SOURCE: “Hollow Men,” in New Statesman and Society, September 22, 1995, p. 32.

In the following review, Craig commends Johnston's skill at portraying complicated and intricate relationships in The Illusionist.

The Illusionist is a kind of fable. Jennifer Johnston has been narrowing her focus lately, and this short novel is both highly concentrated and decorative. It doesn't have much in the way of plot, but plot is not the point as it moves between the present and the past.

It opens in Dublin, where a middle-aged novelist, Stella Macnamara, awaits the arrival from the airport of her daughter Robin. Robin is coming from the funeral of her father, Stella's estranged husband and the illusionist of the title. Martyn Glover has died in the company of 250 doves, caught by a terrorist explosion in a London street. Terrorism plays no further part in the story. Its function is to furnish the illusionist with...