Combining riveting storytelling, engrossing characterization and exquisite descriptive writing, "Carter Beats the Devil" is an extraordinary novel. Glen David Gold has transformed the life of Charles Carter, stage magician, into a compulsively readable account of one man's search for artistic and personal integrity. On the surface, "Carter" reads as a melodramatic account of the struggles and successes of a dedicated, quiet magician; drawing on the magician's need for "misdirection," Gold subtlely converts Carter's life into a symbolic representation of the American success quest, of decency combatting evil and of the possibilities of love overcoming existential loneliness. It is a tale of reconciliation of the impossible with the possible and the growing awareness that life's paths often intertwine the two without our being aware of which steps lead us in which direction. There is magic on every page, the delightful demonstration of the performer's craft, to be sure, but also the stunning talent of a writer who assuredly holds his readers' attention in his hands.
"Carter" reminds one of "Ragtime" and "Dreamland;" historical figures have significant or cameo appearances. Such luminaries as President Harding, Philo Farnsworth and Harry Houdini involve themselves in the intricacies of the action. Gold also involves the Secret Service and introduces a particularly affecting agent, Jack Griffin, whose tortured conscience matches his selfless devotion to a public service whose highest-ranking officials reek with moral corruption. Even the craft of stage magic receives scrutiny. The villainous Mysterioso, whose tendency towards mendacity is matched only by his cynical vanity, also comes to represent any talented individual who has lost passion for the beauty of his/her abilities but manipulates those skills for personal gain. "Carter" is an intensely moral novel, and no character better represents the quest for moral certainty than its protagonist, Charles Carter.
The author's characterization of Charles Carter is at once both sympathetic and critical. Gold's comprehensive research into Carter's life permits him to draw a character whose isolated childhood induced the study and practice of magic. A terrifying episode with the family's garderner provides the impetus for what becomes a life-long courtship with illusion, escape and misdirection. Detached from his family's wealth but unsure of his own direction, Carter works his way from the bottom up as he sharpens his craft. Assiduously respectful of the artistry of illusion, he develops a respect for the ethics of magic -- whose core tenets involve self-discipline, an honoring of the participants (including animals) in a show and a consuming desire to create original material. Charles Carter is such a fully-developed character that it becomes easy to see how he would not fit into today's glitzy, self-absorbed culture. Carter is simply too honorable, too self-deprecating to mesh with the "superstar" mentality of our current era.
In honoring the magician's admonishment that no details can be shared about the third act, this reviewer will abstain from details about Charles Carter's personal life, the inner and external conflicts he must wage in order to gain a sense of harmony on and off the state, and the implications that he may have been involved with the death of a President. The colorful cover of "Carter Beats the Devil" should lure passersby to purchase this marvelous novel and enter a world where the impossible becomes the expected and illusion supplants reality. Once you enter the domain of Charles Carter, you will surely be enthralled.
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Dr. Kenneth W. Douglas
Touching, tense, profound...and (oh, all right then) magical
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 8, 2004M Arif
Over 600 pages but most of them great fun...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2011