THE MAGICIAN'S DAUGHTER: A MEMOIR

A memoir focuses on an adolescent girl’s role in her father’s magic show.

When Grabel was 14 years old, her father, Lee, announced his intention to revive his magic show. He and his wife, Helen, had toured for years in the 1950s before heading to San Francisco before the author was born. In California, Lee worked as a realtor. Shy, awkward Grabel was enthralled by her father’s career decision and eager to join the show. Privately, she dreamed of attaining stardom and finally winning her father’s affection. Once the show hit the road, the author discovered the reality of touring was far from her father’s dazzling predictions. Her mother was never enthused by the venture in the first place, preferring the family’s suburban lifestyle. The crew members were rebellious and disorganized; the animal cast defecated on stage; and the crowds were sometimes thin. Tasked with writing a promotional article, the author was unable to start it, finding she preferred the backstage magic to her father’s onstage persona. Grabel waited until after her father’s death to pen this engrossing memoir, knowing he would never approve of her sharing his magic secrets. Freed from the pressure of his gaze, she frankly recounts her childhood memories of him: “I have since come to understand we were not enough for my father…To love a great magician is to live in astonishment and to endure.” The author depicts her adolescent self in a similarly honest but compassionate light. Socially awkward and starry-eyed, she was sometimes harsh with the crew members who didn’t buy into her father’s vision, even as she became disillusioned with it. Grabel also skillfully brings an adult perspective to her family’s dynamic, particularly the relationship between her parents, as Helen was always upstaged by her husband’s ambitions.

 This thoughtful, engaging account offers a rare glimpse of an intriguing world.