fulfilling his childhood family’s expectations of who he was supposed to be.

Despite the emotional challenges that greet Sabine in Nebraska, her journey to Parsifal’s childhood home allows her a unique level of access to the hidden, unresolved issues that informed the core of his early identity. The importance of her pilgrimage is further evidenced by the dream-version of Phan, who reassures her that she needs this interlude to establish a sense of distance and perspective. Sabine’s unconscious self, which is represented by the dream-Phan, knows that getting to know Parsifal’s family will help Sabine to move through the grieving process. As Sabine consciously acknowledges that her trip to Nebraska is for herself, she realizes that “[s]he [feels] closer to Parsifal here. […] [A]ll the places she knew him to be only showed up the fact that he was gone. In Nebraska, where she had never imagined him, she could see him everywhere” (179). Thus, by giving herself space and distance from the life that she and Parsifal shared, she gains a broader sense of who Parsifal was and learns to love him in different ways by getting to know the Parsifal of Nebraska.

While the primary focus of the novel is concerned with Sabine’s grieving process and her attempts to reinvent herself in the absence of her loved ones, Part 2 also delves more deeply into the darkest aspects of Parsifal’s childhood and adolescence. When Sabine learns the truth about the violent death of Parsifal’s father and the abusive treatment that Parsifal’s father inflicted on his family, the revelation makes her look more kindly upon Dot. This glimpse of the long-held family trauma recasts Dot as a more deeply nuanced character; although Dot still remains an avatar of a culture imbued with anti-gay bias, she is no longer an outright antagonist, and Parsifal’s ill-fated attempt to protect his mother from his father’s abuse indicates that he loved her deeply despite the family’s issues.