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The Mirror Thief
The core story is set in Venice in the sixteenth century, when the famed makers of Venetian glass were perfecting one of the old world's most wondrous inventions: the mirror. An object of glittering yet fearful fascination—was it reflecting simple reality, or something more spiritually revealing?—the Venetian mirrors were state of the art technology and subject to industrial espionage by desirous sultans and royals world-wide. But for any of the development team to leave the island was a crime punishable by death.
One man, however—a world-weary war hero with nothing to lose—has a scheme he thinks will allow him to outwit the city's terrifying enforcers of the edict, the ominous Council of Ten. Meanwhile, in two other Venices—Venice Beach, California, circa 1958, and the Venice casino in Las Vegas, circa today—two other schemers launch similarly dangerous plans to get away with a secret.
One man, however—a world-weary war hero with nothing to lose—has a scheme he thinks will allow him to outwit the city's terrifying enforcers of the edict, the ominous Council of Ten. Meanwhile, in two other Venices—Venice Beach, California, circa 1958, and the Venice casino in Las Vegas, circa today—two other schemers launch similarly dangerous plans to get away with a secret.
582 pages, Hardcover
First published May 10, 2016
About the author
Martin Seay
5 books102 followersMartin Seay is the author of the novel THE MIRROR THIEF, published by Melville House in May 2016. Originally from Texas, he lives in Chicago with his spouse, the writer Kathleen Rooney.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 414 reviews
July 10, 2018
…we sometimes find that our most momentous decisions are unseen by us as we make them. We perceive only a confusion of paltry choices, like the tesserae of a mosaic. Only with distance do prevailing images become clear.
in which the novel teasingly moons you with its own mission statement.
this is a great big enjoyable monster of a book.
before we start, i need to say that the ONLY reason i gave it four stars instead of five is because this is a book divided into three alternating narratives and while i loved curtis' and stanley's portions of the book, i struggled a bit with the crivano segments. maybe it was the time period or the less-theoretical descriptions of alchemical/philosophical/optical stuff, but i found myself too often during his segments doing that thing where your eyes are moving over the words but your brain isn't absorbing the story and you have to go back a bunch of times to try and make it stick. the other two sections were an absolute delight to read, but i feel like i didn't get as much out of the crivano parts as i should have. and since the three stories are connected and balanced upon one another, i'm sure there were subtleties i missed because of this, and that is certainly regrettable, but life is full of horrible failures and most of them are mine.
i also want to take a second to review the blurbs, because i think it was a great idea to cover the whole ARC with indie booksellers' responses to this book, because booksellers will SELL YOUR BOOK.
especially the great anmiryam budner, who has this to say:
the other bookseller blurbs cite so many big-name comparisons that greg was scoffing at them a bit, which i get because i am also suspicious when SO MANY names are being thrown around; it usually sets up both very high and very contradictory expectations. however, having read the book, i can vouch that they are pretty solid touchpoints, and much better comps than most of the ones that come from publishers. i mean, not one of them mentioned Gone Girl. *
their collective list includes:
eco, david mitchell, nabokov, pynchon, stephenson, hemingway, palahniuk, delillo, The Da Vinci Code, rebel without a cause, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values…
for once, despite my inherent readers' advisory sniffiness, i'm not affronted by that parade of comparisons. it's not like most of those authors are so wildly dissimilar, after all - you can see the overlap and the point at which mitchell, delillo, pynchon, eco, and stephenson meet, stylistically and thematically, nabokov's there out of respect, palahniuk shared a social commentary cab with delillo, The Da Vinci Code is eco's +1 and is a distant cousin to this one; you can see the similarities in their bone structure if you squint, and as for the other two - well, here's the whole blurb that mentions them, which is a perfect blurb qua blurb but is also perfect because it expresses exactly what you'd want from the source:
as for hemingway… i'm not actually sure why hemingway is here. i think he just heard there would be booze.
because, and now i will actually talk about the book - there isn't anything concise or minimalist about this book - it's big and chewy and meaty and it's this throwback doorstopper of a book that feels contemporaneous to, although not necessarily similar to Underworld or Infinite Jest or some of robert coover's big old books. it's epic in that it covers swaths of time and ground but it's also sort of an inward-facing epic, whose preoccupation is ultimately focused on human rather than historical analogues, and it goes down and down and down into matters of self and identity using objects like books and mirrors as physical stand-ins for these abstractions where everything is shifting; cities built either on sand or water, and you either adapt to these changes as adroitly as stanley the con man, or you risk losing yourself or your sanity or your purpose or something equally vital.
it's a big puzzle box of a book, and while i know i didn't figure out every single bit of it (damn you, crivano!!), i'm positive this is a book that is even more exciting on the second go-round, when you have a nice fatty layer of knowledge to cushion you and you know where its secrets live. **
some of the echoes are gigantic and obvious to the extent that i rolled my eyes at first and thought oh, jeez:
-crivano's story takes place in 16th century venice, italy.
-stanley's story takes place in venice beach, ca in the beatnik fifties.
-curtis' story takes place in the venice casino in vegas in the 21st century.
-venice is the birthplace of wondrous glass and mirrorworks.
-stanley's last name (although pseudonymous) is glass. (which has its own inescapable salingerian associations)
-curtis has a very intimate connection to an object made of glass.
curtis is physically tracking stanley in the "present" while stanley is, in the 50's, spiritually tracking crivano by reading and rereading adrian welles's book The Mirror Thief, which is the name of the book you yourself are reading and all. lines. blur.
but all those big clumsy-feeling echoes are just there to mark the territory, like grecian columns in the vegas desert. they just remind the reader to stay vigilant because here be callbacks, the existence of which any postmodern kid who reads the word "mirror" is already hip to, but still - it's always good to remember that a reader is part of the process of storytelling, and frequently an easy mark in a long(ish), amicable con.
it's also got some of the best writing about las vegas this side of The Goldfinch:
for a debut, even a debut that took more than ten years to get here***, his writing is crisp and clear, it's incredibly propulsive, it's full of little nuggets and peeps into unrelated worlds - beat poetry, professional gambling, street life, military and police tactics, con artists, 16th century venice, conspiracies, while wrapping them all in these larger and more familiar human universalities, to the extent that one might be tempted to add richard powers to that list of NAMES, just for the facility with which he handles these very specialized and disparate knowledge-pockets.
it's a great book. i loved it enough to know i will likely read it again, and i also confess to having a little book-crush on stanley and someone needs to fanfic me some tales please.
