Recent Reading: The Magician's Assistant

Picked up this Ann Patchet novel from the library on recommendation from one of the ladies at book group last time. I'll have to remember her for further suggestions. I had a bit of difficulty getting into this book. It was good prose, but I had trouble identifying with the protagonist. The woman has spent 20 years of her life devoted to a man who cannot love her back, at least not the way she wants. They even marry to ensure proper distribution of assets after his death, which follows shortly the death of his long-term partner.

After 20 years of living in his shadow, she finally has to live her own life and doesn't know what kind of life that should be. Then she finds out that man she thought she knew fabricated a past for himself, and she sets out to learn who he really was for the 20-odd years before she met him. It was an interesting story, but it was sad that a character written to be as smart as the protagonist was so content to be constantly in second place.