Stephen's Reviews > Mantissa

John Fowles' The Magus is my favourite book but for I did not find Mantissa an enjoyable book. My knowledge of Greek Mythology and the Muses is very limited, as is my knowledge of modernism, post-modernism and theory of literature. Thus, I may have missed many of the points he was trying to put across. In some parts I enjoyed his verbal jousting and sparring with his two characters, but eventually I tired of being yanked back into reality and the theory of the modern novel. As I said before, I may have appreciated it more if I had an overview of modernism and thus an appreciation of what he was ridiculing/making an example of, but ultimatley the book became rather tedious and I was happy when it was finished.
The opening chapter is really brilliant. I thought I was in for another weird and twisted treat but alas then the reality checks come in and it all became rather like Greek to me..