Of course, he thinks. Of course it would happen like this.
* and this is why booksellers and librarians should always be the ones doing the readalike lists - and i am absolutely willing to be hired for this or in any other readers' advisory-type position. please hire me for things. i am smart and restless and poor.
** like, for example, when the very next book i read after this was Dodgers, and i came across the word and definition for "albedo," there was a nice rush of "ohhhhh!"
*** i thought this story was kind of interesting - you gotta scroll down to the part actually about this book, but you should also read about the other forthcoming titles at your leisure because some of them sound really good and because you like books.
come to my blog!
in which the novel teasingly moons you with its own mission statement.
this is a great big enjoyable monster of a book.
before we start, i need to say that the ONLY reason i gave it four stars instead of five is because this is a book divided into three alternating narratives and while i loved curtis' and stanley's portions of the book, i struggled a bit with the crivano segments. maybe it was the time period or the less-theoretical descriptions of alchemical/philosophical/optical stuff, but i found myself too often during his segments doing that thing where your eyes are moving over the words but your brain isn't absorbing the story and you have to go back a bunch of times to try and make it stick. the other two sections were an absolute delight to read, but i feel like i didn't get as much out of the crivano parts as i should have. and since the three stories are connected and balanced upon one another, i'm sure there were subtleties i missed because of this, and that is certainly regrettable, but life is full of horrible failures and most of them are mine.
i also want to take a second to review the blurbs, because i think it was a great idea to cover the whole ARC with indie booksellers' responses to this book, because booksellers will SELL YOUR BOOK.
especially the great anmiryam budner, who has this to say:
A genre-spanning tour de force that propels you on a quest through three cities and three moments in history, The Mirror Thief envelops you in its mysteries and conundrums, and then dazzles with its love stories, heists, and unexpected characters. Seay's debut succeeds not only as entertainment, but also as an intricate and lovely meditation on the shared nature of human creativity and experience across time. Brilliant.
the other bookseller blurbs cite so many big-name comparisons that greg was scoffing at them a bit, which i get because i am also suspicious when SO MANY names are being thrown around; it usually sets up both very high and very contradictory expectations. however, having read the book, i can vouch that they are pretty solid touchpoints, and much better comps than most of the ones that come from publishers. i mean, not one of them mentioned Gone Girl. *
their collective list includes:
eco, david mitchell, nabokov, pynchon, stephenson, hemingway, palahniuk, delillo, The Da Vinci Code, rebel without a cause, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values…
for once, despite my inherent readers' advisory sniffiness, i'm not affronted by that parade of comparisons. it's not like most of those authors are so wildly dissimilar, after all - you can see the overlap and the point at which mitchell, delillo, pynchon, eco, and stephenson meet, stylistically and thematically, nabokov's there out of respect, palahniuk shared a social commentary cab with delillo, The Da Vinci Code is eco's +1 and is a distant cousin to this one; you can see the similarities in their bone structure if you squint, and as for the other two - well, here's the whole blurb that mentions them, which is a perfect blurb qua blurb but is also perfect because it expresses exactly what you'd want from the source:
…A delicious stew of Los Angeles-type noir, Da Vinci Code mystery, Rebel Without a Cause toughness, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance mechanical spirituality.
-Steve Salardino, Skylight Books, Los Angeles, CA.
as for hemingway… i'm not actually sure why hemingway is here. i think he just heard there would be booze.
because, and now i will actually talk about the book - there isn't anything concise or minimalist about this book - it's big and chewy and meaty and it's this throwback doorstopper of a book that feels contemporaneous to, although not necessarily similar to Underworld or Infinite Jest or some of robert coover's big old books. it's epic in that it covers swaths of time and ground but it's also sort of an inward-facing epic, whose preoccupation is ultimately focused on human rather than historical analogues, and it goes down and down and down into matters of self and identity using objects like books and mirrors as physical stand-ins for these abstractions where everything is shifting; cities built either on sand or water, and you either adapt to these changes as adroitly as stanley the con man, or you risk losing yourself or your sanity or your purpose or something equally vital.
The events of the past week, he says, are perhaps best likened to an obscure codex with a broken spine, the contents of which have been scattered everywhere. All interested parties possess a few pages, but only the book's author knows the whole. Indeed, even the author himself may have forgotten.
it's a big puzzle box of a book, and while i know i didn't figure out every single bit of it (damn you, crivano!!), i'm positive this is a book that is even more exciting on the second go-round, when you have a nice fatty layer of knowledge to cushion you and you know where its secrets live. **
some of the echoes are gigantic and obvious to the extent that i rolled my eyes at first and thought oh, jeez:
-crivano's story takes place in 16th century venice, italy.
-stanley's story takes place in venice beach, ca in the beatnik fifties.
-curtis' story takes place in the venice casino in vegas in the 21st century.
-venice is the birthplace of wondrous glass and mirrorworks.
-stanley's last name (although pseudonymous) is glass. (which has its own inescapable salingerian associations)
-curtis has a very intimate connection to an object made of glass.
curtis is physically tracking stanley in the "present" while stanley is, in the 50's, spiritually tracking crivano by reading and rereading adrian welles's book The Mirror Thief, which is the name of the book you yourself are reading and all. lines. blur.
but all those big clumsy-feeling echoes are just there to mark the territory, like grecian columns in the vegas desert. they just remind the reader to stay vigilant because here be callbacks, the existence of which any postmodern kid who reads the word "mirror" is already hip to, but still - it's always good to remember that a reader is part of the process of storytelling, and frequently an easy mark in a long(ish), amicable con.
