3.5

Starts strong but gradually moves into hack-screenplay-formula-land, giving rise to the suspicion that the book was written with a movie sale foremost in mind.

First off- what a cover! I saw this lying on a table at a library book sale and I was instantly drawn. It's flashy, it's bold, it's charming - all a good representation of what's to come.

The book follows the magician Charles Carter, who was a real person. It's supposed to be a fictionalized account of his life and career. And here's my first complaint (I don't have many): this book is very fictionalized and since Carter's not very well known nowadays, it's impossible to tell whether anything is real.

An example of how foolish I am: The book starts off with President Warren Harding - again an actual person - and how he died after being a part of Carter's magic show. So at this point, I'm telling all my friends how I'm reading a fascinating book and it talks about an actual US president mysteriously dying, possibly assassinated by a magician. Finally I think to fact check - and it's not real! In fact, many other storylines are not real either. I would have to read an actual biography of Charles Carter to be able to tell (which I probably won't) so I've decided to consider everything aside from the names to be fiction.

The first part of the book is mighty fine. His entire childhood, first love, building his career, sticking it to the man. It flows quickly, the mood is lighthearted - it's a lot of fun. Also, Carter's relationship with his father (whom he yearns to connect with and impress) and his younger brother (to whom he's a protector and a friend) feel realistic and familiar. The second part does not flow as well - there are a lot of side characters that have chapters of their own. I didn't much care for them, I was more into what Carter was up to. I still enjoyed it - especially the descriptions of the magic acts. And on that note - I hope magic makes a comeback sometime soon. A big, impressive production in a lavish theater. The smartest person in the audience going on stage to volunteer. Elephants vanishing, magicians escaping from guillotines, knife throwing, ladies disappearing. I would love to see that in person someday.

"What I mean is, the world is an awful place, isn't it? Magic makes it less awful for a moment or two." He felt like he'd torn away a bandage, and confirmed that an old wound was indeed still there. "If I can shake the world off a man's shoulders, I feel better."

I'm a bit obsessed with acknowledgements, so of course I read the (lengthy) acknowledgements section at the very end. And I saw perhaps what was one of the most poetic, the most romantic tribute. Here it is:

Finally: Sebold. Mind reader, levitator, secret weapon, gadfly, butterfly. Artist's model box jumper, diva, high-wire aerialist. Quick-change artiste, sensation of the ages, and inquirer into the spirit world. Critic, effects-builder, manager, diva, oracle, mistress of escapes, queen of the mysteries, fellow conjurer, class act, and have I said 'diva' already? Friend, sister, secret weapon, paramour. Wife! I love you- let's take over this evil planet and make it a playground.

Let's take over this evil planet and make it a playground - I love that.

One last thing I'd like to say: I learned a lot from this book, but most are useless historical facts that Glen David Gold made up (Houdini was not actually gay apparently). The one thing that will stay with me was Carter counting his pulse to keep calm while escaping from the brank. No magician ever escaped by panicking, apparently. And that thought crosses my mind from time to time while I'm doing something that scares me, like climbing. It helps me. I take a deep breath and channel my inner magician, which sounds very lame, but it's how I feel.

This is a lavish, richly detailed novel that I found very difficult to get into. I was enjoying the story as it built momentum during the rise and the early phase of Carter's career. But around a third of the way through the book, the author decides to jump ahead by over a decade and then jump around multiple perspectives. This loss of momentum made the book difficult for me come back to, and my interest only returned for the climax in the final 100 pages. Having said that, by the end of the novel I felt genuinely sad to put it down and leave the characters, who are hugely entertaining.

It's a very strange book and I can only say you have to read it for yourself and make your own judgements. Some will love it, some won't get it, and some will like it but be frustrated.

I had a hard time getting into this one, for some reason, but after I put it down for some months, two chapters in, I picked it back up and literally put it down only for meals until I was done. Once it gets you, it doesn't let go. If you're interested in magic, definitely pick this one up.

What an unusual and perplexing story. Also, a great adventure of a formidable and admirable main character. Occasionally it made hardly any sense to me; some of it was hilarious. And tangents, there were so many tangents, which others might call fleshing out of secondary characters. Carter the Great, a real-life magician during the early part of the 20th century, is accused of murdering President Harding, though there is not a great deal of evidence to attach him to the crime. Much of the book details the search for Carter. In truth, he beats the devil twice in this long tale of historical fiction. Other notable people featured in the book include Houdini, Philo Farnsworth and Borax Smith. Highly recommended!

