tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476836446638612873.post2067687800106972960..comments2024-03-29T04:10:07.098-05:00Comments on Carnegie: Magic Detective: Thurston Book ReviewCarnegiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10142955905272650610noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7476836446638612873.post-52080643708537521442011-04-25T01:20:00.312-05:002011-04-25T01:20:00.312-05:00I need to put in a disclaimer at the outset that I...I need to put in a disclaimer at the outset that I haven't yet read this book so everything I know about it is coming from people who know more on the subject than I do.<br /><br />I'm glad you've written this review because so much of what is circulating out there appears to be coming from people who have deliberately misconstrued what was written for whatever reason. Perhaps they wanted to get people other than magicians interested in it, I'm not sure.<br /><br />I wonder though whether Steinmeyer has played into this a bit himself. Apparently he said he was surprised that he had got so many Houdini fans offside with the book. I mean, part of the title is "Thurston versus Houdini and The Battles of the American Magicians" which sounds like it came straight out of Harry Potter. It would be a bit disingenuous of him to say that he didn't expect to stir the pot with that one.<br /><br />Re Thurston's character: the best biographies really are warts and all but not because it's fun to dish the dirt. It just rounds out their character a bit more and makes them more human. I can think of some very obvious exceptions to this rule though - some biographies are nothing but character assassination but this book clearly doesn't fall into that category.<br /><br />Thanks for the link and I will check it out. Now I'd better hurry up and press Post Comment before this vanishes again. This is my third attempt and sadly, it isn't getting any better for the rewrite.melbohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14032793912135092967noreply@blogger.com