The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini

Posnanski, Joe. The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini. New York: Avid Reader 2019. Print

First Sentences:

"Ladies and gentlemen," Harry Houdini sang, for in those days he did sing. 

Houdini's voice in many ways was more magical than any escape of illusion. 

Description:

I enjoy magic without being a student of it. Love being entertained by illusions without feeling the need to analyze the trick or figure out how I was fooled. 

Therefore, I love magic-themed biographies, historical fiction, and plain old novels rather than books with tell-all expositions of tricks and fakery. This means my favorites include fantastic books like Carter Beats the Devil, The World of Wonders, and The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo.

Well, you can add Joe Posnanski's The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini to my list of wonderful biographies of magicians. Although technically Erich Weiss (aka Harry Houdini) was never a great magician, his is the one name from the world of magic that everyone worldwide knows. Carter, Thurston, Blackstone, Robert-Houdin, and even Doug Henning and David Copperfield are now forgotten or only memories to those who actually saw them perform. But Houdini survives and his name is universally applied to anything involving escape, whether toddlers climbing out of cribs or octopuses slithering out of their tanks. All are "Houdini-like."

Author Posnanski decides to explore every news article, book, film, fact and rumor about Harry Houdini and his fame as an escape artist in the early 20th century. His hope is to cut away the rumors, exaggerations, and outright lies about Houdini and present just the known facts. Most of what we know about Houdini is from primary sources such as newspaper articles, promotional posters, and books of the day. However, most of these were written by Houdini himself, submitted to local media while performing in local theaters. Of course, much of this was simply exaggeration or outright untruths, but the print made him famous.

We learn about his struggles to be a card magician with a few other tricks, performing before small crowds at sideshows, dime museums, and small theaters. But it was his first escape trick, the "Metamorphosis" trunk escape, (purchased from another retiring magician), that the people loved. Houdini was encouraged to drop the magic and concentrate on escapes. Thus emerged highly-publicized escapes from local police cells with handcuffs. Later came the straitjacket, a simpler escape for him but one he dramatized by hanging upside down over rivers or audiences. 

"The secret of showmanship consists not in what you really do, but what the mystery-loving public thinks you do." [Harry Houdini]

Houdini had an insatiable hunger to be the most famous man in the world. Posnanski details this climb to the top and then the ever-increasing pressure to create newer, more dangerous escapes on never-ending tours around the world. En route, Houdini took it upon himself to expose fortune-tellers and mediums he considered fakes duping the public, including his boyhood hero, Robert-Houdin himself. We also learn about the escape-proof Mirror Cuffs specially designed to foil Houdini which they did for agonizing minutes on stage. He did finally master these cuffs, but since that one performance no one has ever been able to open the cuffs without their huge key.

Houdini wanted to bring real danger -- or at least the appearance of real danger -- to magic....The water Torture Cell is more than a magic trick. Houdini understood this. It attacks our inner feelings. It steals our basic needs for air and freedom. It touches something deep inside us today, just as it did one hundred years ago, just as it will one hundred years from now.

Posnanski also interviews current magicians and Houdini scholars to hear their stories and view their collections of Houdini materials and resources, including museums, books and films by Houdini himself, as well as elusive scholarly books that expose his tricks and techniques. Thankfully, Posnanski refuses to reveal any of Houdini's secrets (except for one which he gives readers plenty of opportunity to flip ahead and not read a potential deflating solution to a difficult problem).

The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini is a wonderful look at America and its people in the early years of the twentieth century. But it is Houdini himself that still captures the imagination with his larger than life persona, dreams, and exploits. A fascinating book about a unique performer, well worth anyone's time interested in magic, self-promotion, early American life, and the individual who brought to the public all these elements in one glorious package. 

Good magic sneaks up on you and finds the secret passage to the part of you that knows this is bullshit. It sweeps your mental supports out from under you for a moment and reminds you that the essential nature of life is mystery.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Gold, Glen David. Carter Beats the Devil.   

One of my all-time favorite books. Historical fiction about the famous magician Charles Carter, his life and love, and his possible involvement and subsequent disappearance after a performance where President Harding mysteriously died. Highly recommended (previously reviewed here)

Steinmeyer, Jim The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, the Marvelous Chinese Conjurer  

The incredibly true story of a white man who masqueraded as a mysteriously silent oriental magician his entire career. Wonderfully talented, he died on the stage when an illusion when wrong. Captivating read. (previously reviewed here)

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Harrow, Alix E. The Ten Thousand Doors of January. New York: Redhook 2019. Print

First Sentences:

When I was seven, I found a door.

