Customer Reviews

The Grand Complication: A Novel

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Alexander Short is a young librarian--precise and studious, with a need to catalogue and record, and on his way to becoming stuffy. But he was not always this way. His courtship and marriage to his French wife Nic, who designs pop-up books, was romantic--and spontaneous enough to have earned him a reprimand from the head of the library for his enthusiastic acceptance of her proposal on the library's electronic bulletin board. Now the marriage is in trouble, his career seems to have hit a snag, and he's holding himself and his life together by recording and alphabetizing his life experiences in a notebook he has attached to his waist. Into his life comes Henry James Jesson III, an elderly man in search of an object missing from a hidden compartment in an 18th century furniture case he owns. Short is enlisted to help in the search, and his life is suddenly turned upside down.

The book, and the research behind it, took the author ten years, and one of the greatest compliments I can pay is to say that it doesn't show. So smoothly does Kurzweil integrate all the esoteric details of compartmented antique furniture, 18th century watchmaking, library cataloguing and conservation procedures, the intricacies of fine art theft, and even Japanese irezumi tattooing, that it all feels right and appropriate, and not at all pretentious. His themes of order vs. spontaneity, life vs. stasis, permanence vs. change mesh perfectly with the search for a missing timepiece, which is what belongs in Jesson's case--a watch called The Grand Complication, which was originally commissioned by Marie Antoinette. The book's structure mirrors the intricacies of this mysterious watch, which was stolen..

As Short and Jesson conduct their search, the reader is, by turns, entertained, enlightened, and thoroughly engaged. Alexander Short is a character who comes to life, as, to a lesser extent, does Jesson, who is a sad case, not unlike his furniture piece, missing something necessary for personal completion. The library itself comes to life so fully that it almost becomes a character itself. The book is full of puns and literary allusions, which add yet another level of fun. With a terrific, bang-up conclusion which ties up all the loose ends of the plot, the characters' lives, and the themes, Kurzweil leaves his reader fully satisfied--and hoping not to have to wait ten more years for his next novel. Mary Whipple

I love this book. To me it demonstrates a mind working the language at full capacity, with loads of linguistic twists and turns, puns, riddles, and more. The setting of the book is really the mind, specifically the mind of the librarian. It is a book for people who love books in every way, who enjoy holding them almost as much as they enjoy reading them. Henry James Jesson III is one of the characters, and he is someone who revels in his own acquired knowledge. The book's protagonist,

Alexander Short, loves the fact that Jesson is an intellectual/literary show off, and he falls under Jesson's spell.

I suppose that at its heart the book is a sort of intellectual thriller, with mysteries inside mysteries.Where is Marie Antoinette's stolen timepiece, The Grand Complication? Does it really exist? Is it what is learned along the chase that is as interesting to the protagonists as finding the watch? I also love the fact that it refers back to the author's previous novel, A Case of Curiosities, without in any way being a sequel.

This is the kind of novel I love to read during those luxurious-feeling summer moments.

This novel is right up my alley. It is the story of young librarian, Alexander Short, caught up in a search for a timepiece to complete a collection owned by a wealthy eccentric, Henry James Jesson III. Books, library searches, heraldry, theft, adventure and a wife who is constantly trying to seduce her husband. Who could ask for more?

And, indeed, this is a fun little book. I am particularly fond of the scenes set in the New York Public Library with its resources and its cast of interesting characters. I also find the search for the timepiece to be an interesting one with plenty of twists and turns along the way.

My only complaint about this book is the payoff. There really isn't one. I found that the book just kind of fizzled out in the last few pages. I have not read Kurzweil's first novel, A Case of Curiosities. I wish I had. I get the impression it might throw some light on this novel. Still, as it is, it's a quick novel and well worth a read.

This novel is clever, well written, interesting and mildly entertaining. It is also implausible, and I could never work up any sympathy or empathy for either of the excruciatingly eccentric main characters. The only character I had any sympathy for was the frustrated French wife. That said, even this character is implausible. What was this beautiful, lusty, and artistic woman doing with our mostly impotent and hopelessly affected protagonist? Why is her behavior on her wedding night so bizzare? What is it with Jesson's secret compartments, can't he lock a file drawer like everybody else? The whole revenge scene got pretty silly. This isn't one of those novels where the author builds up credible plot and character to get a reader over the incredible scene on which the novel may turn, in the case of this novel, it's all incredible.
I can't recommend this book to anyone and I'm not tempted to read the author's first novel. On the other hand, a short non-fiction book about this wonderful pocket watch and what might have happened to it might be worth reading, maybe something along the lines of "Longitude".

A reviewer for NPR damned with faint praise, but still piqued my curiosity. My mistake. The best news is, this is a very fast read. Briefly: neat premise, weak execution. Any comparison to Eco is laughably, even offensively, absurd. Character development is astonishingly weak for what seems like an attempt at physchological drama. If the male characters are under-developed, the women are utterly objectified -- sometimes quite literally. Nikki, arguably the most interesting character, is treated with shallowness throughout and finally unceremoniously discarded when the protagonist's not-so-ambiguous-as-intended sexuality ceases to be relevant. By the end, the reliance on tired self-referential technical tricks is merely irksome and I wished for a hasty conclusion. Mercifully, that's what I got. The pagination ploy of the protagonist-cum-author (or vice versa?) is the final outrage and doesn't seem so amusing under Klieg lights. Some things are been better left for the reader to discover. This was 'ok' for the beach, but it won't get space on my shelf. But give the author his due; judge for yourself.