- Speelt zich af in 1920. Top.
- Daarna ontvouwt de roman zich als een Dan Brown-thriller met goochelaars, waarbij ik een tijdje hoopte dat het zo vermakelijk zou zijn als dat klinkt.
- Het was niet zo vermakelijk.
- Hoe was 'Carter klopt de Duivel' de beste vertaling van de titel?
- Elk personage had de emotionele diepgang van een krant.
- Ongeacht de met honderd pagina's zeer uitvoerige geschiedenis van de hoofdpersoon. Die overigens gebaseerd is op historisch figuur.
- Ik koester sinds het lezen van dit boek de vurige hoop dat over honderd jaar mijn nagedachtenis nooit op deze manier zal worden gebruikt.
- Er kwam een slechterik in voor: ~Mysterioso~, een jaloerse goochelaar tijdens zijn ballingschap in Egypte theatereigenaars vermoordt met speelkaarten, waarna hij terugkeert als de Geheime Dienst hem verzoekt wraak te nemen. Ook dit is niet zo vermakelijk als het klinkt.
- Waarom heb ik deze 600 pagina's eigenlijk gelezen.
- Er was een moment in de 600 pagina's wat wel iets teweegbracht. Een verhandeling over de afbeelding van een martelmuilkorf en het gevoel om als kind door iets groots, duisters en onbegrijpelijks te worden aangetrokken. Dat was ik vergeten en heb ik weer tevoorschijn kunnen halen.

This book is unimaginably good. One of the greatest novels of the 21st century.

I just had to reread this. There have been damn few times in my life that I've laughed out loud, I mean the really gasp-in-amazement, my-god-this is-colossal kind of laugh, while reading a book. The how-the-hell-did-they-DO-that sputtering laughter reserved for CGI effects. Movies, TV, plays, that's the places you indulge yourself like that, certainly not in the solitude of your favorite chair with a novel in your face. People might talk. "What the hell's going on in there?"

Let 'em. This is the kind of story that makes you want to call up a friend in the dead of night and say, let me read this to you. You have GOT to read this.

Fun, suspense, misdirection, betrayal, revenge, danger, spectacle, uhm, what else; intrigue...and did I mention fun? Multiple plot threads artfully knitted up into a Gordian knot, running in-jokes, snappy dialogue, a bad guy you love to hate. A heroine with a cloudy past. Houdini. Government corruption, conspiracies, assassinations. A big knockout finish.

And this is only Gold's first novel! One of those books that as you read, you're mentally casting the movie: let's see, Buscemi as Farnsworth? Nah, too old, otherwise perfect.

And you know the most amazing thing? It's all true, except for the fiction.

Good but overlong.

Carter Beats the Devil was one of those novels you hate to see end.

The 2001 work by Glen David Gold is hard to categorize. Carter Beats the Devil focuses on Charles Carter, a stage magician in 1920s San Francisco facing a career crossroads. Beset by a taunting rival, with the entertainment revolution represented by movies gathering steam, Carter grapples with the need to pull off something amazing to save his career. Flashbacks to earlier points in Carter’s life trace his development from a privileged youth, his discovery of magic and his romantic travails. Along the way, the story intersects with the death of President Warren Harding and the invention of television.

Carter Beats the Devil has an interesting central plot, but it’s not really a plot-driven book. Carter manages to interact with numerous real world personalities on his journey (including Harding, Philo T. Farnsworth, Harry Houdini and the Marx Brothers, among others) and to intersect with real world events. The prospect of career ruination provides the motivating force of the story. But really, Carter Beats the Devil is about the emotional journey of Charles Carter.

Gold crafted a rather compelling central character. Carter isn’t always easy to like. Indeed, there are points where he’s rather self-involved and careless of those around him. But Gold locates a relatable point of view in this complicated man with a singularly distinctive profession and outlook on the world. Gold’s construction of the world of period revue shows and stage magic is dazzling. The details, the language of that world, the ups and downs, all come vividly to life. And Gold is a master of immersing the reader in the story’s period setting. He incorporates real world events and people not to show off his research, but because they truly enhance the story. It’s a period novel where the period is almost a character in and of itself.

And that, more than anything, may be why Carter Beats the Devil lingers in my mind so strongly 14 years after I first read it. Gold crafted characters and an atmosphere that were transporting and absorbing. While the plot was interesting enough and provided decent payoff, it is the characters and their world that really pull the reader in. I could have gone on reading about them for many more chapters, enjoying the clear love that Gold had for what he was writing. The language, the details, the effortlessness. When a book is crafted with as much heart as was Carter Beats the Devil, it just radiates through.

Gold hasn’t been prolific. His only other novel was the relatively disappointing Sunnyside in 2009. That was another period frolic whose many interesting parts never quite came together. One can only hope fans will see another book from him someday.

Until then, Carter Beats the Devil is highly and enthusiastically recommended.

This review originally appeared on www.thunderalleybcp.com.

I also read it about 20 years ago.