I should capitalize that word, so you understand I'm not talking about your garden- or common-variety door that leads reliably to a white-tiled kitchen or a bedroom closet.


Description:

I'm not much of a fantasy book reader unless it happens to be about a hobbit or boy with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. However, I found myself totally engrossed with Alix E. Harrow's The Ten Thousand Doors of January with its journeys into parallel worlds through randomly-placed doorways scattered over the Earth.

January Scaller is a seven-year-old girl living in 1901 as the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke. January's father works for Locke, travelling extensively around the world to purchase (or steal) exotic treasures for his employer's pleasure. One day January stumbles on an abandoned door in the scrubby landscape of a deserted Kansas farm. Just an ordinary door, she discovers as she walks through it ... that is until afterward when she sits down to write a story about the door in her diary.

"Once there was a brave and temeraryous (sp?) girl who found a Door. It was a magic Door that's why it has a capital D. She opened the Door."

As these words hit the paper, suddenly January smells a salty fragrance of the ocean that draws her back to the door. This time when she steps through it, she finds herself on a bluff overlooking a world of a vast ocean and exotic smells. 

After stepping back into her own world, of course no one believes her tale. But the next day she finds that the door is gone, burned away to ashes. Later, January finds an ancient book called The Ten Thousand Doors tucked away in a box sent from her world-traveling father. In it, she reads a story describing other doors and the worlds behind them. It is a beautifully written, albeit sad, love story telling of a chance encounter between a boy and girl from different worlds who, after separation, spend their lives independently searching for another door that will lead them to the other person's world. 

When her father disappears, it is up to January to puzzle out the truth behind the book, to pick up the lovers' search for hidden doors, and to understand what role, if any, she plays in the story.

Maybe this plot line sounds too corny, too romantic, or simply too fantastical to bother with. But believe me, as a man with little time for such tales, The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a page-turner that simply swallows you up into new worlds of stubbornly strong characters and a secret society with an agenda of their own.

I became deeply involved with this book and characters. Writing, plot, character, and setting - my four criteria for great books - were all delivered in to the highest degree of skill. Naturally, it gets my highest recommendation. 

There are ten thousand stories about ten thousand Doors, and we know them as well as we know our names. They lead to Faerie, to Valhalla, Atlantis and Lemuria, Heaven and Hell, to all the directions a compass could never take you, to elsewhere. A dividing point between here and there, us and them, mundane and magical.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Lewis, C. S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.   

Four children find, in the back of an old wardrobe, a doorway that leads to the secret world of Narnia where they have heroic adventures galore and even rise to become royalty.

Special Post: Young Adult Fiction for Adults

Sometimes adult readers turn their noses up at Young Adult fiction simply because it is shelved differently in libraries and bookstores. Maybe they feel YA books are all simplistic and juvenile in themes, characters, and writing to appeal to a less sophisticated audience.

Boy, how wrong they are.

There are some doozies out there that will engross readers of any age. With students returning to school and needing some great reads for book reports, here are some of my absolute favorites that won't disappoint adult or younger readers on any level. 

Include your own favorites in the Comments section if you are so inclined.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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Hatchet  (and others in this survival series) - Gary Paulsen

First Sentences 

Brian Robeson stared out the window of the small plane at the endless green northern wilderness below. It was a small plane -- a Cessna 406 -- a bush plane -- and the engine was so loud, so roaring and consuming and loud that it ruined any chance for conversation. Not that he had much to say   

          - from Hatchet 

Description:

I love the survival tales of Brian Robeson who, after a plane crash, finds himself stranded alone in the Canadian wilderness and now must survive by his own wits. Hatchet and Brian's Winter are my favorites and worthy reads for any adult for the challenges faced, the struggles to survive, and the overcoming of self-doubts that we all feel in our lives.

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I Am the Messenger - Markus Zusak

First Sentences 

The gunman is useless. 

I know it. 

He knows it. 

The whole bank knows it. 

Even my best mate, Marvin, knows it, and he's more useless than the gunman. 

