Confessions of a Rabbi and Psychic

Confessions of a Rabbi and Psychic
by Shmuley Boteach and Uri Geller
Robson Books, £16.95, ISBN 1861054106

This book is presented as a series of letters between Geller and the founder of the L’Chaim Society in Oxford, who is also the author of Kosher Sex and a former Times Preacher of the Year. To this reader, the contents lack the authentic, discursive tone of true correspondence and sound more like journalism. Why should two men who meet often and “talk day and night” feel the need send each other letters so full of ponderous “philosophy of life”-moralising and autobiographical detail? It has all clearly been written with an eye to prompt publication.
Only when both men talk about their childhoods does the book become remotely interesting. Both come from relatively poor backgrounds, with cold or absent fathers and parents who eventually divorced, and both seem to have had a difficult adolescence.
When Boteach remarks that “from an early age, I have been conscious of my desire for recognition“ you feel that this is true of both men and is a core part of their friendship. Hence the relentless, back- slapping mutual admiration and name dropping that so disfigure parts of the book.
As for the “extraordinary revelations “ that are promised, your life would have to be dull indeed for anything either man says to be even an ordinary revelation. Boteach is quite interesting on the origins of Judaism and Old Testament interpretation but has nothing new to say to, or about, Geller. For the rest, I would guess he is recycling the sort of brisk (but not always entirely helpful) things he says to his Oxford students.
Does Uri Geller finally reveal the origin and nature of the paranormal powers that have astonished the world? Sadly not, though he takes every opportunity to remind us that he does, in fact, possess such powers. The world’s greatest destroyer of cutlery still won’t tell us why we need all those bent spoons.