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Mistification

by Kaaron Warren (Goodreads Author)

2.74 of 5 stars 2.74 · rating details · 31 ratings · 15 reviews

Marvo is a stage magician. His magic is real.

Marvo grows up without knowing his parents, without knowing his heritage, without knowing much about life.
The magicians have always been with us, since the beginning of civilisation. They fill our heads with the mist, keeping us from witnessing the stark reality of existence. But are things so bad that Marvo will bring it down o...more

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Published June 2nd 2011 by Angry Robot (first published 2011)

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Apr 11, 2012 Isidore rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A strange, ambitious, and perplexing book. It begins strongly, with an enthralling account of the hero's grim childhood; then it becomes a grab-bag. About a hundred brief stories are related within the main story, and the relevance of the sub-stories to the primary one is not always evident (by contrast, there was scarcely a redundant line in Warren's splendid first novel, SLIGHTS). Some of the sub-stories are interesting, some are not. The main story is rather uneventful. The narrative tone thr...more A strange, ambitious, and perplexing book. It begins strongly, with an enthralling account of the hero's grim childhood; then it becomes a grab-bag. About a hundred brief stories are related within the main story, and the relevance of the sub-stories to the primary one is not always evident (by contrast, there was scarcely a redundant line in Warren's splendid first novel, SLIGHTS). Some of the sub-stories are interesting, some are not. The main story is rather uneventful. The narrative tone throughout is detached and remote. There are also scholarly footnotes, appendices, and many digressions (ranging from arcana of superstition to a lengthy description of making bouillabaise) which, frankly, add little of interest. Characterization is sparse: the main characters are not rounded personalities, and seem more like allegorical figures than real people––but if the novel is an allegory, its meaning is elusive.

Although I feel the offbeat structure and style don't work, I can still applaud the author's imagination and daring. This is definitely no potboiler, and it never becomes truly dull. But what spoils the book for me is my revulsion at its apparent "message": that society would fall apart if its members faced reality, and people therefore must be shielded from it with comforting lies; those able to perceive, disseminate, and act upon truth must be murdered or incapacitated. It's the world-view of a religious or political megalomaniac.

Marvo, Warren's main character, goes about secretly altering the lives of others through magic. He does so in accordance with what he feels is fair, or with what is required to further his mission of keeping humanity ignorant of the realities of life. He can be generous to those he likes, but he is also casually sadistic when he comes up against those he dislikes or who oppose his agenda of deception. He is both ruthless and bland, and reminds me of those Nazi bureaucrats who were nice to their friends and regarded themselves as models of rectitude even as they practiced mass deception and killed people. Did Warren really intend that the reader should find him appealing or sympathetic? Unlike SLIGHTS' anti-hero Stevie, he is not made forgivable through pathos or sardonic wit.

On the other hand, perhaps I have missed Warren's point altogether. The novel is nothing if not ambiguous, and sometimes even flippant. At times one can almost believe Marvo is meant to be seen as monstrous––almost. A frustrating and unpleasant book, but not a stupid one.(less)

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Jul 11, 2011 Jessica Bronder rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Marvo is a real magician, not the Illusionists that we commonly think of when we hear magician. He controls mist, which can hide or show reality to a person. He also has the ability to give people tricks, like the ability to always see the truth or never to hurt another person. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Marvo’s story begins with people trying to kill him and his grandmother hiding them away in a secret room is a rather large building. They live hidden in this room for four years with Marvo...more

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Jan 04, 2013 arjuna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As always, Warren's writing is captivating and compelling, even in this, something that starts out with an ostensibly fierce trajectory yet ultimately becomes a strange, aimless, wandering, shaggy-dog story crossed with a hippie's notebook. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. If I call her prose "enchanting" it'll come across as some kind of bad pun, but frankly it *is*, dammit. She has the gift of beautiful simplicity. I don't think this book goes anywhere; I don't think it's meant to... I th...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Victoria (vikz writes) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: australian-women-writers, fantasy, modern-epic-fantasy, myth-punk, unmissable-reads, weird-fiction

why am I reading this book

I am reading this as part of the Australian Women's writers challenge (http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/5...) (http://www.australianwomenwriters.com...)

Summary

A young boy grows up in a room with his grandmother, hiding from a foe who he can only hear and going on covert stealing missions. This book shows him; growing up, leaving his cage, falling in love and developing his own talents.

