The Illusionist

I haven't seen the movie The Illusionist yet, though I intend to. I think Edward Norton is a great actor, and Jessica Biel is certainly easy on the eye, and the setting in the Austro-Hungarian Empire during its long, slow decline is one of the most interesting periods in history. The same setting has provided some great literature, such as Musil's The Man Without Qualities or Roth's Radetzky March. So I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the movie is based on a short story by one of my favorite authors, Steven Millhauser.

Millhauser is known as a 'writer's writer,' by which we usually mean a writer so accomplished that only other writers understand how good he is. Or, to put it another way, a writer that only other writers bother to read. His stories are usually set in fantastic realms of the imagination, and Eisenheim the Illusionist is no exception. It is an excellent example of Millhauser at his best.

The only problem is that even though I haven't seen the movie, I know it largely concerns the unrequited love between Eisenheim and the Jessica Biel character, who is the fiance of a prince or something. In the original story, there is no love interest at all. No fiance, no prince. In fact the original story would probably not have made a very good movie. So Hollywood has to tart it up with a love triangle and a juicy role for a pretty young starlet. And that's okay, that's how movies are made. The only question is, why start with this story, if telling this story doesn't make a good movie? Does it even lend the movie literary credibility if it's based on a story by an author nobody knows and nobody reads?

The only good thing is that I just had to return a copy of The Barnum Museum, the book that the original story was in, because several people had requests on it. I'm betting readers will be dismayed to learn how much the story diverges from the movie. But if even a few readers are surprised and thrilled to discover the unique voice and distinctive imagination of Steven Millhauser, and go on to read more of his books, then that's a good thing, right?