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atgerstner's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
This was 3 books that only barely link up but the writing was great and each focus was engrossing. I’m still not fully sure I understand how it was all connected.
samarov's review against another edition
reviewed in the Chicago Tribune
Martin Seay's The Mirror Thief, begins as a detective novel and ends as an existential cry into the ether. Set in Venice, Italy, Venice Beach, California, and a replica of Venice in the casinos of Las Vegas, the book nimbly hopscotches across five centuries to tell its tale of intrigue. Seay's story is set in cities which are replicas of one another, which allows him to draw parallels and make plot points reverberate between narrative threads which might otherwise seem completely unrelated. His collection of card-counters, alchemists, soldiers, innkeepers, and spies all run around various renditions of the same canals, bridges, and piazzas, all trying to solve the same mystery.
Martin Seay's The Mirror Thief, begins as a detective novel and ends as an existential cry into the ether. Set in Venice, Italy, Venice Beach, California, and a replica of Venice in the casinos of Las Vegas, the book nimbly hopscotches across five centuries to tell its tale of intrigue. Seay's story is set in cities which are replicas of one another, which allows him to draw parallels and make plot points reverberate between narrative threads which might otherwise seem completely unrelated. His collection of card-counters, alchemists, soldiers, innkeepers, and spies all run around various renditions of the same canals, bridges, and piazzas, all trying to solve the same mystery.
The action starts in Vegas in 2003, in the shadow of the looming Iraq War, where a recently retired vet named Curtis Stone has been sent to track down an old gambler named Stanley Glass, who has allegedly skipped out on a marker back east in Atlantic City. From the beginning, Stone suspects that he is being played for a fool and everyone he meets as he searches for the old man only heightens his suspicions. Las Vegas is a city built on selling and perpetuating illusion. People go there to pretend or to disappear. As Veronica, a colleague and co-conspirator of Glass's tells him, “I hate this place, Curtis, she tells him. I hate the good things most of all. I hate that I like it sometimes. It's such a relief to outsource your thoughts and feelings. You don't have to worry about making an original gesture because original gestures are impossible. You just stick to the script. It's like senior prom with gambling and shopping.”
But original gestures is just what they all want to make. Whether simple criminals or tormented philosophers, no one in this story is content with their lot in life and flails mightily to transcend their proscribed fate. When we meet Glass as a teenager in Venice Beach in 1958, he's a grifter and small-time hood, but he has traveled all the way from his childhood home in Brooklyn, not in order to make his fortune but to track down the author of a book. The book within this book is also called The Mirror Thief but is not written by Seay, but rather by an unknown poet named Adrien Welles. In his quest to locate this Welles, Glass is momentarily diverted on to the trail of Orson Welles, then in the midst of filming Touch of Evil on the Universal Studios lot. This Welles, of course, was also known to dabble in magic and the occult, so the diversion is not entirely a red herring. In this and countless other instances, Seay seemingly sends the reader on the wrong track only to tease him with some sliver of significance, which, whether it will help solve the overarching puzzle or not, still lingers in the mind.
The theme of mirrors and what they reveal and obscure is an obviously rich one for any writer. The act of writing, and art in general, is a kind of mirroring in itself. It can never contain the entire world but can occasionally give a glimpse of what is truly there. Whether searching for the face of God or just the ultimate con, everyone in The Mirror Thief is striving to see beyond the glass to some deeper place where their questions will be answered. War, betrayal, and treason makes each of their individual quests perilous and elusive. Their restlessness and dissatisfaction with things as they are is perhaps Seay's wisest insight. Even if deluded and likely in vain, to try to reflect life around you clearly is to find your place in the world.
This book could have easily sunk under the weight of literary references, unlikely coincidences, and portentous metaphor, but by couching the narrative in the structures of genre fiction, Seay is able to maintain the pace of his storytelling, thus giving the reader no chance to get bored or confused. Not every one of the thousands of glints he casts through this funhouse glass of a novel finds its sibling on the other side but as anyone who truly enjoys a mystery knows, solving the puzzle is hardly ever the point.
mmseitz822's review against another edition
2.0
Maybe I'm just not smart enough to understand this book, but I really just didn't get it. I kept waiting for the three stories to come together and to understand what the hell was going on and make sense of it but I finished the book without ever having that aha moment.
ryan_oneil's review against another edition
2.0
The story follows three characters in three time periods. They supposedly eventually connect somehow. However, I lost interest in their plights before that happened. I made it more than halfway through the book and realized I didn't care about anything that was happening to anyone. In more than 300 pages, frustratingly little happens. I would be okay with that if I liked the characters but I didn't. Of the three main characters, I felt "meh" about one, disliked one, and hated the third.
