Customer Reviews

Carter Beats the Devil

5 star:		(116)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

My favorite novels, particularly historical novels, perfectly capture the era in which they are set not just in the character and setting but also in the style they are written. I like my Victorian novels epic and sooty, for example. "Carter Beats the Devil", based (VERY loosely) on the actual life and career of Charles Carter (NOT Houdini, as implied by some other reviewers), a turn-of-the century magician, perfectly brings to life the 1920s era.

The elaborate, tricky, and slightly melodramatic plot leaves me wondering 'what next' like an old "Perils of Pauline" silent film (the ones with the dame tied to the railroad tracks). It has the slightly slapstick quality of those movies, too. Even the modest romantic interludes have a 20s sincerity to them. It's as thrilling as a summer blockbuster movie, circa 1927.

Since the book had a reputation as a 'literary' novel, I was surprised how well it worked as sheer entertainment. This doesn't mean it lacks depth, though. Carter (the magician character) is not what you think he is, a mystery to be worked out. The same is true of many of the characters. The author gets you to think about the meaning of deception and honesty, escape and confinement, even the price and value of freedom.

It's even more interesting to read because Gold borrows techniques from magic itself to accomplish this; the author is quite adept at slight-of-hand and misdirection. You will not soon guess how it ends!

I must confesss that I do not know what drove me to buy this book in the first place. I usually read business books and biographies. But for reasons that I do not recall, I stumbled across Carter Beats the Devil and bought it. I don't usually buy books of this genre. In fact, I am not really sure of the genre itself; Zelig and Ragtime come close but not quite there. I have concluded that Carter himself must have directed me to pick this card, I mean, book.

I found the book to be extraordinarly well written. The plot is full of quirky characters and twists that would be unbelievable but for the threads of historical fact (very loose factual threads actually) woven throughout. It's a real page turner and if you stick with all 500 pages or so, immensely satisfying. Over the past two weeks, whenever the reality of current events became oppressive, I escaped into the world of San Francisco of the 1920s painted gloriously (and with author's license) by Mr. Gold. Many a night ended with my wife asking me to please put the book down and turn off the light!

I look forward to reading the author's next work with much anticipation.

Great literature this isn't, but grand, smart, sure-footed entertainment it is. Glen David Gold takes his readers on a twisting, rocketing roller coaster ride, and he is in full command of his effects, from the moment we step into the car until the moment it pulls to a gentle stop and we begin to breathe again.

The blurbs and the opening pages contain some of the trappings of a murder mystery, in the matter of President Harding's untimely death and the puzzle of what role, if any, the world-famous magician Carter the Great had to play in it. In fact, I bought the book because I have a neighbor with whom I swap off murder mysteries every couple of months. It's not exactly a bait and switch, and the puzzle is eventually resolved, but it is a bit of misdirection. The Harding subplot forms the bookends, not the book. I found I didn't mind in the least.

What we really get is more of a Bildungsroman than a whodunit: the story of Charles Carter's induction into the realm of stage magic, and the arc of his career. Along the way, Gold fully immerses us in two worlds just distant enough from us to be wonderfully exotic: the world of vaudeville in the final days before it was killed off by the talkies, and the world of the San Francisco upper crust as the twenties were beginning to roar.

It's reminiscent of Michael Chabon's "Kavalier and Clay" in the way it makes us part of a small fraternity of hardscrabble entertainers in the golden age of a genre, and the way we get to feel the dirt of their trade under our fingernails. (As it happens, the two books have massively intersecting acknowledgment pages.) But it lacks the high seriousness of Chabon's work.

It's also reminiscent, of course, of Ragtime, in its re-creation of an era and its free mixing of real with fictional characters. But I liked this better than Ragtime or its host of imitators. Too large a part of the appeal of such books is the thrill of hobnobbing with celebrities. Of the many delightfully particular characters from real history in "Carter," there are scarcely any I'd heard of before. Just the two aitches, Harding and Houdini. Okay, I did recognize Groucho Marx's incognito cameo, from a time before the brothers adopted their stage names, but most readers won't, and his scenes work just fine if they don't. Carter himself, his family, the rival madames of San Francisco's two classiest brothels, the teenaged inventor of television, the philanthropic borax king Francis Smith - they were all news to me. And none of the historicals is introduced to titillate the reader with a People Magazine fix; each is a pleasure to know in his or her own right, and each moves the storyline briskly along.

When Mr. Gold graces us with his second novel, I will definitely be standing in line for it.

I'll admit it... I rarely have the patience for a long novel. This book, however, is very, very different.

It's funny. It's clever. It's filled with joy and wonder and emotion and I cried twice.

I can't remember the last time I read a novel that I enjoyed so much. How much? At one point, I sat on an airplane (After a four hour flight) for ten minutes after we landed, trying to finish a chapter. They finally had to ask me to leave the plane so they could finish cleaning it.

Don't let the magic connection fool you. It has more to do with Ragtime than it does with a kid's birthday party. As a fan of magic, though, I can tell you that the references to big-time, old-fashioned vaudeville magic were terrific.

Sorry for the long review but I wanted you to realize that this is a must read. I wish I could read it again for the first time. Buy a few copies, and give them to friends.