The Grand Complication is a strong follow-up to A Case of Curiosities and an engrossing and entertaining read. The story begins when the note-taking obssessed librarian, Alexander Short, is approached by the wealthy and mysterious collector Henry James Jesson III to help him find, as it eventually turns out, a pocket watch made for Marie Antoinette. The book is well written, full of historical and literary references. Like the watch it describes, the story is packed with clever features and diverting details. I would recommend this book to anyone, particularly any lover of books and libraries. My only complaint about the book is in the handling of some of the secondary characters, particularly Emmanuel Ornstein, an orthodox jewish jewelery broker. Although the character is meant to be somewhat comical, I felt that the use of dialect in rendering his yiddish accent was a little heavy handed. Moreover, although he turns out to be more ethical than is initially suspected, his character plays too easily into malicious old stereotypes of Jews as thieves or fencers of stolen goods. A hindu security guard, Mr. Singh, is treated similarly. This point aside, I greatly enjoyed The Grand Complication and I look forward to Mr Kurzweil's next book.

I wanted to like this book. I heard Kurzweil on NPR and thought I would adore a novel involving libraries, pop-up erotica and a Breguet watch. I immediately ordered a copy from ... in time for vacation reading. I was disappointed in the result. The only word to describe the prose is "precious." Kurzweil is so self-consciously trying to weave esoterica together that he forgot it was a novel. No character has a believable emotion or speaks in any recognizable idiom. Believe me, I've known pedants, and not even THEY blather like the characters in this book. The whole thing seems like an excuse to indulge the author's personal interests and fantasies. For example, here's the story: mousy, secretive yet handsome librarian (AK worked in the New York public library), evidently nursing overwhelming need for a father, (AK's father dies tragically while his son is very young) is persuaded by an older, richer, and more literate and secretive man to find a watch designed for Marie Antoinette. The plot really never develops from that point. Rather, it meanders only to accomodate different discussions -- heraldry, the history of the Dewey decimal system, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Yes, some of the esoterica is enjoyable, and there are some amusing seduction scenes, but because I can't care at all about the characters and the mystery is strangely un-compelling, the novel as a whole falls flat. Not a terrible book, as Kurweil obviously has a great intellect and some sense of humor. My sense, however, is that until Kurzweil can keep his demons out of the books he's writing, he won't produce the great work he may be capable of.

My interest in this book was sparked by a review on NPR's Fresh Air. Being a library addict, I looked forward to reading a book about books.
This book starts off with a bang and whimpers to a slow painful ending. It reminded me of other books on the same theme - the search for The Maltese Falcon, the mind games and symbolism in John Fowles' The Magus.
Unfortunately, it disappoints on both counts - the search for "The Grand Complication" is not very engrossing and the "games" the protagonists play with each other border on the verge of childish.
The inside story of how libraries work is fascinating but can't hold the different pieces of the story together.

I was really anticipating a great book -- lots of positive reviews and subject matter that closely overlapped my own interests -- but ultimately I didn't find this a satisfying read. The mystery was not intriguing enough. The writing was inelegant. Worst of all, the ending was disappointing -- so many things were hinted at in the novel, so many suggestions that this was going to be one of those satisfying books where the author somehow ties all the loose ends into an unexpected but plausible denouement -- the kind of book you want to start reading again right away to see where the real clues were hidden. Instead, the ending was anticlimactic and none of the innuendos were addressed. (Spoiler Warning) Instead, the protagonist feels betrayed by someone and perpetrates an uninspired revenge, while the novel itself ends with a tired literary device.

Being a librarian I enjoyed the arcana, but thought most of the characters were two-dimensional and unsympathetic. The author contrives intriguing plot devices and writes decent dialogue, but neither devices nor dialogue reveal much beyond plot advancement. Type is big and white space is plentiful. A fast but clunky novel that does not meet the expectations it raises in the first three-quarters of the book. I probably won't buy the author's first book, but if someone gave me a copy I'd read it.

I wanted to like this book, I just didn't. Since reviews are mixed, perhaps you should read some sample pages to decide for yourself. Unfortunately, sample pages can't save you from the sense of ultimate disappointment some readers have felt at the dispirited ending.

Reference librarian Alex Short finds work very boring as assisting customers is done more on an assembly line with pneumatic tubes than on a one-to-one basis. He enjoys lettering and on rare occasions, a customer's call slip is written in a historical style of graphics and he collects these rarities with a passion. The young man prefers to "girdle" by writing observations in his little notebook that he carries with him all the time more than he wants to have sex with his beautiful French wife.

Sixtyish Henry James Jesson III submits a library call slip requesting Secret Compartments, an eighteenth century furniture book. The beautiful rarely seen-today writing style catches Alex's eye and he breaks the rules by delivering the book to the requester. Henry offers Alex a job to complete a collection that contains a secret compartment with a hanging nail inside but the attached item is missing. Henry begins to follow the trail of THE GRAND COMPLICATION, a lost eighteenth century watch, and a search that could prove to cost him his soul.

THE GRAND COMPLICATION is a different type of mystery one that seems so simple yet is so rich and complex. The library, Nic's pop-ups, eighteenth century cabinets to conserve precious items, and Henry's Manhattan townhouse are filled with layers of detail weaved into the delightful story line. The investigation is intelligent and adds to the strange relationship between Henry and Alex. Readers who delight in well-written, off beat literature will want to obtain Allen Kurzweil's first novel in a decade because few writers enter the soul of his characters quite like this author does.

Harriet Klausner