Master of Deception, JohnIvan Palmer
Master of Deception, JohnIvan Palmer
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Master of Deception
A Son Searches for His Father in the House of Illusion

Author: John-Ivan Palmer

Narrator: Tom Parks

Unabridged: 7 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/11/2020


Synopsis

Master of Deception tells of a son’s search for his father amid the fabric of family, guilt, renunciation, and hidden history in the borderlands of 1950s stage show and trailer park culture.In the tradition of Geoffrey Wolf’s The Duke of Deception and Jeanette Walls’ The Glass Castle, John-Ivan Palmer’s Master of Deception takes readers on the road with his magician father and his mother, the lovely assistant, as they travel from Elks Lodges to County Fairs, performing alongside contortionists, ventriloquists, and every manner of screwball act that passed for variety entertainment before television drove us all indoors and away from one another. From dressing rooms across America, John learned to stay invisible among other acts while his parents performed, making friends with janitors, night watchmen, elevator operators, and cooks who gave him leftover tortes and parfaits. They were as exotic to him as the Master of Deception was to them. When they were in one place long enough for John to attend to school he was instructed to follow the other kids and just sit down at a desk. Before they knew who John was, his family would be gone. But even at home (in their trailer), his father remained aloof and unknowable. "Growing up confined to the back seat had allowed me to study every wave of my father’s hair, the arch of his ears, the stubble on his jaw, but nothing of what was beneath. It was only after he vanished from worldly existence that it occurred to me that whatever was beneath might be something I could know. And I would soon learn there was a reason for his silence, which in turn became a reason for mine as an invisible dressing room kid."Palmer’s depiction of his upbringing is a brilliant and atmospheric evocation of a disappeared America paired with the emotional gravity of a son’s search for who is father really is. At the center of it is the story of his unusual family, who were themselves part of a much larger and more unusual community of variety performers, most of them more at home among each other than the non-performing world. The questions of Palmer’s young life defined the path of his adult life, and, as he proceeded to find his own way in this world, he began to find unexpected answers about his father’s and what made him who he was.

About John-Ivan Palmer

John-Ivan Palmer is a widely published essayist and journalist. His writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Milwaukee Journal, Oregon Journal, Minneapolis Star, Exquisite Corpse, Wisconsin Review, New Oregon Review, Film Threat, Fortean Times, and numerous anthologies in the US, Britain, and Japan. His short fiction has been awarded a Pushcart Prize. He and his wife live in Minnesota.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Thomas on August 12, 2020

"John-Ivan Palmer never unveils the mystery behind his father but he makes his life of illusion acutely real. Master of Deception is true-life noir, written with eloquence and energy, a strange, incredible story painted in precise vivid colors, boisterous humor and sharp wit." The rest of my review c......more

Goodreads review by Judith on August 25, 2020

A sordidly astonishing memoir of life on the road with a travelling magician in the 1950s. Live vaudeville died a slow death in grandstand shows, clubs, saloons, and wherever Palmer's father could find a job. Somehow, Palmer became a fine writer, despite never graduating from any school--except firs......more