I read the sample extract and – while competently enough written, with even a nice turn of phrase here and there - I am not sure whether that would be enough to entice me to read the whole caboodle without further enthusiastic recommendation. 

Possibly it is an intentional error on the part of the first person narrator, but no way is a “photocopy of the original handwritten” Book of the Law a “rare” item, as in:

I thought about jimmying the lock and helping myself to some of Bernstein's rarer books and papers — he had a photocopy of the original handwritten Liber AL vel Legis he'd gotten from a friend in Berkeley

Nor can I see any way in which it would be?  (Now, if it had somehow been the original (and not a photocopy) from 'The Raiders of the Lost Basement' in Berkeley, that would be a different story; but that item is already accounted for...)

Lit critically yours,
Norma N. Joy Conquest

Check out Bob Freeman's review.

http://authorbobfreeman.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/a-few-thoughts-on-nick-mamatas-love-is-the-law/

Quote from above by Bob Freeman:

My immediate reaction upon completing Nick’s latest was posted on twitter thusly – “On a scale of 1 to 5, N Mamata’s ’Love is the Law’ is a 666.  Really.  Most likely the best novel I’ll read this year.”  Now, writing this review many days later, I realize that was a somewhat disingenuous tweet.  While it is possible I may read a better book this year, the likelihood of such an event is quite unlikely.  I’m tempted to say there won’t be a better book written this decade, but then, Nick’s still young, in his writing prime, if you will so he might just scale these heights (or depths depending on your point of view) once more.

This does seem to be a “fairly enthusiastic recommendation”!  Does anybody else second that emotion before I possibly reconsider my initial remarks?  However my comments about the photocopy of Liber AL still stand, and (unless being a first-person narrative device to indicate error in their perception of things) it is hopefully not symptomatic of factual material relating to “magic and communism” in the rest of the book.

So not quite doing a double take just yet,
N. Joy

There's probably not that many photocopies of the manuscript around, as opposed to prints of the photography. I mean, how many times is it likely to have been jammed under the lid of a photocopier?

I had actually preordered this title, and received a text from Amazon as I was reading this post that my copy will arrive tomorrow. I'll check back in after having a look at it.

Jamie, it is a novel after all, its not a historic document. There is room for artistic licence in order to dramatise the storyline I think.
I will buy a copy and get my teeth into it, purely for entertainment purposes of course.

The 1st page has a unicursal hexagram on it. The 1st line is "I am a fucking genius". Got through chapter 1 rather quick. Sex, murder, the Book of the Law, and Maya Deren have shown up thus far.

Well, that says it all right there, doesn't it?

[move:3ql96a3r]Give us all a break, will you megalomaniac?[/move:3ql96a3r]

Gawd, I've not even seen it and I dislike it already!  ::)

😛
93
Hamal

Have just read the first review: book sounds about as irritating as a demented spider crawling around the top of your head.

A band called 'Abyssal Eyeballs'  -  is this really a Nietzsche reference !??  Jesus wept.  And to think that some people made such a fuss about Kenneth Grant's 'Typhonian Teratomas'.

Yes, Paul, I can see your point that it is a piece of fiction and that one must make allowances for Keats’ negative capability and Coleridge’s willing suspension of disbelief, etc. (spot the ex-Eng Lit student here!)  However, although it can be allowed as an authorial device (as in the example I gave, to show that the first person narrator was being mistaken about the facts) it is not always a good practice for an author to provide too much dis (or should that be mis?) information - for that is what it is “in the final reckoning” - since people reading it will not necessarily be doing so in an analytical framework & will just take it in with the general sweep of other all the other information.  That was why I said I was hoping it would not continue overmuch in this vein.

Ariock, I am waiting with bated breath to read your assessment on the book as a whole.  Does it live up to the (extreme) hype?

– Yes, point well taken!  It would not do to have the holograph scrunched up too many times!!

“Love is the law”? - love, under will…
N Joy

Jamie a copy cost me £4.50 and free delivery on abebooks. Will make my own mind up about how I feel about the book, after reading it.  😉

Reading a book before judging it..... rather than by it's cover.... or second hand gossip... that is a novel idea!  😀

😮
93
Hamal

I suppose that life is short and needs must, mon ami!  Unfortunately there is simply not the time to read every single book in the world and one must perforce be – ah, selective & somehow winnow out the dross away from the gold (if you will excuse my mixed metaphor)?!

Busy panning away,
N. Joy

"quod ali cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum"

And so to comply with LAShTAL legislation, and comments, posts etc having to be in English language.
It means "what is food for one man may be bitter poison to others".

Oh far be it from me to judge. Even as someone who collects just about anything Aleister Crowley related I occasionally pick up a book read the summary, let out a sigh of displeasure. I visualise it on my bookshelf and wonder weather I could keep it in a plastic bag to stop it dirtying my other books, then I imagine the embarassment of someone taking it from my bookshelf and looking at me as if to say "this is the kind of thing you read is it?". Sometimes the shame is just too much and I cannot bring myself to buy it. I've been known to find myself saying aloud "this is utter shit!".

::)
93
Hamal

The story takes place in the eighties, presumably when a photocopy of the manuscript of Liber AL would've been harder to come by.

The book was evidently inspired in part by Keith418's Livejournal writing. He is acknowledged in the book.

Oh no! big shoulder pads and new romantic magicians!

::)
93
Hamal

(Photo)copies of Liber XXXI (the manuscript) were quite widely available in book form (and therefore as loose xeroxed papers from it) even in the abased 80s, and this book in question is set at the tail end of that decade.  As such, they would never have been a scarce item at that time.

New Romantics had petered out by around the time of Live Aid, which was, what 84, 85?  I think shoulder pads may have lasted a bit longer – Joan Collins in Dynasty and all that - & didn’t The Fall write a song with those words in the title in the 80s, by the way?  (Sorry, I seem to be wandering off thread here...)

The question still remains to be decided by some Lashtalian who has managed to plough through it though: does this book count as a trashy read or not?

“… Couldn’t tell Lou Reed from Doug Yule”
N Joy

Mine just arrived this morning work JB, here is a photo of the rear cover, including a couple of further reviews.
They may be friends of Nick's though?

93, Jamie!

I have just begun reading this (no opinion yet though it reads good so far) and I just want to point out that what I think is meant by the photocopy is a "direct" "1st generation" copy of the manuscript spread out on the photocopy-machine. Not a copy through a book as hi-res at this may be, but a "real" copy of the manuscript. I would say, this WOULD BE quite exceptional, since no editing hand (but the functions of a machine) would have been between the original and the copy.

Maybe I will add something when I finished reading it.

Love=Law
Lutz

Hmm, yes, could be, I suppose – but I can’t really see why a photocopy by this means would be any better or covetable than a reproduction by other means - e.g., a (photo)copy of the original photography of the ms., etc.

But let us not forget, the jaws of a temperamental photocopier do grind exceeding small…

Yus, will look forward to this!

“…Suppressed hate romance/
Then my powers did return…”
N Joy

Reading this at the moment. A review will follow.

FYI - Richard Kaczynski posted a review on his Facebook page today

Omg... It's fiction... sheesh.

Um, yes, the thread's title includes the word "novel," which is usually a hint at its non-truth.

And yet people are... upset at the "inaccuracies"