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26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Some Nice Details, But Thin Characters, Thin Drama, September 19, 2000
Boy, did I want to like this novel. A young inventor in pre-Revolution France, when automatons were all the rage, and scientific enquiry was in its Natural History/specimen-collecting/leather-books-on-esoteric-subjects/freaks-and-oddities stage. Unfortunately, the novel infuriated me. The characters are all thin, even the main character, Claude, the young inventor, whom Kurzweil treats like a lay figure, placing him in various positions and predicaments. Kurzweil's writing is too often glib and general. "The beery fellow began a conversation that led to friendship." (pg 124) Too often he tells and doesn't show. Dialog lacks pop. There are a number of debates on arcane subjects which read like passages from a dry lecture. (No crafty, natural-flow, Socratic stuff here.) A crucial event mid-way in the book, which propels Claude to Paris, is obviously not the shocker Claude thinks, and it doesn't make sense that he would think it is. There are many nice details, details of the kind of milieu I was hoping for. But I need more than details....
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A 12-year-old pornographer brings the 18th century to life., May 7, 2002
This review is from: A Case of Curiosities (Paperback)
Though this intriguing picaresque novel is full of esoteric pursuits in late 18th century France, the novel is remarkably accessible and great fun to read. Claude Page, a 12-year-old farm boy of huge imagination and intelligence, is "adopted" by the Count of Tournay, a defrocked priest who studies "everything from the grandeur of the heavens to the minutiae of the terrestrial world." In reality, he is training Claude to be an enameler of pornographic watches. As Claude pursues his interest as a "mechanician," the reader is introduced to many facets of society and the forces which animate them.
Kurzweil obviously delights in playing games with the reader, breaking down defenses and challenging expectations. In an early scene, for example, a surgeon's removal of "the devil's handiwork" from a child stimulates our sensibilities and anticipates our revulsion. Then Kurzweil jerks the chain and shows us who is in control. In serious or scholarly scenes, he lightens the mood with puns, word play, and jokes, some clever, some groaners--a nobleman's motto, "Born to Serve," refers to his tennis abilities; an expert in insanity is named Battie. Unique images provide constant surprises and vitalize his descriptions--"[The sound of] feet walking through snow was indistinguishable from the noise when the baker squeezed a sack of cornstarch"; "her costume was a taxidermist's dream."
Kurzweil's ability to bring this period to life in a context accessible to the reader is daunting. Gracefully incorporating such diverse subjects as the enameling process, watchmaking, contemporary 18th century science and philosophy, and love of pornography, Kurzweil makes these esoteric subjects come alive, not because they are so alluring to the reader, but because they are important to the characters, whose lives are intriguing and whose problems, despite the 18th century context, are nevertheless universal. This precursor to The Grand Complication does not have as tight a plot that that novel, but I thought it just as intelligent and just as much fun to read. Mary Whipple
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Curious hardware, April 30, 1998
An interesting and clever novel: a partial life history of an imagined French inventor-genius, Claude Page, uncovered via the framing device of Page's 'box of curiosities' found at an antiques fair. While this is a very enjoyable tour through Page's world of automata, enamelling, sound, books, watches, and other gadgets, there's a strange aloofness to the narrative. Page sails through the book, taking everything in his stride: amputation, pornography, sex, appalling living conditions, bereavement, loss, and reconciliation. Unlike Candide's 'Age of Reason' optimism, Page's attitude seems to be just one of not caring much. But despite this lack of emotion in the hero, this is an affectionate look at a machine-obsessed era, whose fascination with mechanical toys mirrors our own with electronic ones.
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