J.B. Priestley's mid-1950s novel makes a plea for living a deeper, more fulfilling life, but it resorts to some hocus-pocus to make the point. The magicians of the title are normal-looking men but turn out to be vaguely supernatural. Their instruction to the protagonist, a middle-aged man who is successful but not happy, revolves around the concept of "tick tock" versus "time alive." The former is how most of us live, from moment to moment, with the past relegated to unimportance. "Time alive" is a richer experience in which a person's past and present form a continuous spiral, or loop — in any case, it's not linear. The main character experiences this "time alive" through a kind of reverse hypnosis, meaning he's not being put under but awakened to the wholeness of experience. If it all seems a bit flaky, Priestley is able to carry it off believably. The novel also includes some sharp social criticism of mass media and entertainment, as well as the perils of dulling the mind with antidepressants, that remain relevant to this day.
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