I'm not usually moved to write reviews for books or CDs on Amazon, but Glen Gold's wonderful debut novel causes me to do so. I'll try and stay away from the magic analogies in describing how Gold's writing makes the pages disappear, though I did have to fight myself to stop reading, to better savor the novel. To the point: this is a damn fine book. I'm on my second read of it right now and it's gotten even better the second time around. Glen Gold weaves a rich tapestry of fiction and non-fiction, creating a richness of characters, story and setting. He creates characters--starting with Charles Carter--that we genuinely care about. There are no prop-like characters in this book, sitting around like furniture. Gold imbues them with a sense of flesh and blood, as well as hearts & minds. Charles Carter, dubbed "Carter the Great", is a character conflicted with that greatness. We are allowed to see his story unfold from early on, as Gold sets the groundwork for what it is yet to come. There is an intricacy to the story, but it is not disjointed in the least, as one reviewer stated. The story is beautifully woven, as multiple plots are pulled together is a seemingly effortless way. This is no empty brain candy that you might find on the Jersey shore in the Summertime. Glen Gold's book is storytelling on the order of Caleb Carr, with a richness that pulls his readers into the book and doesn't let go until the gripping climactic scene.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Do yourself a favor and put it on your holiday list. My copy has been read by numerous people, all giving rave reviews. It's magic that I even got it back-:C) Enjoy.

When a news reporter asks Carter the Great why he does magic, his final, somehat evasive, reply is "What I mean is, the world is an awful place, isn't it? Magic makes it less awful for a moment or two...If I can shake the world world off a man's shoulders, I feel better."

Glen David Gold's debut novel does exactly that, and more, for several of the best reading hours I've spent in years. The five hundred pages fly by like doves out of a hat in a novel worthy of the best of American fiction.

If you like John Irving, Doctorow, or Mark Helprin at their best, Gold is their equal first time out.

A wonderful, wonderful, captivating read!

It's hard to imagine how difficult it must be to write a historical-based novel, especially one based on something so esoteric as magic, but Glen David Gold has made it look easy. He blends an acute sense of time and place with a character that simply holds the reader's attention the entire length of the book. How else can the Marx Brothers, Harry Houdini, Warren G. Harding, and Philo Farnsworth be peripheral characters unless the protagonist is just that much more fascinating? I don't know if the real Carter the Great could have lived up to his portrayal in this novel, but it's immensely pleasurable to try and figure that out.

I can't remember the last time I read a novel with so many plot twists that come out of nowhere and yet make perfect sense. Obviously in his magic research Gold learned a thing or two about misdirection. His only missteps are on two occasions where he foreshadows a bit too obviously, but that's nitpicking. Like John Irving, Gold will refer back to passages that came up several chapters ago and tie everything up in a neat package before the reader realizes it.

Great book, plowed through it in less than a week, recommending it to everyone.

The Roaring Twenties was the greatest decade for stage magic in American history. Where those who could afford it skipped off to Europe, professional performers and master illusionists consistently amazed those who could not. Harry Houdini is the most famous of these magicians, but Charles Carter is the subject of Glen David Gold's debut novel, Carter Beats the Devil. Without mirrors or smoke, Gold creates a world that is satisfying and imaginative, while at the same time steeped in realism and historical fact.

Just hours after being dismembered and returned to life by Carter the Great, US President Warren G. Harding is dead. While doctors declare that there is no evidence of foul play, Secret Service Agent Jack Griffin is not so sure. Griffin he doggedly pursues the truth of what happened the night the President died. At the same time, the reader is launched back and forth in time with Carter from his earliest days with magic to his return to the business after a tragic accident involving his wife. Throughout the novel, the only person with more tricks up his sleeve than Carter is the author himself. Gold not only the portrays the real Charles Carter but also ropes in a diverse cast of additional period figures including Houdini, borax tycoon Francis Smith, and television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth. As Griffin becomes convinced of Carter's guilt, the magician struggles to find joy in his life, works to create a new act with which to dazzle increasing hard-to-please audiences, meets a mysterious women who steals his heart, and guards against the treachery of one who he believed to be a friend. With an ending that holds a surprise for everyone, not least of all the reader, Carter Beats the Devil is the real deal in a literary world filled with imposters.

A writer for television and movies, Gold delivers dialogue that is fast-pitched and fun to follow and creates characters that are larger than life. While the novel occasionally gets bogged down in some point of obscurity, these slips are brief and do not detract from the intelligent pace of the plot. All in all, this is a work of the first rank, an excellent display of erudition and a fine tale with adventure to spare. Carter Beats the Devil is highly recommended, and I will eagerly await Gold's next book.

This is a thrilling, romantic, fascinating book and will probably be my favorite book read this year. Carter Beats the Devil is a historically fact-based novel about magician Charles Carter who performed in the golden age of magic (1890s thru the 1920s). This story pits Carter against rival magicians and Secret Service agents who suspect Carter had a hand in the death of President Harding. I was drawn in from the get-go. This book is full of suspense, humor, and panache. It came highly recommended from Michael Chabon, author of the Pulitzer-prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (also an excellent book). Carter Beats the Devil is a richly imagined story full of wonderful characters and it has perhaps the most thrilling, exciting, whiz-bang conclusion I've come across in ages. Great, great book.

I too read "Hollywoodland Kingpin," another fiction with a historical background. This shows me how wondrous a place show biz of old was from the stages to the screen, endlessly fascinating us decades after the fact. I don't think it is a subject that you can wear out, because there are so many hidden passages and inside information still only known to a very few. These books are better than the average ersatz glitz found in show biz novels. There is an underlying majesty to the characters that portrays an importance that infers drama rather than endlessly detailing it. These two new tales by two new authors have that element in abundance. Don't expect predictable characters with obvious responses, and get ready for real-life big names to make grand entrances. I have enjoyed watching this novel rocket to the top this month.