Themes

This book looks at the concepts of myth, story and realty. (view spoi ...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Dave Versace rated it 4 of 5 stars

“You love your tricks, Marvo. You must be careful to let people believe they ARE tricks, at all times. Let them think there is an answer, an explanation. If they think your magic is true, they will hate you. This has happened to me more than once.”

Marvo is a true magician, raised by his grandmother within the walls and attic of an old house, where they have fled from a murderous if vague civil unrest. There he teaches himself magic tricks, learns about the world watching a mute television and be...more
“You love your tricks, Marvo. You must be careful to let people believe they ARE tricks, at all times. Let them think there is an answer, an explanation. If they think your magic is true, they will hate you. This has happened to me more than once.”

Marvo is a true magician, raised by his grandmother within the walls and attic of an old house, where they have fled from a murderous if vague civil unrest. There he teaches himself magic tricks, learns about the world watching a mute television and begins his lifelong addiction to listening to the stories that people tell about themselves. Once he is old enough to go out into the world, he devotes himself to understanding the world almost exclusively through these stories - some heartbreaking and personal, some awful and transgressive, some resonant with myth. Denied the grounding of a typical family upbringing, he is particularly obsessed with birth stories, the stranger the better. He finds love, of a sort, and becomes a renowned stage magician. He begins to understand that the mist, his magical ability to alter how people see the world, conveys a great and ultimately terrible responsibility.

Mistification is a fascinating piece of storytelling about stories, from the small curiosities that people build up into important myths with themselves at the centre, to the huge lies that they spin around themselves to obscure truths they cannot bear. It’s a story obsessed with magical traditions, superstitions and mythology, as is Marvo himself.

The pace of the novel perhaps suffers from Marvo’s apparent aimlessness - much of the book is taken up with his meandering trade in stories with just about everyone he ever meets - but I felt his relentless inquisitiveness worked in the book’s favour. Marvo’s quest to understand the world through stories is his life’s work, and Warren’s primary concern is to show what Marvo has learned. She almost never lets us glimpse the world except from his odd and myopic perspective. The plot has to force its way in between the gaps in the mist and the impact of the ending is all the more stunning for it.

Mistification is a beautiful piece told in a fairytale lilt but not always accessibly so. Marvo is not overly concerned with being liked and is often more selfish and spiteful than he lets himself believe. Given the tightness of the viewpoint, it was sometimes hard to sympathise with him. But Marvo’s lesson, that the world is best understood by listening to stories, is a resonant one.(less)

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Jul 17, 2011 Nick Cato rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Warren's latest novel deals with a young magician named Marvo (a REAL magician, not one of those phoney illusionists) who harbors some amazing powers. With his parents gone, his grandmother takes care of him, and when a bunch of thugs try to kill him, she takes the boy to a secret room in a huge house where they live for four years(!). The boy spends his days listening to his grandmother's life stories of magic, and also sneaks out daily to find them food. If you can get past this whole premise...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Mieneke rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, 2011

Misitification is a book like no other. That sounds cliché, but in this case it's absolutely true. While the set up of the novel is somewhat reminiscent of some of the stories in the classic A Thousand and One Nights – it's a semi-continuous story, interlaced with short vignettes – that which is contained in the narrative and the subjects of the little vignettes is unique, at least in my reading experience.

The opening scenes of the novel reminded me somewhat of the Achterhuis. Indeed, I had this...more Misitification is a book like no other. That sounds cliché, but in this case it's absolutely true. While the set up of the novel is somewhat reminiscent of some of the stories in the classic A Thousand and One Nights – it's a semi-continuous story, interlaced with short vignettes – that which is contained in the narrative and the subjects of the little vignettes is unique, at least in my reading experience.

The opening scenes of the novel reminded me somewhat of the Achterhuis. Indeed, I had this idea that the story might be set in Nazi-occupied territories. And while Marvo and his grandmother are in hiding, we quickly discover that Marvo's world is not a Nazi-occupied one. In fact, I still couldn't tell you where exactly the book took place. However, this doesn't matter as the focus is so tightly on Marvo and his story and his world is so infused with magic, both of the true variety and that of illusions, that where we are is far less important than what, who and how we are.

One of the main plot points in the story is the relationship between Marvo and Andra, which is quite interesting and conflicted. On the one hand Andra seems to be cheating on Marvo at times, on the other hand she stays with him despite his almost callous disregard for her feelings and needs. If one takes Andra as a feminised form of andros, the Greek word for man, you could argue that Marvo's relationship with Andra is a mirror to his relationship with mankind. Going from a curious, young, and naive boy, Marvo turns into a rather bitter and weary man. As a youth he is fascinated by people, by their lives and their stories, but as a grown man, he slowly loses his passion for humanity, as he loses his passion for Andra. Her, and their, stories can't captivate him any more and he grows more and more distant and more and more introverted. In addition, where he started out relatively fearless, he ends up living in paranoid fear that he'll be killed during a performance. As a result he grows ever more elusive to the world around him.

