The Man from Beyond: A Novel [Hardcover]

Gabriel Brownstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 2005

From the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, a debut novel featuring Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

It is April 1922. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arrives in New York on a spiritualist crusade. To packed houses at Carnegie Hall, he displays photographs of ghosts and spirits; of female mediums bound and gagged, ectoplasmic goo emerging from their bodies. In the newspapers, he defends the powers of the mysterious Margery, one of the most famous mediums of the day. His good friend Harry Houdini is a skeptic, and when Doyle claims Margery's powers are superior to Houdini's, the magician goes on the attack. Into this mix of spirit-chasing celebrities enters Molly Goodman, a young reporter whose job is to cover the heated debate. As she wanders into this world of spooks and spirits, murder and criminal frauds, Molly discovers herself: her true love, her place in the world; even her relationship to her beloved dead brother, Carl.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Inspired by the complex relationship between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the celebrated author and champion of spiritualism, and Harry Houdini, the famed magician and escape artist, Brownstein's uneven first novel reimagines the consequences of the séance, held in 1922 after a chance meeting on the New Jersey shore, in which the spirit-writing Lady Doyle delivered a message from Houdini's late mother to her skeptical son. While the author does a good job of getting inside the heads of his two historical protagonists with their opposing philosophies, much of the story focuses on the admirable but less interesting 22-year-old Molly Goodman, an intrepid reporter who follows the two great men's activities. In a vivid scene, after Houdini barely escapes from a locked box under the Hudson far down river from where he was supposed to emerge, he realizes that, like Sherlock Holmes after surviving his struggle with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, everyone believes he's dead. After this delicious twist, however, the story rushes to a hasty climax involving an insufficiently developed villain. Brownstein's story collection, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. 3W (2002), won the PEN/Hemingway Award.
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Reminiscent of Gangemi's Inamorata (2004), this curious and intense first novel dramatizes the well-known debate between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini over the veracity of spiritualism and the existence of an afterlife. Doyle's surprising belief in the abilities of various spiritualists, in particular a woman named Margery, eventually brought about a rift in his friendship with Houdini, who considered all spiritualists to be mere practitioners of theatrical magic. Woven into this historical frame story is the fictional saga of Molly Goodman, a young New York reporter who sets out to interview both men and winds up forced to confront some decidedly personal issues. Brownstein's ability to create both taut suspense and wry comedy gives her novel a double-edged vitality, as her characters are confronted by the inexplicable, whether in the form of a pseudopod peeking out of Margery's skirts or Houdini disappearing, perhaps forever, beneath the murky waters of the Hudson River. This brilliant time capsule offers an enticing portrait of the 1920s and delivers a timely message for today's world. ?A shivery delight. Jennifer Baker
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton (September 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393051528
• ISBN-13: 978-0393051520
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,371,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting story of a "celebrities" reporter in the 1920s, writing about the likes of Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle, September 22, 2005

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man from Beyond: A Novel (Hardcover)

Molly Goodman, the protagonist of Gabriel Brownstein's first novel, is something of a prototype for the future. THE MAN FROM BEYOND takes place in the early 1920s during the postwar period. Molly is an independent woman working as a reporter for a New York tabloid and living with a roommate from Vassar. She smokes --- and not just tobacco --- and maybe is a little in love with her aforesaid roommate.

Molly starts off as a cosmetology reporter ("it's sort of a science," her editor explains to her), but ends up with a job that's very twenty-first century. She's the "personalities" reporter, reporting on celebrities in an era before there really were celebrities.

In her era, of course, Molly can't follow around brainless starlets, lip-synching nonentities or superannuated child actors. She has to report on celebrities from the past, and in that, Molly is more fortunate than those who have followed her into the profession.

First there is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Here, Conan Doyle is close to the end of his string, mourning the loss of his son in the Great War and fully enthralled in the clutches of that new religion, Spiritualism.

His friend Harry Houdini is deeply into middle age here, but can still amaze with his dexterity, particularly when it comes to handcuffs and the tools of the escapist trade. Sadly, Houdini may be less known than Conan Doyle nowadays. Outside of the admiring mention he gets in Michael Chabon's THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY, you might not have heard his name in the last ten years.

In THE MAN FROM BEYOND, Houdini has branched out into movies (the book shares its title with one of Houdini's silent films) and is into debunking the myth of Spiritualism. As Conan Doyle is the great scientific defender of Spiritualism, completely convinced of its tenets, this puts him into direct conflict with Houdini --- and this conflict is what drives THE MAN FROM BEYOND.

The scenes in the book where Conan Doyle matches wits with Houdini --- at séances and "spiritual writing" sessions --- are the heart of the tale. Houdini has too much respect --- real or feigned --- for Conan Doyle to take him on directly, and so he fights back against him in the press. This is where Molly Goodman comes in, as both Conan Doyle and Houdini use her to talk to each other in much the same way that children who aren't talking to each other utilize their parents.

