Sorcerer's Apprentice in Q&A with Tahir Shah

Apr 09, 2013 Toni rated it it was amazing

A Journey of observation. Whose journey though? The writer's the reader's the sorcerer's the apprentice's. What a book even the commas are interesting. A burn the midnight oil book. Things are not what they seem in this extraordinary narrative. It is an inveigling 'wunderbar' book.
'Tahir Shah has a genius for surreal travelling..... I do most heartily recommend this book.' That is what Doris Lessing said. It is written on the dust cover of my 1998 hard cover edition. Quote from the book. 'Feroze ...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Holly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book is a must read: a highly entertaining journey that can't be put down. I read it in about three days, staying up late at night to finish a chapter and then continuing onto the next one. If I hadn't had work to do, I would have read it in one sitting.

I don't know what the negative reviewers were expecting, but this book seems to have something for everyone: travel, humor, revelation of secrets of the trade. In a video on his YouTube channel, the author insists that the book is 100% true ...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Ita rated it it was amazing

What a Book!

It is little wonder that this, the book which tells of Tahir Shah’s time in India, learning conjuring and illusion from Hakim Feroze – a callous, sadistic, obsessed magician with unnerving occult powers – is his most popular work of travel.

Before initiating him into the secrets of Indian magic, Feroze instils in his apprentice the capacity to endure and insists he becomes a polymath. As if foreseeing the young man’s future life and work, he provides exactly the preparation needed. Th What a Book!

It is little wonder that this, the book which tells of Tahir Shah’s time in India, learning conjuring and illusion from Hakim Feroze – a callous, sadistic, obsessed magician with unnerving occult powers – is his most popular work of travel.

Before initiating him into the secrets of Indian magic, Feroze instils in his apprentice the capacity to endure and insists he becomes a polymath. As if foreseeing the young man’s future life and work, he provides exactly the preparation needed. This includes striving for perfection and an extraordinary attention to detail. Then, after his pupil has practised illusions and can perform them to his satisfaction, he prescribes a search for Insider Information and a Journey of Observation.

As we accompany him, and the mysterious twelve-year-old trickster who has decided to be his travelling companion, we visit out-of-the -way places, from a shelter for mistreated cattle, to a factory where skeleton dealers ply their trade, to Bombay’s Native General Library, the haunt of elderly Parsi gentlemen. We meet highly unusual people, from the Keralan mahout (elephant trainer) to the scientist on the Hatia express, who confides he is building a temple ship, complete with dairy farm, on a Pykrete base. Pykrete is a composite material made from wood pulp and ice. There are hilarious episodes and images that will make you laugh out loud; but there are also dark passages where Tahir comes across drought and bonded labour in Orissa, or pregnant women having ultrasound scans as a prelude to gendercide.

You begin to realise there is more than one India. There is the vibrant country which can be sensed through our famliar sense organs but, in a parallel world, there is an invisible India, one which attracts Westerners on a quest. For those searching for truth, enlightenment, themselves, or simply the bizarre, India is a country dedicated to assisting any one on a journey.

If you haven’t read this book before, I heartily recommend you download it. If you have read the hardback, please consider reading the eBook. Every chapter is a gem.
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Sep 21, 2011 Purnima rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favourites, indian, non-fiction, 2012

INCREDIBLE. INTREPID. FANTASTIC.

As you accompany Tahir Shah on his too good to believe journey, get set ready to fall head over heels for the country called India!

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