Stanley reads The Mirror Thief. It's a book of poems, but it tells a story: An alchemist and spy called Crivano steals an enchanted mirror, and is pursued by his enemies through the streets of a haunted city. Stanley long ago stopped paying the story any mind. He's come to regard it as a fillip at best, at worst as a device meant to conceal the book's true purpose, the powerful secret it contains. Nothing, he's quite certain, could be so obscure by accident
it's also got some of the best writing about las vegas this side of The Goldfinch:
The city is always changing. Always, just for the sake of doing it. And that's why it's always the same. Get it? That's its nature, its essence. Invisible. Pure. Formless. Indestructible…. Places become defined by what they lose. Once it's gone, it's eternal. Everything you see down there - everything! - is on its way out. Everything self-destructs. I mean, fuck Rome. This is the eternal city. Pure concept.
for a debut, even a debut that took more than ten years to get here***, his writing is crisp and clear, it's incredibly propulsive, it's full of little nuggets and peeps into unrelated worlds - beat poetry, professional gambling, street life, military and police tactics, con artists, 16th century venice, conspiracies, while wrapping them all in these larger and more familiar human universalities, to the extent that one might be tempted to add richard powers to that list of NAMES, just for the facility with which he handles these very specialized and disparate knowledge-pockets.
it's a great book. i loved it enough to know i will likely read it again, and i also confess to having a little book-crush on stanley and someone needs to fanfic me some tales please.
Of course, he thinks. Of course it would happen like this.
* and this is why booksellers and librarians should always be the ones doing the readalike lists - and i am absolutely willing to be hired for this or in any other readers' advisory-type position. please hire me for things. i am smart and restless and poor.
** like, for example, when the very next book i read after this was Dodgers, and i came across the word and definition for "albedo," there was a nice rush of "ohhhhh!"
*** i thought this story was kind of interesting - you gotta scroll down to the part actually about this book, but you should also read about the other forthcoming titles at your leisure because some of them sound really good and because you like books.
come to my blog!
May 1, 2022
Annoyed, Baffled, Confounded
Three Ordeals Spanning Centuries
Which Description Refers to Reading this Novel, not the Stories Therein
I would prefer a catheterization and a root canal to reading 25 pages of this ingrown toenail of a novel.
Perhaps I wasn't worldly enough to connect the dots. The novel was really well written. All 3 story strands headed in the right direction, holding my interest for the big payoff. You know, the part of the novel in which the author ties it all together to the "moment of last suspense" in the trusty old Freytag's Pyramid.
With fifty plus pages left, the three storylines resolved into nothingness.
I've asked friends to help me figure out what happened, or at least how what happened ties together from/within the 3 story strands. I've read other reviews including those which gave the book 5 stars, to seek enlightenment. To no avail. Thus, eleven months after finishing the book I'm left in Bizarro World.
While I'm not one of those readers who has to have all the puzzle pieces to be sated by literature, I get relatively pissed off when left wondering what the hell happened, after over 20 hours reading close to 600 pages.
Three Ordeals Spanning Centuries
Which Description Refers to Reading this Novel, not the Stories Therein
I would prefer a catheterization and a root canal to reading 25 pages of this ingrown toenail of a novel.
Perhaps I wasn't worldly enough to connect the dots. The novel was really well written. All 3 story strands headed in the right direction, holding my interest for the big payoff. You know, the part of the novel in which the author ties it all together to the "moment of last suspense" in the trusty old Freytag's Pyramid.
With fifty plus pages left, the three storylines resolved into nothingness.
I've asked friends to help me figure out what happened, or at least how what happened ties together from/within the 3 story strands. I've read other reviews including those which gave the book 5 stars, to seek enlightenment. To no avail. Thus, eleven months after finishing the book I'm left in Bizarro World.
While I'm not one of those readers who has to have all the puzzle pieces to be sated by literature, I get relatively pissed off when left wondering what the hell happened, after over 20 hours reading close to 600 pages.
August 29, 2015
Read it before anyone else because my spouse wrote it. But it's really really good, truly, not just because my spouse wrote it.
April 1, 2018
The blurb of this book promises us something as good as Umberto Eco and David Mitchell’s writing. In reality, I’m afraid, it’s not even Dan Brown. It’s one of those pretentious books where art, history and supposedly sophisticated prose are mixed to throw its author’s erudition and brilliance right at poor reader’s face. Where Eco, Mitchell and Cabré are just effortlessly glowing with quick-witted intelligence, Seay does his utmost to live up to (most likely) his own expectations. To hook the reader one needs a bit more than simply pour Latin words and other people’s clever thoughts all over. Dixi.
June 11, 2016
Three stars from me, although that's a bit higher than I want to rate it. But 2 stars would be too mean. I don't want this review to put others off reading this book, though, because I would really like to know what others make of it!
The reviews make mention of David Mitchell and even, on occasion, Thomas Pynchon. It is nothing like David Mitchell and even less like Thomas Pynchon. If you pick it up purely because of those comparisons, be warned.
This is a book about a book (The Mirror Thief is a book written and read by characters in the novel). It is three interwoven stories set in 3 different Venices. It sounds like it is going to be intriguing. It may just be that I am not clever enough to join the dots, but I just didn't get it and it left an awful lot unexplained. I don't mind books with loose ends - normally I rather like being able to think further on things after I close a book - but this seemed to introduce things as loose ends rather than simply leave them as loose ends! However, I think that may be the point. I think that this book might be about what is not said and not explained: there's a point in the book where the author says something about a book knowing more than its author or its reader (sort of because the book was there and the author and the reader weren't - as an example, the author might describe something being written down without stating the text that was written, but the book will know because it was there seeing the writing being done). I think perhaps the point of this book is that we can't know everything. I think perhaps the point of this book is something about reading and about books. But the way it made that point was really frustrating for me. A lot of the time, I couldn't help thinking the me of 30-40 years ago (late-teens, early twenties) would have loved this book, but the me of today (mid-fifties) didn't quite have the patience to concentrate and make sure I got it.
I think there's potentially a good book here, but, for me at least, it needs to explain the set up and the connections better to make the whole thing hang together.
The reviews make mention of David Mitchell and even, on occasion, Thomas Pynchon. It is nothing like David Mitchell and even less like Thomas Pynchon. If you pick it up purely because of those comparisons, be warned.
