Rachel Pollack: The Power of Tarot in Prose and Poetry (Postcard from Prague)

 
(Only in Prague can you find such surreal, fantastical juxtapositions. Mysterious tarot books are the least of it...)

I was surprised a couple weeks ago to open my post office box and find a sharp-looking little package from Prague. Immediately all of the rich, fantastical memories of visiting that city flooded back--from an art exhibit with a huge wicker chair to a row of neon-glowing penguins, to alcoves and cafes set into gardens and courtyards. There's a richness to the city that's inexhaustible and charged with a mischievous imagination--which my wife and I have written about--and so it's no surprise I suppose that a book titled The Tarot of Perfection by Rachel Pollack, published by Magic Realism Press, popped out of the envelope. Pollack is a supremely talented writer whose works include the novel Godmother Night, which won the World Fantasy Award. Magic Realist Press is a class act whose books and other projects are always classy and immaculately designed, giving off the same sense of the surreal and strange as the work of one of Prague's most famous citizens, the filmmaker Jan Svankmajer.

This latest tarot-inspired collection from the Arthur C. Clarke award-winning Pollack contains all of her trademarks: strong, muscular writing, great female characters, inspired retellings of folktales mixed with more psychologically three-dimensional material, and a wonderful sense of atmosphere throughout. It's one of those books you wind up giving to people as a birthday or holiday gift.

Simultaneous with receiving The Tarot of Perfection, another fine publisher, A Midsummer Night's Press sent me Fortune's Lover: A Book of Tarot Poems, also by Pollack. It's a lovely companion volume, and another beautifully designed book. The contents include poems on the Fool, the Magician, and many others. Although there is abundant imagery, these are primarily meditative poems, with a strong element of lay philosophy. (Midsummer Night's Press can also claim responsibility for such little gems as Lawrence Schimel's Fairy Tales for Writers, and I highly recommend everything they publish.)

If you're looking for unusual, gorgeous books, both The Tarot of Perfection and Fortune's Lover would serve you admirably.