The writing was full of detail to its detriment. The author does this thing where he doesn't use quotation marks to mark something that is spoken, which just annoyed me since it made the book harder to read.
The writing was full of detail to its detriment. The author does this thing where he doesn't use quotation marks to mark something that is spoken, which just annoyed me since it made the book harder to read.
spinstah's review against another edition
3.0
This weaves together three stories, all very absorbing, so much so that it was a bit jarring moving from one to the next. I also found this a little hard to get into, and hard to stay into. Possibly something to re-read, as the overall plot was hard to follow - one member of my book club indicated that the Curtis story hits the high point sod what's going on overall.
Review slightly edited and expanded after book club.
Review slightly edited and expanded after book club.
carolpk's review against another edition
Outstanding Debut!
My sincere thanks are extended to Melville House and Edelweiss for the opportunity to read The Mirror Thief in e-galley format, due to be published May 10, 2016.
The Mirror Thief is quite an ambitious debut. Seay is clearly a new voice to watch. A little intrigue, a little magic, mixed in with history and a mystery, The Mirror Thief takes us on a captivating quest across place and time to find a gambling con artist. Fascinating characters, expertly imagined and thoroughly engaging, be prepared to hold on for a genre bending, literary ride.
My sincere thanks are extended to Melville House and Edelweiss for the opportunity to read The Mirror Thief in e-galley format, due to be published May 10, 2016.
The Mirror Thief is quite an ambitious debut. Seay is clearly a new voice to watch. A little intrigue, a little magic, mixed in with history and a mystery, The Mirror Thief takes us on a captivating quest across place and time to find a gambling con artist. Fascinating characters, expertly imagined and thoroughly engaging, be prepared to hold on for a genre bending, literary ride.
wanderlustqueen's review against another edition
4.0
A little weird, and slightly confusing at times (in that it's pretty much three separate stories for the majority of the book), but still very good and well written.
kategci's review against another edition
5.0
This is a wonderful, complex debut novel. The story takes place in 3 different time periods in 3 different Venices. This was not an easy, breezy read, but the payoff at the end was so worth it. Martin Seay writes beautiful sentences. This is a book full of flowery prose and without quotation marks, but throughout, I always knew who was speaking. I so enjoyed this long literary story!
bookherd's review against another edition
4.0
Three parallel stories happening in 2003, 1958, and 1592, all in places named Venice.
In 2003, an ex-military policeman named Curtis is sent out to Las Vegas (to stay at the Venetian) by an ex-military friend to find Stanley Glass, an old gambling friend of his father's, who supposedly has a gambling debt coming due.
In 1958, a 15 year old juvenile delinquent calling himself Stanley Glass hitch hikes and bums his way from Brooklyn, NY to Venice Beach, CA to find the author of a mysterious and poetic book called The Mirror Thief, whose main character is a 16th century alchemist and doctor named Crivano.
In 1592, Vettor Crivano is in Venice, Italy plotting to smuggle glassmakers and mirror makers out of the city to take them to Constantinople to work for the Turks, treason punishable by death. Originally from Cyprus, he was captured in battle by Turks when he was a young man and taken away to become a janissary. He has been sent back on this mission to bring back glassmakers under the pretext of escaping from Constantinople with the remains of a Cypriot war hero who was known to have been skinned alive by the Turks.
The three stories are obviously connected, and it is part of the fun of this book to try to figure out what the connections are and what they mean. Each story is fully fleshed and engaging on its own. I'm still meditating on the sum of the parts, but this was a very enjoyable book.
In 2003, an ex-military policeman named Curtis is sent out to Las Vegas (to stay at the Venetian) by an ex-military friend to find Stanley Glass, an old gambling friend of his father's, who supposedly has a gambling debt coming due.
In 1958, a 15 year old juvenile delinquent calling himself Stanley Glass hitch hikes and bums his way from Brooklyn, NY to Venice Beach, CA to find the author of a mysterious and poetic book called The Mirror Thief, whose main character is a 16th century alchemist and doctor named Crivano.
In 1592, Vettor Crivano is in Venice, Italy plotting to smuggle glassmakers and mirror makers out of the city to take them to Constantinople to work for the Turks, treason punishable by death. Originally from Cyprus, he was captured in battle by Turks when he was a young man and taken away to become a janissary. He has been sent back on this mission to bring back glassmakers under the pretext of escaping from Constantinople with the remains of a Cypriot war hero who was known to have been skinned alive by the Turks.
The three stories are obviously connected, and it is part of the fun of this book to try to figure out what the connections are and what they mean. Each story is fully fleshed and engaging on its own. I'm still meditating on the sum of the parts, but this was a very enjoyable book.
jascolib's review against another edition
2.0
Could not finish this book. The story didnt engage me and I found it a chore to read.