This is a book about a book (The Mirror Thief is a book written and read by characters in the novel). It is three interwoven stories set in 3 different Venices. It sounds like it is going to be intriguing. It may just be that I am not clever enough to join the dots, but I just didn't get it and it left an awful lot unexplained. I don't mind books with loose ends - normally I rather like being able to think further on things after I close a book - but this seemed to introduce things as loose ends rather than simply leave them as loose ends! However, I think that may be the point. I think that this book might be about what is not said and not explained: there's a point in the book where the author says something about a book knowing more than its author or its reader (sort of because the book was there and the author and the reader weren't - as an example, the author might describe something being written down without stating the text that was written, but the book will know because it was there seeing the writing being done). I think perhaps the point of this book is that we can't know everything. I think perhaps the point of this book is something about reading and about books. But the way it made that point was really frustrating for me. A lot of the time, I couldn't help thinking the me of 30-40 years ago (late-teens, early twenties) would have loved this book, but the me of today (mid-fifties) didn't quite have the patience to concentrate and make sure I got it.
I think there's potentially a good book here, but, for me at least, it needs to explain the set up and the connections better to make the whole thing hang together.
Read
May 9, 2016Outstanding 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.
May 26, 2016
I really had high hopes for this one. REALLY DISAPPOINTING. Rambling, overwritten and BORING! If the author spent half as much effort on a plot instead of filling page after page of uninteresting minutia and had an editor cut the book by half it might have been OK. Seay actually has a decent writing style, so I think maybe a future novel will be better. Slogged through half of it and couldn't take any more. I hate not finishing a book, but there are too many good books to read to waste time on this one. If I knew I would have spent the $20 bucks on a bottle of wine.
July 1, 2016
My book fairy has graced me again :) *big hugs *
---
It ain't me specifically me I'm worried about, Mister Welles. It's everything else. I just don't always feel like I belong in this world.
An intricate, enchanting, incredible feat of a story here... One of those novels that leaves you thinking over the words long after you've finished. I found myself often pausing in my reading, not because I was pushing myself to get through it but for two reasons: To think over the words and the story, and because I wanted to savor this as much as possible.
All good things must come to an end, BUT at least I can visit this again whenever I wish :).
This is a complex story, alternating between three different storylines narrated by, in turn, Curtis/Crivano/Young Stanley Glass. Each story is pulsing with atmosphere and everything feels so rich... and each one has its own secrets, twists and turns.
Stories within stories, is the simple way to put it. I never quite figured out where this all was going, hats off to Martin Seay here. He truly has a wonderful gift... a master at the craft.
This wasn't 'unputdownable' but it was compelling...
The quotes from Mirror Thief of Welles' book, had me hoping this book was real so I could track it down and read it. This 'tome' plays a big part in the story, sometimes in subtle ways.
The ending did have me scratching my head a little... it seemed abrupt but yet it still somehow fit with the flow of the story. Spending those final moments with certain characters was bittersweet, I wanted to know what happened to them all after.
I would highly recommend this story, so much I want to say about it but I would repeat myself and probably give too much of it away. I feel privileged to have come across a few phenomenal reads (this of course among them) this year.
Moments like these make me especially grateful to be a bookworm/book nerd.
Happy reading!
Only quibble I had was that there were no quotation marks when people spoke. It didn't deter my enjoyment of the story but it did take a bit to get used to it.
---
It ain't me specifically me I'm worried about, Mister Welles. It's everything else. I just don't always feel like I belong in this world.
An intricate, enchanting, incredible feat of a story here... One of those novels that leaves you thinking over the words long after you've finished. I found myself often pausing in my reading, not because I was pushing myself to get through it but for two reasons: To think over the words and the story, and because I wanted to savor this as much as possible.
All good things must come to an end, BUT at least I can visit this again whenever I wish :).
This is a complex story, alternating between three different storylines narrated by, in turn, Curtis/Crivano/Young Stanley Glass. Each story is pulsing with atmosphere and everything feels so rich... and each one has its own secrets, twists and turns.
Stories within stories, is the simple way to put it. I never quite figured out where this all was going, hats off to Martin Seay here. He truly has a wonderful gift... a master at the craft.
This wasn't 'unputdownable' but it was compelling...
The quotes from Mirror Thief of Welles' book, had me hoping this book was real so I could track it down and read it. This 'tome' plays a big part in the story, sometimes in subtle ways.
The ending did have me scratching my head a little... it seemed abrupt but yet it still somehow fit with the flow of the story. Spending those final moments with certain characters was bittersweet, I wanted to know what happened to them all after.
I would highly recommend this story, so much I want to say about it but I would repeat myself and probably give too much of it away. I feel privileged to have come across a few phenomenal reads (this of course among them) this year.
Moments like these make me especially grateful to be a bookworm/book nerd.
Happy reading!
Only quibble I had was that there were no quotation marks when people spoke. It didn't deter my enjoyment of the story but it did take a bit to get used to it.
May 2, 2016
I have an Advance Reader Copy of The Mirror Thief by Martin Seay, due to be released in a week or two by Melville House. I read the entire thing yesterday, a feat of a certain sort since it clocks in at just under 600 pages. Melville House is quoting lots of indie booksellers & reviewers giving high praise to this one so I was anticipating a lot, I think. This is Seay's first novel &, as that, it is quite impressive. However, some of the descriptions are comparing it to David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas & I found that to be misleading (& a bit disappointing as I absolutely love Cloud Atlas).
The Mirror Thief has three interwoven stories over multiple time periods & places (late 1500s Venice, Italy; 1950s Venice Beach, CA; present day Las Vegas, NV, w/ the "place connection" being The Venetian Hotel there). It's a bit of a mix of thriller, historical fiction, alchemy/magic, & philosophy. It was enjoyable enough & obviously kept me interested enough (otherwise I wouldn't have read 588 pages of it in one day), but it could have been more tightly told & edited, imo. I guess I was hoping for something deeper w/ more connections (a la Cloud Atlas), but I found it to be a lighter than that. For me, this is something akin to beach reading perhaps. A decent way to spend my reading day, though.
Recommended. And, I would look forward to future books from Seay.