          
Description:

Author of the popular The Book Thief, Zusak has written a fascinating mystery about an aimless young cabdriver who begins to receive cryptic notes written on playing cards. When deciphered, he feels these messages refer to neighbors who have problems that he must address and help, whether through simple encouragement, friendship, fighting, or simply listening. His friends don't understand his quests, but undeterred he resolves to understand and complete the missions alluded to in the four cards.

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Brewster - Mark Slouka

First Sentences 

The first time I saw him fight was right in front of the school, winter.

It was before I knew him. I noticed him walking across the parking lot -- that long coat, his hair tossing around in the wind -- with some guy I'd never seen before following twenty feet behind and two others fanned back like wings on a jet.

        

Description:

This is the book I feel should replace The Catcher in the Rye as the novel that most honestly represents teen angst and the reality they face in the twenty-first century. One high school boy deals with the untimely death of his popular brother by trying to become a cross-country runner. Another friend, gifted mentally, drifts in and out of school and picks fights everyone to build a reputation as dark as his countenance. Along with a girl and an unpopular bully, these four contemplate their present and future world in honest and halting words and actions to meet their fates head on. A brilliant, strongly-written book.

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The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

First Sentences 

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, nor yet a dry sand bare sand hole: it was a hobbit hole and that means comfort.

   

Description:

Originally a small story told by author Tolkien to his children, The Hobbit became a runaway best seller to millions of children and adults throughout the world. A tale of adventure, humor, dragons, gold, and most importantly Good and Evil, The Hobbit is worthy of any reader who loves a great story simply told with great depth of character and plot. Here, an unsuspecting hobbit is recruited to join a group of dwarves on a quest to reclaim their ancestors' ancient gold from the dragon guarding it. The major (and minor) figures are unforgettable, whether hobbits, dwarves, men, dragons, spiders, mythic figures, or a strange creature who lives in the dark and cold under the mountain. 

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

First Sentences 

It was 7 minutes after midnight.

The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs. Shears's house. It's eyes were closed. It looked as if it was running on its side, the way dogs run when they think they are chasing cats in a dream.

Description:

Maybe not technically a YA book, this fascinating novel explores the mind of the autistic teenage narrator who seeks to find the answers to who violently killed the neighborhood dog. His quest takes him into many worlds that he fears but faces with straightforward honesty and questions which are uncomfortable for many to answer.

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The Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling

First Sentences 

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number 4, Privet Drive, were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

They were the last people you'd expect to be involved with anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. 

          - from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Description:

Probably no one has not heard of the Harry Potter series of magicians, Muggles, and evil forces combated by teenage wizards in training. But if you have only seen the movies, you are cheating yourself of great writing and characters not found on the silver screen. Although the books become increasingly darker and longer, the entire series is a treasure to read. Start at the first and read consecutively for the fullest effect of a maturing author and characters, flowing into complex stories and decisions from the heroes to thwart He-Who-Cannot-Be-Named.

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Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

First Sentences 

"I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears and I tell you he's the one. Or at least as close as we're going to get."

"That's what you said about the brother."

"The brother tested out impossible.For other reasons. Nothing to do with his ability."

Description:

Earth's government recruits child geniuses and trains them in an orbiting Battle School to be soldiers against the predicted invasion of fierce, insect-like aliens. Ender Wiggen and his two siblings take leadership roles in this coming conflict on Earth and in space. Ender rises in the ranks of selected trainees, overcoming bullies, mental challenges, and mock battle in weightless environments and sophisticated video simulation games. And they wait of the coming alien battles, hoping their are ably prepared. Extremely well-written, gripping, and unpredictable. 

An added bonus is the recent book Ender's Shadow written by Card years later to retell the same story but from the completely different eyes of a street smart youngster named Bean who was also recruited in Ender's class of soldier cadets. Interesting that a minor character now becomes the center of attention as the narrator and later Ender's right-hand officer in the training and battles. Bean gives a completely different perspective on the government, the mission, and the organization that seeks to make him a loyal soldier.

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Five Children and It - E. Nesbit

First Sentences 

The house was three miles from the station, but before the dusty hired hack had rattled along for five minutes, the children began to put their heads out of the carriage window and say, "Aren't we nearly there?"

