Victor Mackenzie's mannered life of pleasure, the product of his carefully directed psychic powers, threatens to come undone with the recurring visits of a benign ghost and a gorgeous artist in flight from her ex-husband. IP. "
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Victor has been clairvoyant since the age of eight, when the ghost of Murray Weinbaum, a recently deceased neighborhood man, paid him a visit at night. As a result, Victor realizes his unique ability and grows up to earn a living as a psychic in a Manhattan brownstone. When he meets Katha and her friend Lucy, he tells each woman her fortune and falls in love with Katha. Katha also falls in love with Victor, but she has anal-retentive boyfriend Parker, wacky ex-hsuband Tom, and her nine-year-old daughter, Julia, to deal with before she can focus on Victor. Lucy thought she had a solid marriage until she visited Victor, but her husband, Buddy, begins to act strangely: he becomes agoraphobic, then decides to give up his highly successful dental practice and instead open a retail store at the mall. A funny tale of clairvoyance and love by the author of The Way We Live Now (LJ 9/1/91), this engaging book deals with the fragility of relationships both romantic and familial while posing the question, How does a psychic manage to have a relationship without foreseeing the future? For most collections.?Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Thurm revisits favorite themes (death, interracial marriage, life in New York) in her characteristically lighthearted way in her fourth novel (The Way We Live Now, 1991, etc.), this featuring a Manhattan psychic who chats with ghosts and interferes compulsively with the lives of those he loves. Victor Mackenzie was eight years old when he saw his first ghost: that of Murray Weinbaum, recently deceased owner of the corner candy store, an ordinary fellow with whom the young boy had always felt a certain rapport. Murray's ghost acts as a guardian spirit, watching over Victor as he grows up clairvoyant to become a hip, high-priced, but very honorable psychic in trendy downtown Manhattan. Katha Randall, struggling New York artist and single mother, has no interest in psychics, but she hears such good things about Victor's sessions that she takes her best friend Lucy to see him on Lucy's birthday. After predicting rough waters in Lucy's apparently perfect marriage (Lucy, a black woman, is wed to Buddy Silverman, a successful white dentist), Victor falls in love with Katha despite the fact that her palm reveals that she's newly divorced and now living with another man. Soon Katha has started to love Victor back, and must struggle with the fact that she'll never know how much he's manipulating her life or how many of her secrets he's managed to intuit. Much unconvincing angst arises from this uncertainty (along with some minor meddling by Murray and other ghosts) before Victor's devotion to Katha, his obvious fondness for her daughter, and his good-natured efforts to save Lucy's marriage convince Katha that a psychic boyfriend with a heart of gold is (surprise!) better than a life of penury, loneliness, and regret. Like its protagonists, Thurm's latest is as brisk, charming, and good-natured as they come--but so slight that it leaves only a phantom aftertaste on the literary tongue. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Humorous in parts, interesting characters, weak story line.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Clairvoyant (Mass Market Paperback)
The plot was interesting, here was a guy who was a psychic andwanted a woman to fall in love with him FOR him while not shying awayfrom his psychic abilities being a part of him. The other characters, including his love interest, was excellently described so you could enjoy their personality nuances ... and laugh at some of the side characters introduced in. But then the story falls apart and you get a feeling of being rushed, and questioning some parts (i.e. the dentist's over night change that seemed to come from no where and basically went no where in the story), and ... well, I don't recommend it at a full price buying purchase. It is an OK book to toss in for reading while in a car or something but not one that you will want to keep on your bookshelf to re-read at a later date.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Clairvoyant was an extrasensory delight,
By rshoop@ucsd.edu (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Clairvoyant (Hardcover)
The Clairvoyant was a fast, poetic read, one that I enjoyed immensely. The novel has an unusal, almost third person, narritive style which was at first slightly unsettling, but by the end of the novel it was effective and oddly haunting. The characterization is the main draw - you can't help but love at least three of the handful of wonderful players. The only major flaw is a weakness of plot... all of the characters move about in the story in the manner of a gentle breeze pushing the bits of a windchime... each character gently knocks against the others, making only a soft tinkle before swining away. Perhaps despite this, it's a very quick read, and ultimately left me with a happy feeling.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, touching, nice romance,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Clairvoyant (Mass Market Paperback)
Any book that has me tearing up, then laughing out loud within the space of a page is okay by me. Marian Thurm has an admirably light touch with her message. Loved Victor, loved the romance, adored the happy ending.
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