The Mirror Thief has three interwoven stories over multiple time periods & places (late 1500s Venice, Italy; 1950s Venice Beach, CA; present day Las Vegas, NV, w/ the "place connection" being The Venetian Hotel there). It's a bit of a mix of thriller, historical fiction, alchemy/magic, & philosophy. It was enjoyable enough & obviously kept me interested enough (otherwise I wouldn't have read 588 pages of it in one day), but it could have been more tightly told & edited, imo. I guess I was hoping for something deeper w/ more connections (a la Cloud Atlas), but I found it to be a lighter than that. For me, this is something akin to beach reading perhaps. A decent way to spend my reading day, though.
Recommended. And, I would look forward to future books from Seay.
December 21, 2015
This is an incredible book - both thrilling and intelligent - I get a headache thinking about how much research Martin must have done to bring these three eras alive (the book follows characters in three distinct periods). I don't want to spoil too much, as I think part of the surprise is uncovering the mystery of the book itself, BUT I will say this - what really stood out to me, even beyond the surreal mysticism and beautiful writing, was Martin's deft examination of trauma and how it shapes and reshapes existence - it's trauma on a small, human scale, but also on the geographic scale - it's like history itself is damaged. These characters are all seeking a realignment, and their struggle is captivating and well worth following in this ambitious book!
Read
May 11, 2016Fans of David Mitchell will enjoy this enormous, epic novel of interwoven stories transcending time and space. Set in three different Venices – Italy, Los Angeles, and Los Angeles – and involving mirror makers, espionage, ominous councils, secret plans and more, this is an utterly original story that will spin your brain in your skull.
Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: http://bookriot.com/category/all-the-...
Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: http://bookriot.com/category/all-the-...
August 31, 2016
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
So yes, I admit it, I went into Martin Seay's The Mirror Thief specifically searching for things I could find wrong with it, because it's been the subject this year of overhype -- a 600-page debut novel that spans across three different timeframes and genres, it's earned Seay a lot more mainstream press than most first-time novelists will ever see, where people have started comparing it regularly to the work of Thomas Pynchon -- and anytime I hear of these kinds of accolades for a debut novel, I'm immediately suspicious of the book in question, and about whether it's getting these accolades because of an overzealous marketing staff and a million-dollar promotional budget, and not because of its actual quality. But lo and behold if this didn't turn out to be a pretty great book anyway, despite all the hype; and although I can't attest to how closely it sounds like Pynchon (believe it or not I've never actually read any of his work, and I know, shame on me), it did remind me quite a bit of an author I'm a near-completist of, and one of my all-time favorite currently working writers in America, the fellow genre-bending Neal Stephenson.
Like Stephenson, Seay turns in an uber-story here, telling one giant interrelated story but through three sections that at first don't seem to have any connection -- a detective tale among con artists in Las Vegas during the Bush years, a coming-of-age story among the beat poets and juvie gangs of 1950s California, and a steampunk thriller set in 1500s Italy, in which a European alchemist is hired by the Ottoman Empire to steal away a crew of master mirror-makers from the tightly controlled monopoly of such fine craftsmen the Kingdom of Venice had over the industry at the time. And like Stephenson, the tendrils of these three threads start weaving tighter and tighter together as you make your way through the oversized book, until coming to a satisfying conclusion that finally fuses them all together (or, satisfying in my eyes, anyway, but more on that in a bit). Like Stephenson, there's a bit of an metaphysical element floating throughout the storylines, not the main point but just enough otherworldliness so that you can't quite call this simple literary fiction; and like Stephenson, the novel is a great example of big concepts being bandied about through plain language, a thought-provoking yet easy-to-read epic that will have you finished with the whole thing faster than you thought it would take.
In fact, there's really one major criticism to be made about the book; that a lot of people (judging by the reviews I've read from others) seem to miss the point Seay is trying to make at the end, and who complain that the three different story threads don't come together enough in the climax to make for a satisfying read. And it's true -- despite the comparison, Seay simply doesn't bring the whole thing crashing together in the same exciting and mind-blowing way that Stephenson is known for in his own multiple-thread epics (or for that matter, Stephenson's genre peer William Gibson, who became famous in the '80s precisely for his ability to juggle multiple storylines into one massive satisfying whole by the end). But that's not Seay's goal in the first place, so it's unfair to criticize him for failing to do something he never planned on doing to begin with; instead his goal is more along the lines of Battlestar Galactica's concept of "all of this has happened before and it will all eventually happen again," a more delicate type of thread-tying that's more about noticing and appreciating the subtle similarities between each storyline, the manner in which they each echo and reflect the others in intriguing ways, and less about tying them all together into one giant uber-climax that informs all three parts in equal ways all at once. In all it makes for a really engaging and enjoyable reading experience, an impressively self-assured debut that makes it easy to see why it's been generating so much buzz, and it comes strongly recommended to a general audience precisely because of this.
Out of 10: 9.2
So yes, I admit it, I went into Martin Seay's The Mirror Thief specifically searching for things I could find wrong with it, because it's been the subject this year of overhype -- a 600-page debut novel that spans across three different timeframes and genres, it's earned Seay a lot more mainstream press than most first-time novelists will ever see, where people have started comparing it regularly to the work of Thomas Pynchon -- and anytime I hear of these kinds of accolades for a debut novel, I'm immediately suspicious of the book in question, and about whether it's getting these accolades because of an overzealous marketing staff and a million-dollar promotional budget, and not because of its actual quality. But lo and behold if this didn't turn out to be a pretty great book anyway, despite all the hype; and although I can't attest to how closely it sounds like Pynchon (believe it or not I've never actually read any of his work, and I know, shame on me), it did remind me quite a bit of an author I'm a near-completist of, and one of my all-time favorite currently working writers in America, the fellow genre-bending Neal Stephenson.
