The Diva’s Fool
by Silva Foti
Published by Echelon Press(to come)
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Reviewed by Edith Knehans
In a time where what is unseen or unknown is disregarded as myth, Silva Foti brings light to the otherworldly experience of the Tarot. In The Diva’s Fool, Foti presents the popular cards as tools for guidance and understanding through Alexandria Vilkas. Alexandria, a Chicago reporter, writes about the supernatural from the perspective of someone who knows – she is being trained to enter the Order of the Tarot. What’s more, she also works as a detective, bringing intrigue and madness to the forefront of the story.
The story explores Alexandria’s archaeology into the interior of the mystical practical of the Tarot and the oddly practical application it has in her work, her life, and her curiosities. Through Alexandria’s keen combination of investigative skill and metaphysical insight, she is able to solve the murder of Chicago’s first Hispanic mayor. Her editor sees her newly found notoriety as an opening, as the next door for Alexandria: a series that may have the potential to give the magazine the boost in circulation it so desperately needs.
Alexandria’s journalistic leanings are only part of the equation. The story is ignited by the death of a notable operatic voice, Carmen Dellamorte. Alexandria had the unfortunate experience of witnessing the diva’s death on stage. At the urging of her editor, Alexandria embarks on an investigative journey wrought with both the seen and the unseen. Though the twists and turns in this tale are anticipated, the story’s direction is not.
Written with a sense of mystical wonder and taciturn nature of the Tarot, Foti invites us to an understanding of the metaphysical through this determined work of fiction.
Armchair Interviews says: A read for those who can suspend pragmatic belief, or simply for those whose choose to escape the concrete reality of the every day.