Customer Reviews

A Cure for Gravity

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

A CURE FOR GRAVITY is a (motorcyle) tour de force. The scenes are countless, brief, heavily loaded with information in short sentences, and all lead to a tightly woven conclusion. Arthur Rosenfeld wastes no words, nor spares us the details to take us to places we might never know could exist--in space and in the mind. Nothing is gratuitous. He isn't afraid to take on issues of morality, to extoll beauty, to introduce flights of fancy, or rub our faces in horror. I was enthralled by the author's talent and hooked on the story from beginning to end. Excellent. Excellent.

The Cure for Gravity is a modern novel in the best sense. It moves quickly like modern life with a fast stepping story line filled with adventures, quirky characters- all of whom you'll like- And some way out sub-plots. You'll almost feel like you're riding a bike on the California coast on one page and sailing off Florida on the next. There's just enough tension drawn on the situations our heros are in as well as the anticipated resolving of story lines to keep the pages turning.

I could not put this book down! The writing is wonderfully fresh and the story is captivating. With rich characters tied together by serindipity and themes of love and friendship to murder and betrayal, this book was a delight to read. I laughed, I cried...I wanted more when it ended. Rosenfeld's thought provoking ideas and magical tones make this book a must read. I can't wait for the movie!

I'm a binge reader. I get hooked on a topic and read everything I can about it. This month, I started an adventure touring binge and I checked out every book in the library on motorcycle adventures. While I was doing my library search, I bumped into A Cure for Gravity. Mostly, I'm not much of a fan of motorcycle novels. I've read a few. Most are poorly written, motorcycles ignorant, and closer to romance novels or bad westerns than they are to entertaining literature. Sometimes, however, I run into an author who reminds me that the only skill I've picked up in forty years of attempting to learn the writing trade is a refined ability to know when I am reading the work of a master. Arthur Rosenfeld is a word crafting master.

It was the title that made me stick this book on my checkout list, A Cure for Gravity. Motorcycling has "cured" gravity for me, momentarily, several times and I thought that the author might have some actual insight into motorcycling. It was a lucky guess. When I saw the cover page, an upside down view of a long, straight section of two-lane, I suspected the author might really know something about riding. Rosenfeld is, in fact, a motorcyclist. He is also a fine writer. If I had to put him in a category, he'd be in the Elmore Leonard, William Goldman, Joe Heller, and Pete Dexter category. Those writers are my favorite in a curious genre. The genre is "story teller." Is it a mystery? Is it a fantasy? Is it a ghost story? Is it one of the best, funniest, most complicated novels I've read in years? Yes. All of those. And a motorcycle trip is in the mix. Like the work of my favorite fiction authors, Rosenfeld weaves a story that is beyond genres.

in either an event of synchronicity, bad luck, or not-so-clever marketing, for his first novel Rosenfeld (or his publisher) chose a title very close to Joe Jackson's 2000 autobiography. Jackson's story was about how music lifted his life above the gravity of his social caste. Rosenfeld's title refers to something less specific.

Gravity has a large collection of characters, but the main focus is on two riders crossing the country on motorcycles; Mercury Grant and Umberto Santana. The two bikers meet each other fantastically defying gravity with the assistance of an Oklahoma tornado. Grant is a middle-aged, ex-vet, ex-limo-driving-fishing-boat-captaining refuge from an incredibly failed love affair on the way to an unclear destination. Santana is a 17-year-old Cuban bank robbing bike mechanic on the run of his life. Other principle characters are FBI agent Eagle Cooper, 6-year-old blind Audrey and her widowed grandmother, Santana's gorgeous wannabe-a-movie-star pregnant girlfriend, a murderous lover, and a collection of bad memories and ghosts.

Santana thinks he pulled the perfect crime, that he's set himself up for life with a $370,000 one-time bank robbery. However, a U.S. Senator freaked out during the robbery and, in an asthma attack, suffocated and died. Now, her rich husband wants revenge and Santana's otherwise incredibly lucky day takes a vicious turn. Grant isn't part of the plan until he involves himself. The FBI and Cooper are on Santana's back tire and that means both riders are on a different trip than the one they planned to take.

A Cure for Gravity is a rare gem in an otherwise desolate pile of rocks. We often meet interesting strangers on a long motorcycle trip, but this is one strange trip. While you're at it, check out Rosenfeld's 2nd book, Diamond Eye. It is also about a character who occasionally rides a motorcycle and it is, also, a terrific read.

[...]

Two men from different pasts come together under the most incredible circumstances. Mr. Rosenfeld has made the main characters credible and absolutely captivating. From the very first paragraph, you will be drawn in. You will never forget Umberto Santana, Mercury Gant, or any of the other players in this story thats part road movie and part Pulp Fiction. Thanks you Mr. Rosenfeld.

I got the book and finished it in a matter of days. I was very disappointed, however, by this book. I expected something along the lines of Rosenfeld's very good "Diamond Eye." I was wrong. The story lags in so many places, I found myself skipping full paragraphs. Try as I did, I couldn't make myself feel anything at all for Mercury or Umberto. I know I should probably have pitied them, but I could've care less.

The lack of quotations is something that completely threw me. I don't know what Mr. Rosenfeld was trying to accomplish with this tactic. It was distracting and forced me to take my mind out of the story far too many times.

I don't recommend this novel. If you're in a fix for a great road novel, buy "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman, which actually does manage to turn a road trip into a spiritual journey without resorting to cockamamie ghost stories.

Arthur, please leave Florida to the likes of Carl Hiaasen or Elmore Leonard. Your novel failed short in its depiction of our favorite state. The cast of characters wasn't excessively long, but the individual storylines were poorly developed. All the coincidences!: the FBI agent who falls for the car-collector woman who sells her red Jaguar to the parents of the teenage bank robber who "killed" a senator with an asthma attack... The vicious and beautiful killer, her lovely parents, her psychic blind daughter... How forced and convoluted. I prefer simpler novels. This is not it.