Carter Beats the Devil
Set at the turn of the twentieth century in a mysterious world of magic and intrigue, Carter Beats the Devil (2001) is a refreshingly different debut novel from author Glen David Gold who has made a remarkable debut in form of this, a fictionalized biography of famous American magician Charles Joseph Carter.
The first thing to note with regard to Carter, is that it is a long book. By long, I mean 560 pages, and those 560 pages can certainly seem rather daunting at first, given the slightly confusing introductory sequence, the ‘Overture' which sets up the rest of the novel. Fortunately however, Gold controls the plot superbly, and any initial confusion I felt at the opening section was soon forgotten as I found myself drawn completely into the mysterious world of the early twentieth century - a world where the wonders of magic are exactly that: wonders.
It's worth pointing out at this stage that never once did I find my perspective as a reader of the modern era a hindrance to my enjoyment of the magic of the early twentieth century. To me this seemed perhaps one of the biggest potential stumbling blocks in writing a book such as this, but Gold has clearly researched his work well, and presents a vivid world of magic and intrigue that builds to one excellent crescendo with the novel's climax in Act Three.
The magic on display in Carter Beats the Devil is clearly to me the text's greatest strength. The descriptions are as I have already mentioned, quite wonderful. As a reader I found myself openly encouraged to share in the wonder of the crowd at some of the illusions on display. In fact I'd go so far as to say that the wonders of the magic do an awful lot for the text in terms of covering up many of the more complex - some might say impossible - illusions where in the modern reader might be tempted to sit back and ask themselves, ‘did he really just do that?'
Clearly there's some artistic licence at work here. Some of the illusions do really seem too good to be true, and in some cases impossible. The thing is, Carter is so well written you really won't care. Of course this is a fictionalized biography, and of course I finished the book wondering just how good Charles Carter really was, and just how true to life some of the illusions were, but at the end of the day I also found myself turning the final page feeling wholly fulfilled and greatly entertained. It's strange but in this day and age with so many millions of books on the market, it's actually quite a rare thing to come out of a book with these sets of emotions. For this reason alone I suggest you all go out and read a copy of Carter Beats the Devil. I doubt very much you will be disappointed.