Like Stephenson, Seay turns in an uber-story here, telling one giant interrelated story but through three sections that at first don't seem to have any connection -- a detective tale among con artists in Las Vegas during the Bush years, a coming-of-age story among the beat poets and juvie gangs of 1950s California, and a steampunk thriller set in 1500s Italy, in which a European alchemist is hired by the Ottoman Empire to steal away a crew of master mirror-makers from the tightly controlled monopoly of such fine craftsmen the Kingdom of Venice had over the industry at the time. And like Stephenson, the tendrils of these three threads start weaving tighter and tighter together as you make your way through the oversized book, until coming to a satisfying conclusion that finally fuses them all together (or, satisfying in my eyes, anyway, but more on that in a bit). Like Stephenson, there's a bit of an metaphysical element floating throughout the storylines, not the main point but just enough otherworldliness so that you can't quite call this simple literary fiction; and like Stephenson, the novel is a great example of big concepts being bandied about through plain language, a thought-provoking yet easy-to-read epic that will have you finished with the whole thing faster than you thought it would take.
In fact, there's really one major criticism to be made about the book; that a lot of people (judging by the reviews I've read from others) seem to miss the point Seay is trying to make at the end, and who complain that the three different story threads don't come together enough in the climax to make for a satisfying read. And it's true -- despite the comparison, Seay simply doesn't bring the whole thing crashing together in the same exciting and mind-blowing way that Stephenson is known for in his own multiple-thread epics (or for that matter, Stephenson's genre peer William Gibson, who became famous in the '80s precisely for his ability to juggle multiple storylines into one massive satisfying whole by the end). But that's not Seay's goal in the first place, so it's unfair to criticize him for failing to do something he never planned on doing to begin with; instead his goal is more along the lines of Battlestar Galactica's concept of "all of this has happened before and it will all eventually happen again," a more delicate type of thread-tying that's more about noticing and appreciating the subtle similarities between each storyline, the manner in which they each echo and reflect the others in intriguing ways, and less about tying them all together into one giant uber-climax that informs all three parts in equal ways all at once. In all it makes for a really engaging and enjoyable reading experience, an impressively self-assured debut that makes it easy to see why it's been generating so much buzz, and it comes strongly recommended to a general audience precisely because of this.
Out of 10: 9.2
March 28, 2016
The comparisons to Pynchon, Nabokov, Eco and David Mitchell are not only unwarranted, but not even apt . When I became convinced I was reading YA (about 200 pages in) I shelved it. I love big novels, but this is insubstantial bloat.
July 17, 2016
Very annoying pretentious habit of omitting quotation marks around dialogue, forcing the reader to stop at multiple spots to suss out if it's the narrator speaking or the character, or if the character is thinking or talking. Or which character is talking.
Very annoying pretentious habit of coining compound words. To wit: "artform," "creampuff," "lakebed," "cardcounters," "waterfountain," "groundsquirrels." Etc. Etc.
Excruciating amount of minutiae dealing with setting. Descriptions ad infinitum of costs of meals, every bite of food the character takes, and what he did for the next 20 minutes after the meal. Descriptions of every sight the character sees on route to a destination. Viz: "...into the Desert Passage mall, zigzagging between shoppers, catching details from the blur of ornaments and signs: tunnel vaults, porticos, jeweled mosaics, screens and lattices, eight-pointed stars. Hookah Gallery, Pashmina by Tina, Napoleon Fine Fashions, Lucky Eye Design. " Every step the character takes chronicled: from parking lot, to the entrance of a hotel, through the skywalk to another hotel, through the casino to Flamingo road, into another cab. ...Etc. Why do editors refuse to do their jobs anymore?
Slogging through at page 342 now. From other reviews I've read, I know not to expect a big reveal linking the 3 plot lines very closely. I'm not entirely sure I won't skim through the second half of the book to the end....
Very annoying pretentious habit of coining compound words. To wit: "artform," "creampuff," "lakebed," "cardcounters," "waterfountain," "groundsquirrels." Etc. Etc.
Excruciating amount of minutiae dealing with setting. Descriptions ad infinitum of costs of meals, every bite of food the character takes, and what he did for the next 20 minutes after the meal. Descriptions of every sight the character sees on route to a destination. Viz: "...into the Desert Passage mall, zigzagging between shoppers, catching details from the blur of ornaments and signs: tunnel vaults, porticos, jeweled mosaics, screens and lattices, eight-pointed stars. Hookah Gallery, Pashmina by Tina, Napoleon Fine Fashions, Lucky Eye Design. " Every step the character takes chronicled: from parking lot, to the entrance of a hotel, through the skywalk to another hotel, through the casino to Flamingo road, into another cab. ...Etc. Why do editors refuse to do their jobs anymore?
Slogging through at page 342 now. From other reviews I've read, I know not to expect a big reveal linking the 3 plot lines very closely. I'm not entirely sure I won't skim through the second half of the book to the end....
February 10, 2024
Yes, I took more than 6 months to read this book. It was not because I didn't like it. It was too rich for me to digest in a short sitting. I easily got lost in this book (not in a bad way). I was involved in the multiple stories this book relates. The language! Rich, foreign, new! My kind of book. Thank you, Martin Seay!
May 25, 2016
I have read real junk books that I have rated a 1*. This is not that bad, but I am wondering if I got a copy of a different book from everyone else who has been raving about this?? It was pretty, pretty bad to put it mildly. First of all the book summaries begins by telling us a bit about the glass and mirror trade in Venice and secrets and mysteries that are happening there in the late 1500's. Then it says there are two other parallel stories that are set in the Venice Beach and at the Venetian hotel. Venice Beach in the 1950's and the Venetian in 2003. So, what do you assume the book begins with - THE VENICE OF 1500's?? Nope - we start at the Venetian then switch to Venice Beach and finally by page 165 we make it to Venice, Italy. By that time I am exhausted from a book that wanders aimlessly, with characters that have absolutely no depth and which I could care less about each and every page.
The book becomes work and a book is supposed to be pleasurable. I got to the point where I did not care about the stories, the characters, mirrors or anything else in this book. Some say it is a great mystery and keeps you up all night in a page-turning frenzy. I found it to be the cure for insomnia!
Once again, a Best Book recommendation from Amazon that has fallen flat. Just do not understand the ratings and reviews for this book. But, once again, the good news is that I got it from our local library and did not have to spend a penny on a lousy book!
