A review by albatrossonhalfpointe
The Magician and the Fool by Barth Anderson
1.0
Years ago, fallen scholar Jeremiah Rosemont left the bitter rivalries of academia behind and now lives a simple nomadic existence in Central America, far from the arguments that once defined his life. But he can't outrun his past... or the dangerous truth that lurks beneath his abandoned studies. Following an enigmatic summons to Rome, Rosemont finds himself at the center of a mystery that dates back to the fall of Troy, the pursuit of a mystical treasure that many are willing to sacrifice fortunes and lives for: the earliest known tarot deck.
As Rosemont delves deeper and deeper into the tarot's unsettling secret origins, his own fate is inexorably intertwined with that of the Boy King, a homeless man with an unspeakable gift... and a mysterious past of his own. For these two men - and the demons, dupes, and power seekers drawn to them - the cards will reveal everything, even the shattering, unseen truths of human life itself...
In short, I frankly did not care for this book. Based on its blurb, I was hoping for kind of a The Eight or Labyrinth kind of story, but it really wasn't. Similar in some ways, but I didn't really find it as cohesive or coherent. I didn't have any trouble orienting myself within the two different storylines or anything (a complaint I've heard about the other two), but I didn't really understand the storylines themselves, particularly the Rosemont one. The Boy King one was fairly understandable. He has this tarot deck, is being hunted for it, and has to try to function around this and his nomadic existence in general. Rosemont's story, though, I was kind of lost through much of it, and didn't really understand what was going on. A review I read suggested that there are all kinds of clues in the story, and that it's amazing if you just pay enough attention to pick up on them, but I'm not convinced. I found it somewhat like a dream, in that things happen, and they're presented as being largely unremarkable, but really, you've just instantly transitioned from one scenario to another with no conceivable logic.
And what made all this even worse for me is that I found the payoff kind of... wasn't really. The Eight and Labyrinth, and even The Da Vinci Code, for heaven's sake, you get to ultimately understand why the various people are after the item in question; what its secret or power or whatever is. In this one, I pretty much didn't. I was told that this deck was very important, and that it could have catastrophic consequences if it fell into the wrong hands, but it was never really explained why. What would happen if it did? What might someone do with these cards if they got a hold of them? And why are the main people who are after them still alive, when they were born in the same era as the tarot deck, in the 1500s or whenever? I felt like I was just supposed to accept that they were, but I don't recall any explanation of it.
And all the theories floating around as to the origin of tarot. If you're going to get into that sort of discussion, maybe present a conclusion by the end of your book? Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but at least, in the universe you've created, whatever theory you choose to make "true" will be reality, and maybe might help to reveal some of the oh-so-important mysteries and power of the deck in question. Instead, it was just there, with no answers, making various people's lives difficult.
The ultimate revelation about how Boy King, Rosemont and Miles are connected is kind of interesting, and I think if the book had been presented with those relationships as the main focus of the story, it might have worked better, because it kind of was. That revelation was kind of the closest thing to a climax or resolution this book had, so I think maybe more focus on that (both in the blurb and in the book) might have held the book together a bit better for me. As it was, I found it somewhat disjointed and unclear, and without any real closure to make me feel like reading the book was worthwhile.
As Rosemont delves deeper and deeper into the tarot's unsettling secret origins, his own fate is inexorably intertwined with that of the Boy King, a homeless man with an unspeakable gift... and a mysterious past of his own. For these two men - and the demons, dupes, and power seekers drawn to them - the cards will reveal everything, even the shattering, unseen truths of human life itself...
In short, I frankly did not care for this book. Based on its blurb, I was hoping for kind of a The Eight or Labyrinth kind of story, but it really wasn't. Similar in some ways, but I didn't really find it as cohesive or coherent. I didn't have any trouble orienting myself within the two different storylines or anything (a complaint I've heard about the other two), but I didn't really understand the storylines themselves, particularly the Rosemont one. The Boy King one was fairly understandable. He has this tarot deck, is being hunted for it, and has to try to function around this and his nomadic existence in general. Rosemont's story, though, I was kind of lost through much of it, and didn't really understand what was going on. A review I read suggested that there are all kinds of clues in the story, and that it's amazing if you just pay enough attention to pick up on them, but I'm not convinced. I found it somewhat like a dream, in that things happen, and they're presented as being largely unremarkable, but really, you've just instantly transitioned from one scenario to another with no conceivable logic.
And what made all this even worse for me is that I found the payoff kind of... wasn't really. The Eight and Labyrinth, and even The Da Vinci Code, for heaven's sake, you get to ultimately understand why the various people are after the item in question; what its secret or power or whatever is. In this one, I pretty much didn't. I was told that this deck was very important, and that it could have catastrophic consequences if it fell into the wrong hands, but it was never really explained why. What would happen if it did? What might someone do with these cards if they got a hold of them? And why are the main people who are after them still alive, when they were born in the same era as the tarot deck, in the 1500s or whenever? I felt like I was just supposed to accept that they were, but I don't recall any explanation of it.
And all the theories floating around as to the origin of tarot. If you're going to get into that sort of discussion, maybe present a conclusion by the end of your book? Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but at least, in the universe you've created, whatever theory you choose to make "true" will be reality, and maybe might help to reveal some of the oh-so-important mysteries and power of the deck in question. Instead, it was just there, with no answers, making various people's lives difficult.
The ultimate revelation about how Boy King, Rosemont and Miles are connected is kind of interesting, and I think if the book had been presented with those relationships as the main focus of the story, it might have worked better, because it kind of was. That revelation was kind of the closest thing to a climax or resolution this book had, so I think maybe more focus on that (both in the blurb and in the book) might have held the book together a bit better for me. As it was, I found it somewhat disjointed and unclear, and without any real closure to make me feel like reading the book was worthwhile.