The Musical Illusionist: and Other Tales (Hotel St. George) [Paperback]

Alex Rose (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2007 | Series: Hotel St. George

In the tradition of Borges and Calvino, The Musical Illusionist is an interwoven collection of postmodern folk tales—disappearing manuscripts, neurological anomalies, teleporting bacteria, and an unforgettable composer who manipulates sound to bend perception—that masterfully blends scientific curiosity with magical-realist caprice.

Alex Rose has published stories and essays for McSweeney’s, the North American Review, The Providence Journal, the Forward, The ScienceCreative Quarterly, and DIAGRAM. He has also directed a number of short films that have appeared on HBO, MTV, Comedy Central, Showtime, and the BBC.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Filmmaker Rose ranges widely in his fiction debut, drawing in everything from non-Euclidian geometry to dyasnimagnosis (a paranoid condition in which the subject will begin to believe that the world itself is a construction, that her surroundings are false, the buildings and trees merely set pieces—The Matrix, anyone?). Thus proceeds the Borgesian enterprise Rose calls the Library of Tangents, the short tales and mini-theories being what one supposedly finds there, with the title section being one of seven Special Exhibitions. In one piece, the inhabitants of the fifth island of Japan develop a musical language akin to Morse code; other entries feature an architect who designs a city without shadows, bioluminescent bacteria that create multicolored fog, and another rare psychological condition that causes its subjects to become deaf solely to the waltzes of Chopin. Other musical musings find Christian Doppler's studies in the physics of frequency driving kinetic symphonies, in which music arises from hidden and improbable sources. Rose's matter and manner recall Lawrence Weschler's Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder, but Rose has a distinct voice and take on arcana, fictitious and otherwise. (Oct.)
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About the Author

Alex Rose has published stories and essays for McSweeney's, the North American Review, The Providence Journal, The Forward, Science-Creative Quarterly, and DIAGRAM. He has also directed a number of short films, videos, and animations, which have appeared on HBO, MTV, Comedy Central, ShowTime, and the BBC. The Musical Illusionist is his debut collection.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Akashic Books (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978910311
• ISBN-13: 978-0978910310
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #569,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Just Being in the Tradition of Borges or Calvino Doesn't Cut It, March 5, 2009

By 

D. Goehring (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Musical Illusionist: and Other Tales (Hotel St. George) (Paperback)

A gift from a friend for my birthday, I was thrilled as I flipped through the book and read its back cover. It looked like a fascinating romp through Possibility.

In short, the scholarship in the book is not scholarly enough -- as a well-read scientist I felt like the author wasn't reaching at all. He was pulling recently popularized science off the shelf, explaining it poorly and then trying to improvise on it. Only, neither was the creativity in the book creative enough. I felt like the author was constantly impressed with his own cleverness, but with only a couple exceptions there was nothing exceptional about the ideas. They were merely wrong -- not nearly inventive enough to justify the book.

Compare this work to Borges' or Calvino's -- both boldly mentioned on the back -- and its too shoddy to be placed on the same shelf.

The book's construction, layout, and ambitious use of color were all tantalizing, but none of that is sufficient to make up for poor ideas in a book about great ideas.

In brief, the book is pretty -- but also pretty expensive -- and you should read the people mentioned on the the book's back rather the author whose name is emblazoned on its front.

Instead of this, look to:

Borges: Collected Fictions or Cosmicomics. Please.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Interstitial Fiction, April 4, 2010

By 

James Black (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Musical Illusionist: and Other Tales (Hotel St. George) (Paperback)

What is The Musical Illusionist? The book itself barely resembles traditional adult fiction texts. It is interspersed with lush full-color plates bearing lively images of artwork, and photographs of relics; several pages contain mathematic graphs, musical staves, or paradigms for linguistic conjugations. Its format is part-textbook, part-tour brochure--it resembles the glossy-paged minitexts on history and culture and customs which tourists skim before traveling for the first time to a foreign nation. The latter resemblance is certainly not coincidental. Illusionist is set up as a sort of companion text that is to be read during the reader's subway ride through a secret night gallery called "The Library of Tangents." "It's said...that unlike a conventional library, it is an archive not of history, but of possibility. You've heard it described as a vast catalogue of deviations--improbable histories, oblique paths, scientific anomalies" (8-9). While admittedly intriguing, none of this, however, necessarily implies that one will ever encounter a traditional story, and it prompts questions as to whether or not fiction is more than just the creation of inert phantasms. But Illusionist, if pursued, actually contains two texts which (arguably) qualify as stories. And it is the first of the pair, "Book of Glass," which allows readers to begin an understanding of the nature of The Musical Illusionist as a whole.