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Wanted to like it. Never hit the mark.
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The Grand Complication
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Penzler Pick, Most avid readers love everything about books--not only the words,but also the paper, the edition, the age, the texture of the binding, all ofwhich become part of the fascination for the printed word that makes a truebibliophile. So it is no wonder that the bibliophile mystery has achieved suchpopularity. The Grand Complication, well-written and well-researched, isthe latest in a long line of such mysteries.Alexander Short is a reference librarian who spends his days dealing with theminutiae of his work world. At night he goes home to his French wife who is alsoa book person. She makes pop-up books and other three-dimensional volumes,including a "girdle" that Alexander wears in the manner of medieval monks, tiedaround his middle and used for his "girdling" or taking notes--somethingAlexander does obsessively, to the detriment of his job. Two such people seemmade for each other, but their obsessions make for a rocky marriage.So Alexander is fascinated when he meets Henry James Jesson III, an elderly manwith equally obsessive interests. He would like Alexander to help him afterhours. In Jesson's Manhattan mansion there is a cabinet of curiosities that tellthe life of an 18th-century inventor. But one of the compartments is empty.Jesson, and soon Alexander, are agog with curiosity about what was in thatcompartment. Finding out is half the fun of reading this book.The other half, if you care (and somehow I think you do), is the design of thebook itself. Kurzweil is the son of an engineer, and he designed the small icon,a gear, that appears on many of the book's pages. Over the course of the novel,which runs 360 pages, that gear turns 360 degrees. And then there are theendpapers.... --Otto Penzler
0 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1,2001
This edition
- Format
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0 pages, Mass Market Paperback
- Published
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January 1, 2003 by Hyperion
- ISBN
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9780786889778
- ASIN
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0786889772
- Language
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English
About the author
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Allen Kurzweil is an American novelist, journalist, editor, and lecturer. He is the author of four works of fiction, most notably A Case of Curiosities, as well as a memoir Whipping Boy. He is also the co-inventor, with his son Max, of Potato Chip Science, an eco-friendly experiment kit for grade schoolers. He is a cousin of Ray Kurzweil and brother of Vivien Schmidt.
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100 reviews All reviews
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no spoilers.
I was hoping this would live up to the descriptions I read about this book, but it's not all that intriguing, it's not all that sexy, and it isn't all that smart. Perhaps being a librarian skewed things for me, but the main character seemed like a wuss that I wouldn't want to work with. And while there are some really interesting descriptions of rooms and objects, that wasn't enough to keep me going.
It's not a "bad" book, though. I can imagine someone finding the inventiveness and the "behind the scenes" at a library to be fascinating. Just not the book for me.
I was hoping this would live up to the descriptions I read about this book, but it's not all that intriguing, it's not all that sexy, and it isn't all that smart. Perhaps being a librarian skewed things for me, but the main character seemed like a wuss that I wouldn't want to work with. And while there are some really interesting descriptions of rooms and objects, that wasn't enough to keep me going.
It's not a "bad" book, though. I can imagine someone finding the inventiveness and the "behind the scenes" at a library to be fascinating. Just not the book for me.
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Just make sure you have a dictionary with you as you read this. I've never before encountered such vocabulary in a novel!
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This is one strange book!
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Interesting idea about a librarian employed to track down a beautiful watch, but the execution was lacking. Boring characters, contrived ending, and the whole thing with the 360 pages and little gears just seemed to support that the book was much more a concept than a realized story.
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A clever (maybe too clever) tale of adventure involving the relationship between an experienced librarian and his wealthy dilettante employer. Marred, as many novels often are, by a less than satisfactory conclusion... a bit too far-fetched in my opinion.
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The basic plot seems simple enough: a rich older gentleman hires a research librarian to help him track down an object that once resided in a compartmentalized case (in fact, the case is the eponymous Case of Curiosities from Kurzweil’s first novel). The search, its results, and its aftermath form the framework of the book. But hidden within this seemingly bland framework is a story as wonderfully complex as an Escher print: characters are not who they seem to be; motivations are called into question; and vital bits of information dance just out of our reach.
Kurzweil is a powerfully evocative writer. His scenes in the research library make you feel like you can reach out and touch the books (and oh! such books: Secret Compartments in Eighteenth-Century Furniture, The Universal Penman, Hints on Husband Catching, or A Manual for Marriageable Misses—and that’s just from the first 30 pages). Jesson’s home is described in all of its opulent splendor, with special attention given to yards of books and the shelving thereof (are you sensing a pattern?). Thankfully, even non-book-oriented places are described well.
When an author is this attentive to setting, character can sometimes be lost. But Kurzweil sidesteps this trap neatly, giving us a cast of exuberantly eccentric characters who nonetheless manage to ring true. Everyone from the petty research library bureaucrats to the narrator’s tempestuous girlfriend is limned with just enough detail to make their various eccentricities believable.
The Grand Complication is a Chinese treasure-box of a novel—just when you’re certain you know what’s going on, you find another hidden compartment with new information in it. The writing is beautiful, the plot is compelling, and the characters are a joy to spend time with. Stop listening to me natter on about it and pick it up for yourself. I think you’ll enjoy the read.
Kurzweil is a powerfully evocative writer. His scenes in the research library make you feel like you can reach out and touch the books (and oh! such books: Secret Compartments in Eighteenth-Century Furniture, The Universal Penman, Hints on Husband Catching, or A Manual for Marriageable Misses—and that’s just from the first 30 pages). Jesson’s home is described in all of its opulent splendor, with special attention given to yards of books and the shelving thereof (are you sensing a pattern?). Thankfully, even non-book-oriented places are described well.
When an author is this attentive to setting, character can sometimes be lost. But Kurzweil sidesteps this trap neatly, giving us a cast of exuberantly eccentric characters who nonetheless manage to ring true. Everyone from the petty research library bureaucrats to the narrator’s tempestuous girlfriend is limned with just enough detail to make their various eccentricities believable.
The Grand Complication is a Chinese treasure-box of a novel—just when you’re certain you know what’s going on, you find another hidden compartment with new information in it. The writing is beautiful, the plot is compelling, and the characters are a joy to spend time with. Stop listening to me natter on about it and pick it up for yourself. I think you’ll enjoy the read.
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boring, and on, and on, and on, and on......
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