Customer Reviews

The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've read every biography on Harry Houdini and this one is good...but it isn't the best. (The best is Ken Silverman's Houdini! The Career of Ehrich Weiss.) Here Ruth Brandon has mined information from older Houdini bios and created a skillful patchwork. Even her much publicized (and much maligned) "psycho-babble" comes right out of Bernard C. Meyer's Houdini A Mind in Chains (1976). Indeed, this excellent long out-of-print book seems to be Ms. Brandon's Deep Throat. Her chapter relating the events leading up to Houdini's death is taken almost paragraph for paragraph from the Meyer book. And do we really need to hear about the author's own childhood experiences with magic? Still, it's a good read, but for a serious and truly revealing Houdini bio, go with the Silverman book.

If you're planning on buying just one Houdini book, go with Kenneth Silverman. Although there are parts of Brandon's book which are excellent, I grew tired of her opinions and psycho-babble. Ultimately, I got the feeling that the author simply didn't like Houdini. Perhaps I should have been warned when reading Brandon's bio: "She likes to think of biography as a framework within which to look at cultural history." Houdini was a complex person, to say the least. Personally, I'd rather be presented with the facts so I could form my own opinion.

Overall, an enjoyable read, but I agree with prior reviewers -- too much Freudian analysis for my taste, and I don't care to hear the author's personal experiences.

As a previous reviewer stated, there are plenty of other good bios of Houdini. This one is full of psychobabble and reads like character assassination. All heroes have feet of clay, but her analysis is repetitive and makes the second half of the book deathly boring.

I have read a few books on Harry Houdini, and I have found Ms. Brandon's book to be very informative, interesting, and insightful. Since I purchased this book two years ago, I have read it over and over again. My husband usually asks,"haven't you finished that book yet?!" I really enjoyed it.

This book is good. It has many interesting facts about Houdini. It explains his life and career. I strongly suggest it.

A very interesting book for the most part. I only gave it four stars, however, because of the author's intermittent psycho-babble ramblings.