Chapter headings include "The Fool", "The Magician", "The Hierophant" (a person who interprets sacred mysteries), "Adjustment", "The Tower" - cards from a Tarot pack, apparently (Crowley later explains the name-changes).
At the start in "the fool" it's 1941 in the States. Larry Zagorski is a budding SF writer. In "The Magician" a spy called Fleming meets M then Crowley - in London where "The mournful wail of the air-raid siren was giving its nightly call to prayers" (p.31). "The female pope" is almost a self-contained short story.
After the first few sections the richness of the inter-linking becomes clear - double-agents, trans-sexuality, intellectual flirting with the woman giving the first kiss, writers, Nazism. Heinlein, Crowley, Bowie, and Hess appear, amongst many others. One book in particular, by a woman writing under a male pseudonym turns out to contain premonitions (predicting Hess' flight, etc) -
| Nightmare Alley was certainly an intriguing work, an American picaresque novel viewed through the lens of the darker side of spiritualism. The writing was hard-boiled and cynical but touched with the sophistication of one who must have known enough of this world to be disillusioned by it. Using the Major Arcana as a structure looks like a gimmick at first but in the end the Tarot bestows an ominous gravity on the narrative. The novel seems to suggest that human degradation is the ultimate spiritual journey. (p.164) |
Later the CIA seems to be supporting abstract art, belief in UFOs, SF movies, etc. "If you can't change the world, build a spaceship" is a repeated belief. Scientology's taken up by some characters. One narrator, a son of Larry's ex, survives the Jonestown massacre.
Characters start believing their own lies. Disinformation and conspiracy theories abound. Is Waldheim's voice really on Voyager I's gold disc? Nothing's what it seems - "I later found out that the organist liked to improvise around a jaunty tune slowed to a funeral pace" (p.117)
"The Tower" is an essay about Zagorski - "[Swastika Night] inspired Larry to start work on what was to become The Quantum Arcana of Arnold Jabubowski (1966), a cycles of twenty-two interconnected stories structured around the trump cards in the Tarot deck. Zagorski spent longer on this novel than any other and he was never happy with it" (p.312). "Village Voice declared it a 'meta-fictional masterpiece'; The New York Times called it 'a confused and self-indulgent mess'" (p.313) "The span of his career has seen SF go from being about the probable, the possible, the impossible, the metaphysical to the ordinary, the everyday" (p.319)
Timelines clash when Hess recalls the first moon landing, and his flight to Scotland, listening to opera on the radio -
|
CAPCOM: Apollo 11, this is Houston. About three and a half minutes. You're still looking good. Your predicted cut-off is right on the nominal. ARMSTRONG: Roger. Apollo 11's GO. The completed their final manoeuvre around the earth and prepared for translunar injection. Hess turned due west, the Jutland coastline falling away below him. It was nearing twilight. PARSIFAL I hardly move, Yet far I seem to come (p.346) |
Zagorski gets the final chapter too, pulling together a few remaining loose ends.
Other reviews
- Andrew Anthony
- James Kidd
- Kirkus review (An audaciously ambitious novel that takes great creative risks and, against considerable odds, makes most of them pay dividends)
- Tony Bailie
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