The book becomes work and a book is supposed to be pleasurable. I got to the point where I did not care about the stories, the characters, mirrors or anything else in this book. Some say it is a great mystery and keeps you up all night in a page-turning frenzy. I found it to be the cure for insomnia!
Once again, a Best Book recommendation from Amazon that has fallen flat. Just do not understand the ratings and reviews for this book. But, once again, the good news is that I got it from our local library and did not have to spend a penny on a lousy book!
May 22, 2016
This is one of the times when my having met the author helped me finish the book. I'm not sure I would have finished otherwise. At almost 600 pages, I would say that I have a firm grasp of what happened on about 200 of those pages. If I had to take a test, I would have to bs my way through it and hope for the best.
I can see why The Mirror Thief is getting a lot of praise especially for a debut novel. The writing is so descriptive I felt like I was in places I've never been before. It wasn't my most favorite book ever but I'm very happy to have met the author and read his book, if that makes any sense.
I can see why The Mirror Thief is getting a lot of praise especially for a debut novel. The writing is so descriptive I felt like I was in places I've never been before. It wasn't my most favorite book ever but I'm very happy to have met the author and read his book, if that makes any sense.
December 6, 2017
Onvan : The Mirror Thief - Nevisande : Martin Seay - ISBN : 1612195148 - ISBN13 : 9781612195148 - Dar 582 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2016
October 11, 2019
One of the most unique, educational and interesting books I’ve ever read. It is meant to be savored, not swallowed in one sitting. The overall rating it has is...a joke.
June 6, 2016
Veronica, a minor character in THE MIRROR THIEF, teaches Curtis Stone about art. She uses her background in art history to inform him that the primary goal of art was to create precise representations of reality. This often meant tracing a camera obscura image. Photography made this approach less important. Thus the modern era in art began by exploring how perception alters reality. “Now it’s all about two eyes and a brain in between.”
This conversation helps to understand Martin Seay’s novel because it focuses on how a particular book changed when read. As an art form, writing has always emphasized how characters respond to reality. “Books always know more than their authors do. Once they are in the world, they develop their own peculiar ideas."
The centerpiece of Seay’s novel is another book of the same name. Stanley Glass obsesses over it because he thinks it reveals secrets about magic. That book is set in 16th Century Venice and tells of a plot to steal the technology behind the creation of mirrors. The protagonist, Vittor Crivano, is a physician and alchemist. The book's author, Adrian Welles, uses poetry and obscure references to magic to tell Crivano's story. These seem important to Stanley and thus they drive him to cross the country to find Welles. “Mister Welles, I would really like to know just how much of your goddamn book is true.”
Seay uses many genres and three settings to tell his story. The original Venice and two recreations focus on gambling and grifting during the Renaissance, the Beat era in California and contemporary Las Vegas. In spite of its excessive length and tendency to drift into all forms of minutia, the plot is engaging. The evocations of its three settings and the use of interesting and nuanced characters make this novel a compulsive read.
Seay manages to unify these three quite different stories under one motif—mirrors. The 16th Century Venetians believed mirrors had magical powers over the souls of men. Thus they were willing to risk their lives to own them. In the 1950s, a beat poet’s bathroom mirror contains the quote, “this is the face of god you see.” This suggests that mirrors may reveal things about ourselves. In the end, Stanley realizes that the magic in Welles book may never have been there. Instead it may have been a reflection of his close reading of the book. Like modern art and mirrors, a difficult book reflects and distorts reality. “The reader, not the poet, is the alchemist.” Stanley reflects on the three-card Monty con he was running during his youth on the boardwalk in Venice Beach. He says: “At any given moment, you may be certain of the cards, but the other man—your opponent, your mark—you can never be certain of what he perceives, what he thinks, what he will do”
In the final analysis, Seay has written and intriguing, but flawed novel. He seems to embrace style at the expense of clarity. One has to struggle to understand obscure references that divert attention from the story. The narrative tends to meander for pages into obscure philosophizing. Too many loose ends in the plot remain unresolved. One is left with a strong impression of having been conned by an expert.
This conversation helps to understand Martin Seay’s novel because it focuses on how a particular book changed when read. As an art form, writing has always emphasized how characters respond to reality. “Books always know more than their authors do. Once they are in the world, they develop their own peculiar ideas."
The centerpiece of Seay’s novel is another book of the same name. Stanley Glass obsesses over it because he thinks it reveals secrets about magic. That book is set in 16th Century Venice and tells of a plot to steal the technology behind the creation of mirrors. The protagonist, Vittor Crivano, is a physician and alchemist. The book's author, Adrian Welles, uses poetry and obscure references to magic to tell Crivano's story. These seem important to Stanley and thus they drive him to cross the country to find Welles. “Mister Welles, I would really like to know just how much of your goddamn book is true.”
Seay uses many genres and three settings to tell his story. The original Venice and two recreations focus on gambling and grifting during the Renaissance, the Beat era in California and contemporary Las Vegas. In spite of its excessive length and tendency to drift into all forms of minutia, the plot is engaging. The evocations of its three settings and the use of interesting and nuanced characters make this novel a compulsive read.
Seay manages to unify these three quite different stories under one motif—mirrors. The 16th Century Venetians believed mirrors had magical powers over the souls of men. Thus they were willing to risk their lives to own them. In the 1950s, a beat poet’s bathroom mirror contains the quote, “this is the face of god you see.” This suggests that mirrors may reveal things about ourselves. In the end, Stanley realizes that the magic in Welles book may never have been there. Instead it may have been a reflection of his close reading of the book. Like modern art and mirrors, a difficult book reflects and distorts reality. “The reader, not the poet, is the alchemist.” Stanley reflects on the three-card Monty con he was running during his youth on the boardwalk in Venice Beach. He says: “At any given moment, you may be certain of the cards, but the other man—your opponent, your mark—you can never be certain of what he perceives, what he thinks, what he will do”
In the final analysis, Seay has written and intriguing, but flawed novel. He seems to embrace style at the expense of clarity. One has to struggle to understand obscure references that divert attention from the story. The narrative tends to meander for pages into obscure philosophizing. Too many loose ends in the plot remain unresolved. One is left with a strong impression of having been conned by an expert.