As Marvo moves through life and he loses his innocence, he becomes more and more disillusioned and less inclined to guard the world from mass-depression through his magic of mists. The stories that fascinated him as a young man, which provided his education and a focus through which to see and understand the world, turn from illuminating the wonders of the world and mankind to shining a stark and unrelenting spotlight on Marvo's world and clearly reveal the sharp and unpleasant side of humanity to him. Still the novel ends on a hopeful note, with Marvo coming full circle and choosing a different life for his successor. One is left to imagine that this time around, life will be different for the misty magician and perhaps her life will be more balanced and happier.

Mistification is at once weirdly bizarre and utterly fascinating. It's a tale that'll make you think about the world and the way we view it, about how much our perception shapes our reality. It's a tale that won't be for everyone, but one I loved. For a less enthusiastic (and far more erudite) review see Niall a.k.a The Speculative Scotsman's review over on Strange Horizons. In any case, Mistification was my first taste of Kaaron Warren's writing and I definitely plan to check out her previous books with Angry Robot, Slights and Walking the Tree, because just one taste wasn't enough.

This book was sent to me for review by the publisher.(less)

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Jun 02, 2012 Mark Webb rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review forms part of my contribution to theAustralian Women Writers 2012 Reading Challenge. All my AWWC reviews can be foundhere.

Mistification by Kaaron Warren is an interesting book - very different from anything I've read in quite a while. It is one of those books I suspect of having hidden depths and that my meagre comprehension skills means I've missed the point of much of the story. So if you read a review which teases out a sensitive and powerful underlying message that makes a profou...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Cat rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Am about a third of the way through and really enjoying it so far. I have absolutely no idea of what will happen next.

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Feb 28, 2012 Shawn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Really wanted to like this book. I enjoyed the start and several other portions of the book. Unfortunately Warren's writing style did not mesh with my personal reading preferences. End result is that I could never really get into the book.
I however, believe that it is a unique book and idea that should be given a chance on its own merits.

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Sep 17, 2012 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excellent tale about tales and our need for them. The main character collects stories, and we are treated to them throughout the book in the form of flash fiction, poems, recipes, folk remedies, etc. Highly unusual in structure and voice, it may not be to all tastes. Those that are not off-put by the unusual nature of the book will find quite a gem. Frankly, I loved it.

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Dec 07, 2011 Thoraiya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Is it lazy to call a book about a magician...magical? Because 'Mistification' is melancholy, macabre and absolutely magical. Read it!

(Yes, I even enjoyed the paradoxes of parsley (pp228). I keep enough parsley growing in my garden to make an emergency tabbouleh at a moment's notice, only to discover that I have poisoned my life by transplanting it. If only this book had been published much sooner.)

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Oct 11, 2011 Jessica Clark rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Impressive evocation of stories related to magic and life, but prolix and hard to identify with. The main characters were kind of repellent and there didn't seem to be a big throughline. I've been reading my way through this publisher's catalog and a lot of the books suffer from a lack of deep characterization.

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Mar 19, 2012 Karen Desmond rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Maybe it's just me but I really didn't get this book. I did get half-way through and then I just skipped ahead to see if anything made sense - it didn't. Maybe it's just me.

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Apr 14, 2013 Igraine marked it as auf-gar-keinen-fall · review of another edition

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Apr 02, 2013 Frank marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: angry-robot, fantasy

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Mar 20, 2013 Penny marked it as ebooks-i-own · review of another edition

Mar 06, 2013 Emma rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: couldn-t-finish

Jan 19, 2013 Maria marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Apr 16, 2013 Frank rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jan 13, 2013 Ben marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-but-unread

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Shelves: urban-fanatsy

May 12, 2013 Hattie M added it · review of another edition

Shelves: gave-up-on, fantasy

Aug 30, 2012 Carl rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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About Kaaron Warren

I’m an Australian writer currently living in Fiji. I wanted to be a writer from a very young age, and wrote my first proper short story at 14. I also wrote a novel that year, called “Skin Deep”‘, which I really need to type up.

I started sending stories out when I was about 23, and sold my first one, “White Bed”", in 1993. Since then I’ve sold about 70 short stories, two short story collections and...more

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