In Search of the Magic Theater

"At some point every life should have a disquieting blast of Kari. She's a down-but-not-out whackadoodle, the perfect foil to serious young Sarah in this page-turner fugue between two women whose views of music, men, and even the meaning of existence couldn't be more out of sync. Karla Huebner's lyrical prose has the ring of a bold new showtune with a message about how to suffer joyfully and artfully. And even if 'you don't always know what you want, and you can't always get what you need, ' In Search of the Magic Theater will give you reasons to sing along." --Jan Alexander, author of Ms. Ming's Guide to Civilization

"Through the voices of two women with overlapping lives but diverging paths, Karla Huebner explores the tension between control and surrender, reason and ecstasy, dreaming and choosing. This engaging, erudite, yet accessible novel takes us on a cultural journey spanning millennia, from Greek mythology to Jimi Hendrix, from Elizabethan lyric poetry to performance art, revealing along the way the joy of self-discovery." --Julie Wittes Schlack, author of This All-At-Onceness

"Karla Huebner's debut novel offers a sophisticated meditation on the idea of art, mythology, theater and music (classical and jazz) as two women, separated by a generation and divided by a cultural shift - from 60s to post-60s - negotiate sexuality, love, regret, grief, and above all forgiveness, all done in a style that's deceptively simple at first but grows on the reader and quietly lures him inside the magic theater only to discover that all lies within - the actors, the script, the theater, the magic. A treat for the denizens of the world of art and intellect." --Moazzam Sheikh, the author of Cafe Le Whore and Other Stories

"Two women, a generation apart though their lives intertwine, tell us in their most intimate voices of their quite different, sometimes comical and mostly but not always disappointing adventures with men. And careers, and cellos, and dope. When the quest for satisfaction of the elder and more pro-active of the two takes the stage, we are treated to a simultaneously comical and erudite 'magic theater' production, in which we see their present dilemmas as repetitions or reflections of the ancient myths of Endymion and the goddesses, with pictorial and poetic references through the ages. In this tale of two women, in which the men are also treated very sensitively, Karla Huebner calls on her deep knowledge of European of classical paintings and verse, and surely her personal knowledge, for a story of desire denied, delayed, and sometimes precariously fulfilled." --Geoffrey Fox, author of Welcome to My Contri, A Gift for the Sultan, and Rabble

"Karla Huebner's new novel, In Search of the Magic Theater, features two cultured, professional women from different generations, Sarah and Kari, who share Sarah's aunt's house, though not much else. Sarah, the younger, and a classical musician, is alone in the world of the 1990s that offers her little joy while Kari leads a hermit-like life after a failed marriage. Sarah doggedly pursues satisfaction via her cello playing and other musical pursuits. Kari, approaching middle age, engages in robust sex with a much younger, nameless man she calls Endymion after the beautiful youth of the Greek myth doomed to perpetual sleep by a goddess determined to enjoy his beauty every night. Huebner sets us up for a climax of dazzling theater that combines Keats's romantic poetry, Greek drama, music and dance, a production that leaves the reader excited and fulfilled by the magic one can experience with good art. And, yes, a sense of adventure in our unforeseeable future." --Margaret C. Murray, author of Spiral and Pillow Prayers