22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Literary? Maybe. Well-written? Yes, January 12, 2008
This review is from: Now You See Him: A Novel (Hardcover)
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One of the words that always raises red flags for me when reading book descriptions is "literary". While there's every chance that the book may be good, there's an equally good chance that a literary novel will be pretentiously unreadable. The back of my copy of Eli Gottlieb's Now You See Him has a quote from Ann Patchett describing the book as a "literary page-turner", an indication that the two things are definitely separate quality. In this case, it happens to be reasonably true: Now You See Him is both literary and a page-turner.
The narrator of this novel is Nick Framingham who recounts at the beginning a pivotal event: his childhood friend - and briefly famous writer - Rob Castor has killed his girlfriend and later himself. This gives Castor some newfound celebrity, but months later, most of the press is out of Rob's former hometown (and Nick's current one), Monarch, New York. Nick, however, cannot seem to recover from Rob's death.
His marriage, faltering even before Rob's suicide, is truly crumbling now, exacerbated by Nick's self-absorption. In addition, Rob's sister - and Nick's first lover - is back in town and sparks are flying between the two. Among all the difficulties will come a series of revelations that will erode what little stability Nick still has.
One of the things that often distinguishes literary novels from genre novels (mystery, science fiction, etc.) is that plot is often not the primary consideration, and things rarely resolve cleanly. Such is the case here; this is more the tale of Nick's slow self-destruction. The "how" of this self-destruction is obvious enough, but the "why" is a little more subtle.
Gottlieb has an easy reading style that does indeed make this a fast page-turner. In Nick Framingham he creates a compelling character who sometimes is sympathetic but often isn't. While Now You See Him may not fit in any particular fiction genre, it is still a really good read of the sort that is popular with book clubs. But even outside of a book club environment, this is still worth picking up.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Bonanza of Page-turning Surprises, January 11, 2008
This review is from: Now You See Him: A Novel (Hardcover)
After reading "Now You See Him", I was left with the lingering
feeling of having been in the company of an intriguing mysterious
character who revealed himself only slowly to us, in a series of
spontaneous candid moments. He did so while confessing the discomfort
created by discovering the truth of his own identity and the root
cause of his alienation (quite justified, as it turns out). Beyond the
hip thriller-like tension this book imparts, it uses elegant, sharp,
brilliant writing to dig deep into the soul of the main character,
Nick Framingham, and thus into our own souls as readers.
Framingham reminds me of the nice reliable friend standing on the side
of the group photo, who turns out to be not so nice and not so
reliable. But he's only one of many indelible, vividly sketched
characters in this book. I want to spend a few words on another of
these, who struck me. Shirley Castor is a grand disturbed lady who
to my mind evokes the great female personae of 1940s Hollywood cinema,
ala Greta Garbo or Ava Gardner. She is a concentrate of pure strong
femininity, a she-warrior drunkard ready to bury you and your soul
with a flicker of her expensive Cuban cigarillo, right before dousing
it in her Martini glass.
"Now You See Him" was a bonanza of page-turning surprises, and when I
was done with it, I was left wanting more.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Stars --absolutely great read, February 16, 2008
I just finished a marathon read of "Now You see Him" read over 20 hours and I think Ann Patchett nailed the essence of why this is a great novel.
The language is poetic but the plot is also original, full of concealments and revealments and because it is 7 AM I'm still too inside this story (and now tired, of course) to write a review that does this book justice.
I do read a book a day, most days, or rather nights and after many months only a few really stay with me. This is a keeper! I think those who did not love it, maybe did not love the literary aspects which for me were almost as thrilling, or make that YES as thrilling as the amazing tale that is told her. Five stars. Excellent. Kol Ha Kovod to Eli Gottleib!
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