I was just recently asking myself the question, why isn't there a book of fundamental mentalism concepts, a la an updated version of Corinda, to take into account modern topics such as which hand, propless mentalism, electronics, dual reality, cell phone effects, etc.? Sure, there are some wonderful fundamental DVDs, such as Richard Osterlind's own 13 Steps or Dan Harlan's stuff out of Tarbell, but for those of us who like to read in addition to watch, a new book would be great. And then this import, purporting to be just that, arrived. Modern Mentalism, a translation of an original Italian edition, promises itself as a primer on all things mentalism--multiple outs, Svengali Deck, Invisible Deck, hypnosis, psi touches, nail writer, predictions, the Berglas Effect..a veritable encyclopedia of technique. But does it succeed? No. While these and other topics are discussed, they are glossed over and treated in almost cursory fashion. If you have absolutely no knowledge of any mentalism effects, then this book may have some value to you, just to get an overview of the subject matter. But if you have any experience at all, this way overpriced work will leave you cold. It's just so disappointing, from the trivialization of important topics (no real discussion of peeks, center tears, or billets that I could see) to the meager explanations (You need to force a card. Here, this is exactly one card force method. There you go.). And the translation has lots of mistakes. (It's "treatise," guys, not "treaty." Oh wait, you actually did get that correct once at the end of the book.)
In the end, you have a poor value for your money with this ebook. For half the price, Corinda still reigns supreme as the timeless fundamentals book. Maybe someday someone will update it. Heck, someone could just annotate it in the margins with some modern methods and notations of things that are archaic. Heck, maybe I'll do that myself one day after I retire. But until then, read Corinda and treasure it. It's the one primer that you need, not Modern Mentalism.
