Turn, Magic Wheel - (Pushkin Press Classics) by Dawn Powell (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A tartly funny and wistful cautionary tale about turning others' lives into art, set against the bright lights of 1930s Manhattan, from master satirist Dawn Powell.

"A gleaming, brittle and slightly brutal New York novel." --The New York Times

Dennis Orphen is a young, clever novelist with a keen eye for a compelling story. This time, however, his inspiration comes not from the world at large but from the romantic misadventures of his closest friend, Effie Callingham.

More than a decade earlier, Effie's husband, the celebrated writer Andrew Callingham, abandoned her for a younger, prettier woman. Despite the years that have passed, Effie has clung stubbornly to the hope that Andrew might one day come to his senses, defending his reputation with a fierce loyalty that masks her private heartbreak.

When Dennis publishes his latest novel, the delicate balance of their friendship is thrown into chaos. In his thinly veiled portrait, Effie's private pain is laid bare before a scandal-hungry literary society, while Andrew is revealed as the self-absorbed womaniser. Meanwhile, Dennis finds himself embroiled in romantic entanglements of his own, navigating a fraught relationship with Corinne, a married woman whose presence sparks longing, jealousy and moral uncertainty.

Set against the seedy glamour of New York society, from brandy-soaked nightclubs to cab-lined curbs, Dennis and Effie are forced to confront uncomfortable truths about themselves. Witty, poignant and unflinchingly observant, this is a satire that blends laughter and insight, exposing the absurdities and heartbreaks of love, friendship and ambition.

Review Quotes

"A gleaming, brittle and slightly brutal New York novel . . . each chapter slips us into the consciousness and conversations of a group of New Yorkers and keeps them afloat on the sounds and sensations, the dash, squalor and ugly beauty of the city." - Margo Jefferson, The New York Times (1994)

"Give us your lonely, your misunderstood, your sexually malcontent, your stubborn provincial dreams: responding to this siren call, Dawn Powell stayed loyal to New York with an ardor beside which that of celebrants like Scott Fitzgerald and E. B. White appear fickle." - John Updike, The New Yorker (1995)

About the Author

Dawn Powell (1896-1965) was a novelist and playwright known for her satires of New York's cultural and literary circles. Born in Mount Gilead, Ohio, she endured a tumultuous childhood before running away at thirteen to live with an aunt who encouraged her writing aspirations. After graduating from Lake Erie College, Powell moved to New York City, immersing herself in the bohemian atmosphere of Greenwich Village. She gained early recognition for her witty pieces in The New Yorker and Esquire, and in 1939 became a Scribner author, sharing the legendary editor Maxwell Perkins with Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Although Powell enjoyed a devoted circle of admirers, her work drifted into obscurity after her death. Interest in her novels was later revived by the tireless work of Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Tim Page, executor of her estate, and also through Gore Vidal's influential appraisal in The New York Review of Books.