The Magic Christian

By Terry Southern

Book Overview

One of the funniest, cruelest, and most savagely revealing books about American life ever written, The Magic Christian has been called Terry Southern's masterpiece. Guy Grand is an eccentric billionaire -- the last of the big spenders -- determined to create disorder in the material world and willing to spare no expense to do it. Leading a life full of practical jokes and madcap schemes, his ultimate goal is to prove his theory that there is nothing so degrading or so distasteful that someone won't do it for money. In Guy Grand's world, everyone has a price, and he is all too willing to pay it. A satire of America's obsession with bigness, toughness, money, TV, guns, and sex, The Magic Christian is a hilarious and wickedly original novel from a true comic genius.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802134653
• ISBN13: 9780802134653
• Release Date: June 1996
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

PLAYING WITH PEOPLE

In "Dr. Mabuse, Der Speiler", Mabuse said that nothing was interesting anymore, except for "playing with people & with the destinies of people". Mabuse may well have been describing the life of Guy Grand, protagonist of The Magic Christian. Though Grand is no doubt a less mean spirited figure than Mabuse, his humor is no less misanthropic in nature. If you enjoyed the Peter Sellers/Ringo Starr movie, expect to be stunned. The book is above & beyond anything you saw on the screen. If you're like me you'll find yourself rereading it on a yearly basis--- it's THAT funny! Really.

An American classic

The Magic Christian is an American classic - a model of elegant yet taut storytelling on par with The Great Gatsby and The Sheltering Sky (and as boldly original and enduring as those two very different books). It is also extremely funny...a book that manages to be both a delightful fantasy and a corrosive satire of our consumer culture. Don't be deceived by its simplicity and directness. This one for the ages as well one worth rereading. Southern's greatest novel has influenced everyone from Stanley Kubrick to Monty Python and writers as varied as Mark Leyner, Bruce Wagner and Darius James. Read it today!!!!

A Visual Delight!

Terry Southern was, among other things, a writer of humorous screen plays (e.g., Dr. Strangelove, The Loved One). As a result, his writing evokes a series of mental images, many of which are screamingly funny. If, like many of us, you are fed up with the "I'm Going to Get Mine" Greed Generation, this book is for you.

The funniest book ever written, according to Peter Sellers.

In literary history, "The Magic Christian" will be remembered as the book which got Terry Southern the job of writing "Dr Strangelove": it seems that Peter Sellers loved the book and sent out 100 copies to his friends, one of whom was the great Stanley Kubrick. The book, indeed, is a side-splitting satire, following one Guy Grand (a "grand guy"), a millionaire of uncertain origin, as he pays for exorbitant pranks with the sole purpose of "making it hot" for people. ("How much would it cost me to make you eat that ticket?" Grand asks an astonished traffic cop.) But the book is far from silly: like much of Southern's work, the comedy barely masks strong critiques of greed and elitism. It is a must-read for the aspiring satirist and would-be social critic.