Sorcerer's Apprentice

This book is a fine example of a modern travelogue. The author's talent for description and easy, readable style draw the reader in and make this a quick, engaging read.

However, I must confess that I found myself identifying much more closely with the variety of side characters and bystanders than I did with Mr. Shah. He claims that he's had a lifelong interest in illusions, which was fostered by a visiting family friend from India when he was a young boy. However, he also says that he embarked upon this journey to learn the art of the illusionist specifically to amaze and confound his friends in England, not because he seriously wants to learn the art. Over and over again throughout the book, he refers to his training as a "course," show more apparently with the assumption that at the end of a couple months training he will have mastered the art form his teacher has devoted his life to, and return to his comfortable western lifestyle with some amazing new tricks to do at cocktail parties. Even when sent out by his master on a trip around the subcontinent, with the express instructions to observe the people making a living from illusions, he chooses to spend half his time chuckling to himself about the superstitious locals, and the other half self-righteously complaining about the money-making schemes of his young traveling companion and the horrible trials of his trip (the one that particularly springs to mind is when he traveled to Hyderabad for a miracle asthma cure, bypassed the thousands of people lined up to receive the cure, broke into the house of the family giving it away, and then complained when he received the very first dose because it involved swallowing fish, and he hated fish).

So, in my opinion, read the book for the clever details about India and the lives of the people there, but try not to pay to much attention to the author. show less

An original and entertaining tavel book detailing Shah's hilarious tutelege under Calcutta's master of illusion, and his subsequent 'journey of observation' around southern India.

This is a book bursting with larger-than-life characters and lots of tantalising glimpses behind the scenes of India's tradition of conjuring and illusion.

First rate.

This book is very good. It is an extremely intriguing journey. The author really takes you there, on a magical journey across India. If you don't want to hear many of magic's secrets revealed then don't read this because he describes many "mystical" happenings in detail. Yet, strangely, this journey remains magical in many ways largely due to the great writing in this book.

Travel to see magic in India. Nonfiction. A wonderful book.

A great book, a lot of fun to read.

El protagonista de «El aprendiz de brujo» es educado en Inglaterra pero decide viajar a la India en busca de los secretos de la magia. Presentamos una novela de viajes repleta de incidencias, encuentros y aventuras. Un magnífico paisaje de la vida callejera de la India, con una síntesis fantástica de oficios medievales, picaresca organizada, lucha por la supervivencia y espiritualismo.

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Shah-Lapprenti-sorcier/5444

> L'APPRENTI SORCIER, de Tahir Shah. — Roman passionnant qui compte l'histoire vraie de la quête de l'auteur et de son initiation au monde des "saints hommes" de l'Inde, des sâdhus, des mages et des sages, tout au long d'un voyage qui l'a conduit de Calcutta à Madras, et de Bangalore à Bombay, à la recherche du monde magique, insolite et secret, qui se dissimule derrière l'Inde moderne. Vous y apprendrez, entre autres, comment boire de l'acide, manger du verre, transformer une baguette en serpent, léviter ou encore, comment un faux gourou du Sud de l'Inde abuse ses disciples en "matérialisant " des objets. Editions de Fallois - 19 euros.
—Infos Yoga, (36), show more Février/Mars 2002, (p. 37) show less