There's a grand aura of mystery around both Houdini and the creator of Sherlock Holmes, and Brownstein is wise not to disturb that too much. Instead, he concentrates on the character of Molly Goodman, celebrity reporter, and brings us into her interior life. Unfortunately there isn't anything truly compelling or interesting about Molly, especially compared to Houdini and Conan Doyle. Even her (impressively) stereotypical Jewish parents are more interesting, more alive in some ways, than Molly manages to be. Her actions, reporting, and even sexual experiences seem to be in the passive voice; things happen to her instead of the other way around.

Nevertheless, THE MAN FROM BEYOND is a good read, and the conflict between Conan Doyle and Houdini is still an important one. Brownstein does an admirable job of bringing the period in between the wars back to vivid life. But there's a reason why people read about celebrities and not about celebrity reporters.

--- Reviewed by Curtis Edmonds, who writes movie reviews at TXreviews.com.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fantastic historical fictionalized account of the age of spiritualism, August 24, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Man from Beyond: A Novel (Hardcover)

In 1922 renowned writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and famous magician Harry Houdini meet over the debate whether spiritualists can communicate with the dead. Doyle believes so while Houdini is a skeptic. In fact at a séance in New Jersey hosted by Doyle's wife, a spiritualist, she makes contact with Houdini's mother. While Doyle defends Margery as a communicator with the dead, who predicts future calamities, Houdini tries to debunk her.

While the two men argue the merits of Margery and Lady Doyle, twenty-two years old newspaper reporter Molly Goodman follows them in hope of a scoop. However, the debate seems over before she obtains anything meaty. While doing a magic trick Houdini fails to surface from a locked box dropped in the Hudson River; he actually frees himself but much further upstream, but everyone assumes he is dead. How he plans to reappear in Manhattan and what he will do next needs to decided as he is not finished with the spiritualist.

THE MAN FROM BEYOND is a fantastic historical fictionalized account of the age of spiritualism as predominantly seen through the eyes and camera) of the twenty something reporter but also based on real life debates between Doyle the believer and Houdini the skeptic. Readers will feel they are sitting in on a séance hosted by Margery, who's an intriguing character as she predicts future events instead of communicating between loved ones from the other side. Though a villain adds suspense, historical fans will wonder why bother as this terrific 1920s tale robustly stands on its spiritual underpinnings.

Harriet Klausner

2.0 out of 5 stars Multi-layered, but lacking..., June 19, 2008

By 

Charles Prepolec (Calgary, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man from Beyond: A Novel (Hardcover)

Hot on the heels of last year's ARTHUR AND GEORGE readers are faced with yet another highly fictionalized account of an episode in the life of Sherlock Holmes' creator Arthur Conan Doyle. Set against the backdrop of the much-publicized 1922 press battle between Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini over the question of Spiritualism, Brownstein weaves an oddly multi-layered story that deftly blends questions of religious belief, real historical events and characters with a pointlessly contrived murder mystery thread involving the medium Margery and an attempt on Houdini's life. To guide us through this strange mish-mash, and complicate the narrative with a sub-plot exploring the social life of stereotypical `Golden Ghetto Jews', we have young reporter Molly Goodman. Covering the story of Lady Jean's automatic writing episode in Atlantic City, Goodman finds herself drawn into the Spiritualist debate, gaining the confidence of both Houdini and Doyle, giving her fledgling career a much needed boost. The medium Margery, and her husband the enigmatic Dr. Sabatier, are introduced into the mix creating even greater conflict between the supportive, and gullible, Spiritualist crusader and the skeptical magician. Things come to a head when Houdini is believed dead after a stunt promoting his new film "The Man From Beyond" goes horribly, and inexplicably wrong; allowing both Doyle and Molly to play detective.

The Man From Beyond can be a rather confusing read for those familiar with the actual events and people that form the backdrop to this entirely fictional story. To emphasize the fictional nature of the tale Brownstein has made some strange alterations: Doyle has two children named Timothy and Joanna, the medium Margery is here renamed Mary Twist instead of Mina Crandon, her husband is named Dr. Hugo Sabatier instead of Dr. Le Roi Goddard Crandon, psychic investigator J. Malcolm Bird becomes Dingwall Bird and is given some odd experiments as a sideline, and so on... To complicate matters further Houdini did in fact investigate Margery, but not until 1924-1925, and at no time did he and Conan Doyle attend her séance together. However, there are some wonderful real incidents effectively covered in the book including a faithful account of the Lady Jean automatic writing incident and Conan Doyle's stunt-showing of The Lost World footage at a meeting of the The Society of American Magicians. While Brownstein takes Houdini and Conan Doyle down some rather strange paths during the course of the novel, he is remarkably successful in creating very credible and authentic portraits of each man.

Bottom line: A largely appealing read that unfortunately works best as a character study of Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini rather than as a cohesive fantasy thriller. While time, place, characters and certain events are vividly recreated, the fantastical mystery elements and Molly Goodman thread sideline the strengths leading to an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion.