The Magician's Assistant

This section of the novel stresses that within the theme of The Importance of Family lies the darker reality that one must reject the worst aspects of other family members in order to heal and move beyond the trauma of toxic dynamics. As Sabine learns more about Parsifal’s reasons for leaving Nebraska, Patchett holds up the protagonist’s comparatively idyllic childhood as the ideal upbringing that Parsifal never had, growing up as he did in a violent household rife with his father’s abuse. By contrast, Sabine grew up in a family full of unconditional love and support, and she therefore has the capacity to express and share the healthy version of love that she learned from her parents. However, Sabine is also ill-equipped to understand the hidden wounds of people like Parsifal, who must create new families for themselves after escaping destructive home environments. As Sabine comes to realize the depths of Parsifal’s emotional scarring, she realizes that the presence of shared trauma played a key role in differentiating Parsifal’s relationship with Sabine from his relationship with Phan. As Sabine reflects:

Terrible things had happened to Phan. […] Phan had stayed alone in the world until he found Parsifal, and yet his face showed none of that. His face, bright and smooth in the sun as he slept next to the swimming pool, was peaceful. […] Did they hold each other tightly? Did Parsifal whisper in his ear, ‘My Love, my father put me in the refrigerator and left me there to suffocate.’ Did Phan then bury his face against Parsifal’s neck and say, ‘Darling, they killed my mother’? (239).

With this imagined conversation, Patchett brings the deceased couple back to life in Sabine’s thoughts, imbuing the scene with an emotion-laden immediacy that emphasizes the deep connection between two people who have inherited trauma from their families. Faced with the reality of a connection she could never have shared, Sabine understands why she held a marginalized status and was not made privy to Parsifal’s innermost secrets and pain. The more Sabine learns about Parsifal’s life in Nebraska, the better she understands his lies, and with each new revelation, Patchett suggests that by digging into the recesses of emotional pain, people can find more authentic forms of connection.

Within this context, the narrative stresses that Sabine goes to Nebraska to search for pieces of Parsifal’s old identity in the years before she knew him, searching for a greater sense of clarity and closure. As she bonds with Dot and Kitty over memories of Parsifal, she drops her guard enough to become a part of the family dynamics in her own unique way, and the Fetters women eagerly embrace her as one of the family. However, Sabine’s time here also highlights The Unknowability of the Inner Self, for she soon finds herself beset by the more toxic aspects of the family’s dynamics and realizes just how little she knows about the people around her. As Kitty’s abusive husband, Howard, disrupts the family with childish petulance, emotional volatility, and violent rages, the narrative emphasizes the lack of any real consequences for Howard’s actions, thereby implying that in the Fetters’s dysfunctional universe, such violence has become normalized to an extent. This sentiment is further emphasized by Dot’s expression of hopelessness when she later states,

[E]verything is pretty much the same no matter where you are. […] [E]veryone has their problems, everyone has a couple of things that make them happy, and […] if I went someplace else or knew other people it wouldn’t really change (275).

With a life of domestic violence and trauma behind her and the evidence of Kitty’s disastrous marriage in front of her, Dot becomes fatalistic. Because she is unwilling to escape or fight back (or to help her daughter do as much), this defeatist attitude is the only form of escape she can find to maintain some form of inner balance. Her admission also gives Sabine new insight into the reasons for Parsifal’s decision to cut ties with his family.