Customer Reviews

Magick in the West End: Stories of the Occult

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Magick in the West End, roller coasters
the reader from biography to fable to
universal wisdom. Author Kala Trobe
careens between fact and fiction
spinning eight bedazzling tales of a
"typical" occultist's life-viewing the
world from the Tarot reader's table of
our self-titled narrator, "Kala," in the
window of the occult bookshop,
Malynowsky's, in west London.

Upon entry into her world, its grandiose faults
and everyday miracles soon evidence.
She is at times cutting, witty, selfeffacing,
immodest and hilarious as the
stories weave together into a tapestry of
familiarity that makes one believe we
have visited this very bookshop. Is this a
character she writes of, or is it a
biography? Did the event really happen
just as she describes it... does it matter?

Kala weaves metaphors into precision
instruments of art, painting in broad
strokes of emotions that we easily
recognize within ourselves. Magickally
levitating the reader's window of disbelief,
Kala's book stands as a well constructed
set of tales, which are both vernacular
and mystic. Like the Temperance card,
she straddles both realms, the emotional
and material, the mundane and the
mystifying, blending into this book a
cup of unique and marvelous new vision
for us to scry.

Kala Trobe offers another thought provoking collection of tales set in modern-day London. She serves another collection of stories which illustrate the blurring of the line between the mundane and magickal worlds; a collection of stories which the reader will, most likely, feel might have happened, or could have happened, or might yet happen if the circumstances are just right.

This collection of seven short stories is, once again, an eclectic gathering - from Sadboy Sam (is he or isn't he connected with the Highgate Vampire?) to the Kali Furies (a self-admitted "Tale of Misanthropy").

How much of this book is autobiographical and how much is purely invention is impossible to sort out and, ultimately, is unimportant. The stories are entertaining and contain some truths which are passing along. The heroine is not a perfect member of the magickal community. She has her shortcomings, some of which are self-destructive and others of which are merely non-PC. She is not all sweetness-and-light, nor is she all gloom-and-doom. She is, in short, a living, breathing member of the human race and one that most of us can, at least partially, identify with.

As soon as I got this book I knew I was going to regret it. Kala writes so well, and her stories are so believable that I hate to come to the end of her books. I enjoyed her first fiction book (The Magick Bookshop) and found this collection just as enjoyable. I can't speak about her non-fiction, although I may have to dig up a copy or two of her books in that field just out of curiosity. What I can say, without reservation, is that her fiction is among the best I have read set in the real world. You have no doubt about the possibility of meeting her characters in the street, if you haven't already.

I've said it before, and I will say it again. Buy this book and enjoy the experience.

While the prose was, indeed, well written, I felt as if the author had stopped short on the stories that made up this book. It dealt with different experiences she'd had, which was really interesting, BUT everytime I felt myself getting into it, the plot would shift directions I was left hanging. This is especially true concerning the part where a ghost from Louisiana leads her to something that has been hidden; I wanted to find out more about the ghost and the hidden object, but that didn't happen.

This book is an easy read and will engrose anyone who is facinated with the occult!!! I read at least one book per week and am nearing 40, so I have read many, many books in my lifetime. I am mostly drawn to ones concerning what the average population would call the occult. This is my favorite occult fiction book of all time.

This is a collection of short tales centred around the staff and customers of an eccentric occult bookshop in Central London. It is fiction - or so the author tells us - though it is so well written, with exquisite word play and wonderful clarity, that I somehow feel I *know* the shop and the characters she speaks of. In fact, occasionally Kala seems to need to remind herself and us that it is indeed fiction and not real, and that the occasional politically incorrect diatribe contained within the pages of 'Magick in the West End' do not reflect her 'real life' values.

I felt an immediate affinity with the Kala who presents herself in this book, and as a professional tarot reader myself, there seemed to be some common experiences and understandings as well. But I need to remind myself, this fiction, right? Oh, and who of us hasn't wanted at one time or another to hold a magical rite in the middle of the night at Highgate Cemetery? OK, don't tell me - you already have, and got the T-shirt. Ho hum.

I found this book captivating, and consumed it in a few days. The people who inhabit Malynowsky's are very real indeed, notwithstanding their wonderful eccentricities. And as for the bookshop; yes, it's fiction, but you know, I'm sure I've been there a few times.....

Magick in the West End is a book centred on the esoteric store Malynowsky's in London. Kala is the store's own Tarot reader, and she spends her days helping people, who seek her guidance in different matters, and the stories in the book all deal with Kala and her different experiences.

That might sound interesting to you, and it sure did when I saw the beautiful cover of the book and read on its back what other people had thought about it before me. It's a short book, 177 pages, which makes it a quick read. And I'm sad to say that I found that to be a great thing, because I never managed to find the book very entertaining.

Well, that's not really true. Some of the stories were quite good, for instance the once about Sam, a fellow worker at Malynowsky's who had a extremely traumatic experience at Highgate Cemetery as a child. Or for instance the story about Kala's journey to New Orleans where she spends some time with her best girlfriend.

But that's pretty much it. This will be a short review, and that's only because I don't really have a whole lot more to say about this book. It's true that all stories have some sort of occult reasoning and discussion, but since I don't practise Tarot or any of the other magickal techniques mentioned in the book I never really got very interested, and unfortunately I can only assume that people who do practice the same things Kala practices still won't necessarily find the book to be a must.

If all stories had been of the same quality as the Highgate story or the New Orleans story, then things would be different, because Kala Trobe really does know how to write well. But since none of the other stories managed to get me the least interested I still must say the book as a whole was quite disappointing. Sorry.