Description:

From the author of the Railway Children series, E. Nesbit's 1902 novel tells of five siblings who discover a sand-fairy who grants them a wish a day with the proviso that at sunset the wish wears off and everything returns to as it was. The children ponder each wish very carefully - for wealth, beauty, to be big, wings, etc. - but each wish fulfillment goes unexpectedly wrong so that by the end of the day the children are glad to have the results of their wishes reversed. And they plan the next day's wish that will be perfect without possibility of misinterpretation or unexpected repercussions. A very interesting, timeless read from over 100 years ago.

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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - Jesse Andrews

First Sentences 

So in order to understand everything that happened, you have to start from the premise that high school sucks.

Do you accept that premise? Of course you do. It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. In fact, high school is where we are first introduced to the basic existential question of life: How is is possible to exist in a place that sucks this bad? 

Description:

The perfect first sentences to a Young Adult book: snarky, slangy, pessimistic, and funny. And Andrews keeps up the writing style throughout, mixing in formats of scripts, dialogue, and rambling narrative to tell this tale of two teenage boys and one girl (not a "girlfriend") working through the challenges of cancer, high school life, bad film-making, and getting along with the various high school mobs. You may have seen this movie (I did and didn't even know it was based on this book), but reading this story is so much more funny. Remember all the clever lines from the movie? Taken directly from the book which is chock full of such wit, sarcasm, insights, friendship, and genuine tenderness.

Let's just say that it would explain a lot of things if there were a fungus eating my brain.

World of Wonders

Davies, Robertson. World of Wonders. Toronto: Viking Penguin : Macmillan 1977. Print.

First Sentences:

"Of course he was a charming man. A delightful person. Who has ever questioned it? But not a great magician."

"By what standard do you judge?"

"Myself. Who else?"

"You consider yourself a greater magician than Robert-Houdin?"

"Certainly." 

Description:

OK, I just couldn't wait. Once I finished Robertson Davies' Fifth Business last week and learned it was the first book in a trilogy, I had to read the other two. And World of Wonders is the most satisfying of the three, so wanted to share it with you immediately.

World of Wonders is an intoxicating, Arabian Nights-like extended storytelling as narrated by Magnus Eisengrim, magician extraordinary, who paints the grim, fascinating details of his life story that made him the world's leading magician. Eisengrim (The Wolf) is filming a documentary about Robert-Houdin, another famous magician. After the daily shoots, he settles in with the filmmakers and friends around lavish meals to leisurely reveal what a wild life he experienced that brought him to his current position position of skill and celebrity. Each night he leaves the story at a critical point, making his listeners (and us readers) hungry for more.

Also in attendance are his lover, Leisl Vitzliputzli, and boyhood friend, Dunstan Ramsay, both major characters in the first book in the Deptford trilogy, Fifth Business. The first secret is that Eisengrim is really Paul Dempster, the boy we met in the first book who was born prematurely to his mother when Ramsay dodged a snowball that hit Dempster's mother, causing her to fall and give birth prematurely to Paul, then go slowly insane. Strap yourself in. The story is a wild one.

At age 10 Paul is abducted by a traveling carnival, the World of Wonders, where he becomes a magician's "assistant" and more for the next ten years. He learns some skills but mostly is trapped in a card-playing mechanical robot illusion, and observes life at its lowest level from his jaded eyes as a carny worker. His only relationships are with the other sideshow acts like the fat woman, a sword-swallower, the knife-thrower, an orang-outang, a fortuneteller, and the wild man. 

Later he strikes out on his own to survive in the harsh world, relying only on his few skills as a performer.

I, too became cynical, with the whole-hearted, all-inclusive vigour of the very young. Why not? Was I not shut off from mankind and any chance to gain an understanding of the diversity of human temperament by the life I led and the people who dominated me? Yet I saw people, and I saw them very greatly to their disadvantage....When the Pharisees saw us they marveled, but it seemed to me that their inward parts were full of ravening and wickedness...and their greed and stupidity and cunning drove them on....

Occasionally during his travels, he sees his childhood acquaintance, Ramsay, in the audience but rebuffs him, uninterested in the fate of his mother or life in Deptford. World of Wonders unravels Paul's life to the last pages of Fifth Business (which had been narrated by Ramsay about his own life) and continues on to explain how Paul (now called Eisengrim) shapes his skills and persona into the premier magic act in the world.

