Sorcerer's Apprentice: An Incredible Journey into the World of India's Godmen Kindle Edition

Shah is my new favorite travel writer. The trickster in him makes me suspicious of his veracity, but why let the truth get in the way of a good story? This is a damn good story, and, besides, now I know how the Sai Baba "manifested" those ashes he dropped in his devotee's palms. This book will dispel a lot of hogwash that gets sold as spirituality. The second profession may well have been godmen scammers. They thrive even yet, and not only in India.

I have read two other books by Tahir Shah and loved them. They were "The Caliph's House" and "A Year In Casablanca - Casablance Blues". I thought I'd give this one a try but it didn't do anything for me. In fact, I pretty much blew over the pages. It started out fairly good and some of the author's parts of life in India were very interesting. If there was a plot, it rambled on and nothing in the book really grabbed me enough to stay with it. My enthusiasm waned about a quarter of the way through.

I chose to read this book because my son has been living off and on in India for the past several years, and I am planning to visit there for the first time in the near future. The book presents the culture of "capitalistic superstition" with humor and warmth. It will make me read my guide books with a very different perspective. It presents me with a different frame of reference from which to look at this overwhelming nation.I gave Sorcerer's Apprentice the score I did because, while I enjoyed most of the book, I felt the part about Shah's sojourn at his Teacher's house in Calcutta became bogged down and tiring. Also, it ended so abruptly, although the ending didn't surprise me at all. Otherwise an entertaining and informative read during which I laughed often. If you are going to spend time in India, or if you already have, I recommend it.

Consider the other version - this version is full of typo's. It looks like an OCR from a physical piece of paper.Plus the other version is significantly less, although I don't know if it is a higher quality.

You're thinking: How could this - travelogue? memoir? - possibly interest me? How often do you see a blurb promotion for a book from Doris Lessing? Perhaps you will, as I did, give in to it from weakness; being tired of looking for the next book and needing to just be reading - something, anything! Doris Lessing has read this?? And then you're off on a journey most improbable, the excellent writting putting you completely at ease.

I had never heard of Tahir Shah until Amazon somehow recommended this book to me. For once they got it right. To call the author a 'travel writer' is more than inadequate. Reminiscent of the early 19th century picaresque novel "Hadji Baba of Isphahan" it's apparently based on the author's real and amazing adventures as he stumbles through India on a 'journey of observation.' The characters are captivating, the descriptions had me both laughing and sometimes holding my nose and I couldn't put this book down. As Tony Bourdain says, "I'm hungry for more" and fortunately there is more from this author.

Good insights into the rampant trickery on the streets of India and a tale well told. Kept me interested from beginning to end.

A brilliant traveler's tale! Told via a personal search motivated by a childhood encounter with a magician, Shah is masterful in pacing and narrative. He balances colorful details with cultural insights all while giving us a breathless journey through a fascinating world. Reading this makes you feel like something new, often bizarre and wonderful is just down the road.

Brilliant book

Fantastic story. Cross between a travel log, magic guide and novel.

Perhaps because I am an Indian, I didn't find the journey as incredible as the author claims in the title.But it was really good. Some of the things he's written are quite fascinating (even to the extent that I would not want to believe it without checking).The major plus of this book to me is that it's been done well in all departments - narration/observation/content/suspense/etc.But the major minus is that, while all these departments are well done, none is perfect. There is an "incomplete" feeling. So, I give it a 4.. I wish there were a 4.5 though.

Typical Tahir Shah. A great read. The dividing line between fact and fiction, is as always hard to define. It made me want to go visit this wonderful city of Kolkata again.

An awesome book.