December 27, 2015
Fantastic. You will think about it while you sleep. You will dream about it all day long. Most days I could not wait to get back to reading it. This is a book that really consumes your thoughts, with its time bending journey, it keeps your mind spinning. Martin Seay tells this story with inexplicable greatness and resounding depth. A great debut novel. Anxious to see what more is to come. Martin Seay is in my opinion, one of the next greats.
January 22, 2023
DNF. 65%
What a mess of a book. I don’t think I have ever read a book that was more confusing.
I don’t recommend
What a mess of a book. I don’t think I have ever read a book that was more confusing.
I don’t recommend
May 13, 2016
We begin in glitzy Las Vegas, 2003, as a war weary, ex-marine tracks down a con artist gambler, who happens to be an old family friend. We then shift to Venice Beach, circa 1958, where a runaway, New York teenager is in search of a poet, that wrote a little book called The Mirror Thief. It is about an alchemist from the sixteenth century. And finally, you guessed it, we travel to Venice, in the late 1500s and follow this alchemist, as he plans to steal an enchanted mirror.
How the author weaves these stories together, is a marvel, especially for a debut. A nifty blend of thriller, historical fiction and magical realism, anchored by some exceptional prose. Smart and ambitious.
I have seen comparisons to Cloud Atlas, (high praise indeed), but I am not so sure about that, other than in a very general way but it does stand on it's own. Bravo!
How the author weaves these stories together, is a marvel, especially for a debut. A nifty blend of thriller, historical fiction and magical realism, anchored by some exceptional prose. Smart and ambitious.
I have seen comparisons to Cloud Atlas, (high praise indeed), but I am not so sure about that, other than in a very general way but it does stand on it's own. Bravo!
April 1, 2018
Man, what a book!
Something between a hard-boiled story and a kabbalistic treatise with a flavor of beatnik prose, this book is ultimately about wanting to penetrate deeper than the appearances of the world and gain control of it (by gambling, poetry or alchemy) - despite the overwhelming feeling of being at loss, of being watched, of being a part of process that you don't understand.
The author sets each scene meticulously, describing fleeting details that immediately form a scene you seem to recall vaguely from somewhere you've been and done. Although the book's long, it's not a difficult read and I found myself flicking 'pages' of my kindle reader without stopping. I've finished it, but the feeling of beautiful uneasiness lingers on.
"We sought out signals and traces with an unerring antennae of our desires. If this sounds effortless I promise that it was not. It required dedication and tremendous fortitude, because the enemy is always present within us. Desire is treacherous, it wants only to be satisfied, and thus it is always ready to accept ruinous compromises. We hoarded our dreams like pirate treasure, and like all proper treasures, they generated maps."
Something between a hard-boiled story and a kabbalistic treatise with a flavor of beatnik prose, this book is ultimately about wanting to penetrate deeper than the appearances of the world and gain control of it (by gambling, poetry or alchemy) - despite the overwhelming feeling of being at loss, of being watched, of being a part of process that you don't understand.
The author sets each scene meticulously, describing fleeting details that immediately form a scene you seem to recall vaguely from somewhere you've been and done. Although the book's long, it's not a difficult read and I found myself flicking 'pages' of my kindle reader without stopping. I've finished it, but the feeling of beautiful uneasiness lingers on.
"We sought out signals and traces with an unerring antennae of our desires. If this sounds effortless I promise that it was not. It required dedication and tremendous fortitude, because the enemy is always present within us. Desire is treacherous, it wants only to be satisfied, and thus it is always ready to accept ruinous compromises. We hoarded our dreams like pirate treasure, and like all proper treasures, they generated maps."
January 12, 2021
Intriguing. Very intriguing.
I think this is a book that would benefit from multiple reads, because the story lines are each so complex, even on their own, and the ways in which they are interwoven with each other so intricate, that I am sure I didn't even come close to picking up all that was going on. It admittedly took me a while to get into the book, in no small part because the story line that is primarily highlighted in the novel's description, the one taking place in 16th-century Venice, which is what had caught my attention and made me want to pick this up in the first place, doesn't show up until page 163.
Once I was able to read far enough to see all of the various story lines and try to piece together their points of intersection, the novel picked up considerably, and I ended up feeling like I had read something pretty magical. I'm still not really sure exactly what happened, but I can see myself coming back to this one again to try to figure it out.
I think this is a book that would benefit from multiple reads, because the story lines are each so complex, even on their own, and the ways in which they are interwoven with each other so intricate, that I am sure I didn't even come close to picking up all that was going on. It admittedly took me a while to get into the book, in no small part because the story line that is primarily highlighted in the novel's description, the one taking place in 16th-century Venice, which is what had caught my attention and made me want to pick this up in the first place, doesn't show up until page 163.
Once I was able to read far enough to see all of the various story lines and try to piece together their points of intersection, the novel picked up considerably, and I ended up feeling like I had read something pretty magical. I'm still not really sure exactly what happened, but I can see myself coming back to this one again to try to figure it out.
June 3, 2016
This book didn't quite do it for me. Set up as three separate but related stories sort of like Cloud Atlas or Arcadia, this one never tied the stories together to my satisfaction. And I struggled to stay interested in the Venice storyline, which is unfortunate since that's where the actual mirror thievery was happening. The other two settings were very engaging and entertaining and well done, so maybe my reaction here is due to plot. I finished wanting to read about Stan's abilities and outlook in more detail. I never quite got why each storyline ended when it did, or the next one started when it did; the transitions seemed to miss the opportunity to advance the plot or connect the storylines.
June 1, 2017
This book is bananas. There's three stories at once happening here, and how someone even came up with this idea as a book premise is beyond me. Took me a while to get into it, but at some point I found myself completely hooked into Stanley and Crivano. Lots about alchemy and seeing and truth and how we present ourselves to the world and how history repeats themes over.
June 17, 2016
700 pages later, I still don't understand a thing. The prose is good. Some of the pieces are engaging. But I wish that I had given up after 200 pages.
July 13, 2016
After 20 pages I decided life is to short to finish this book. It's a collection of random sentences, that go nowhere. I am moving on.
Read
August 19, 2022This novel is super complex, ambitious, and well-written.
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