As a neophyte amateur magician, I was delighted at the anecdotes and insights Alex Stone provides in his autobiographical account of magic culture. As someone who takes magic very seriously and takes secrecy as a real responsibility, I was horrified at just how much exposure there is in this book, directed at the general public.
Alex Stone is a writer by trade, and his engaging-though-pedestrian writing makes the entire book feel like one long editorial piece. It's not such a bad thing, but it's not that great either. The book is engaging because the subject matter is totally fascinating, but you get the sense that Stone can't give you a full, rich picture of it all because he is handicapped by ineptness and a lack of respect and true understanding for the art he's supposedly devoting his life to. If you know anything about magic, you can't help but raise an eyebrow at some of his stories or claims.
The best parts of the book are actually about other people: Richard Turner, Persi Diaconis, etc. And though Ricky Jay pointed out various small factual errors in Stone's history lessons, the real suspicious parts of the narrative have to do with the author's journey itself. By his own account, he goes from nearly incapable to mastering a broad variety of gambling techniques, pick pocketing, mentalism, and mathematical/memory feats in a matter of a year or two. Not to say it's impossible, but even if you watch a clip of Alex performing magic on talk shows on TV (the book was a big success), you can see plainly that he's not a master at anything. The heroes journey makes for a good read, but as someone familiar with the world of magic, the book caused increasingly more eye-roles as it progressed.
Finally, the most disturbing and infuriating aspect of the whole thing is the incredible amount of exposure held in the pages. He explains the basics behind several essential principles in magic including (but not limited to): the force, false shuffles, the center tear, deck switching, breaks, passes, etc. He goes so far as to include a glossary of sleight-of-hand terms at the end of the book with explanations for each one!
Half-way through the book Stone relates an incident where he wrote an article about a magic competition in Harper's magazine, in which he exposed not only his own routine at that competition but the secrets behind several other magicians effects. From that point forward in the book, he continually argues that magic is more beautiful when you know the secrets, and he exhibits a disregard for secrecy all together as an old fashioned way to look at the art. Needless to say, I found this disturbing, and it undermined any belief I had in Stone's dedication to magic as a serious craft.
Having said all that, there are some very interesting and informative stories in the book for those less versed in magic history, and it did inspire some new ideas for me. So, I may recommend it to other budding magicians, but I will not recommend it to lay people.
Alex Stone is a writer by trade, and his engaging-though-pedestrian writing makes the entire book feel like one long editorial piece. It's not such a bad thing, but it's not that great either. The book is engaging because the subject matter is totally fascinating, but you get the sense that Stone can't give you a full, rich picture of it all because he is handicapped by ineptness and a lack of respect and true understanding for the art he's supposedly devoting his life to. If you know anything about magic, you can't help but raise an eyebrow at some of his stories or claims.
The best parts of the book are actually about other people: Richard Turner, Persi Diaconis, etc. And though Ricky Jay pointed out various small factual errors in Stone's history lessons, the real suspicious parts of the narrative have to do with the author's journey itself. By his own account, he goes from nearly incapable to mastering a broad variety of gambling techniques, pick pocketing, mentalism, and mathematical/memory feats in a matter of a year or two. Not to say it's impossible, but even if you watch a clip of Alex performing magic on talk shows on TV (the book was a big success), you can see plainly that he's not a master at anything. The heroes journey makes for a good read, but as someone familiar with the world of magic, the book caused increasingly more eye-roles as it progressed.
Finally, the most disturbing and infuriating aspect of the whole thing is the incredible amount of exposure held in the pages. He explains the basics behind several essential principles in magic including (but not limited to): the force, false shuffles, the center tear, deck switching, breaks, passes, etc. He goes so far as to include a glossary of sleight-of-hand terms at the end of the book with explanations for each one!
Half-way through the book Stone relates an incident where he wrote an article about a magic competition in Harper's magazine, in which he exposed not only his own routine at that competition but the secrets behind several other magicians effects. From that point forward in the book, he continually argues that magic is more beautiful when you know the secrets, and he exhibits a disregard for secrecy all together as an old fashioned way to look at the art. Needless to say, I found this disturbing, and it undermined any belief I had in Stone's dedication to magic as a serious craft.
Having said all that, there are some very interesting and informative stories in the book for those less versed in magic history, and it did inspire some new ideas for me. So, I may recommend it to other budding magicians, but I will not recommend it to lay people.