But hanging over Paul/Eisengrim and Ramsay is the fate of Boy Staunton, the boyhood friend who originally threw the fateful snowball that caused the birth of Eisengrim. Staunton has risen to become a powerful and rich man, but at the end of Fifth Business was found dead of an apparent suicide. Did Eisengrim commit murder as revenge as Ramsay believes, or is there another explanation? Only the tantalizingly slow unfurling of events contained in Eisengrim's narrative storytelling in World of Wonders reveals these secrets.

This is a fascinating telling of a unique and highly personal story, with plenty of unusual characters and actions which promote discussion and arguments among the listeners as they try to interpret and debate events once Eisengrim leaves for the night. What is the truth? How much can events of one's life influence one's final personality, and how much is simply fate?

The story is gripping, the characters both good and evil, and the conclusions continually surprising. The aura of mystery and magic permeate the narration set in the struggles of life for one person trying to achieve dreams, but always trying just to survive and improve.

But part of the glory and terror of our life is that somehow, at some time, we get all that's coming to us. Everybody gets their lumps and their bouquets and it goes on for quite a while after death.

Highest recommendation possible. Read Fifth Business first, but make World of Wonders the cherry on top of this delicious trilogy. 

(P.S. I found out that Davies has written two other equally acclaimed trilogies, The Cornish Trilogy and The Salterton Trilogy, so my bedside table is going to be piled high with his wonderfully-written books. Can't wait.)

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Davies, Robertson. Fifth Business

Dunstan Ramsay. retiring history teacher, writes his memoirs in a letter to his headmaster to set the record straight. And what a record it is, from boyhood in Deptford, Canada to heroic actions in World War I to his acquaintance with the mysterious Paul Dempster, alias Eisengrim, the world-famous magician, all of whom hold secrets about themselves and each other. Highest recommendation. (Previously reviewed here)

Gold, Glen David. Carter Beats the Devil

Based on the real life of Charles Carter, a magician who performed before President Warren Harding who died later that night under suspicious conditions. Fantastic details of the man and his magic. One of my favorite books of all time. (previously reviewed here)

Fifth Business

Davies, Robertson. Fifth Business. New York: Viking Penguin. 1970. Print.

First Sentences:

My lifelong involvement with Mrs. Dempster began at 5:58 o'clock p.m. on 27 December 1908, at which time I was ten years and seven months old.

I am able to date the occasion with complete certainty because that afternoon I had been sledding with my lifelong friend and enemy Percy Boyd Staunton, and we had quarreled, because his fine new Christmas sled would not go as fast as my old one.

Description:

Can one describe the excitement of stumbling upon a new author, a great book, and the promise of more titles because the original book is part in a trilogy? I can't, but will try to give you part of the enthusiasm I felt while reading Robertson Davies' Fifth Business, the first novel in his turn-of-the-century Deptford trilogy.

Set in the tiny town of Deptford, Canada, Fifth Business is a personal history told by Dunstan Ramsay, a history teacher in a private boy's school who is retiring after 45 years of service. After a weak tribute article about Ramsay's life appeared, he decides to write a letter to the headmaster to set the record straight on his life story. Fifth Business is the lengthy letter that results.

The plot and subsequent actions over his lifetime revolve around one incident when Ramsay dodged a snowball thrown by his much richer friend/enemy, Percy Boyd Staunton. The snowball, loaded with a stone, hit the pregnant wife of a local parson, causing her to fall, give premature birth to a son, Paul, and then go slowly, quietly insane.

Ramsay is assigned by his mother to look in on this addled woman and her tiny son every day over the next years, becoming friends with both. Mrs. Dempsey proves an interesting listener and kind companion, and Paul becomes an eager student for Ramsay to teach minor magic tricks to. All is well until Mrs. Dempsey participates in a scandalous act that shocks the small town and drives this group of friends apart.

When Ramsay leaves to serve in World War I, he provides an honest description of service for an ordinary soldier in a war:

I was in the infantry, and most of the time I did not know where I was or what I was doing except that I was obeying orders and trying not to be killed in any of the variety of horrible ways open to me.

I was bored as I have never been since - bored till every bone in my body was heavy with it....It was the boredom that comes of being cut off from everything that could make life sweet, or around curiosity, or enlarge the range of the senses. It was the boredom that comes of having to perform endless tasks that have no savour and acquire skills would gladly be without. 

In France, though my boredom was unabated, loneliness was replaced by fear. I was, in a mute, controlled, desperate fashion, frightened for the next three years.

He becomes a hero for one action that is performed during a frightening raid on a machine gun nest. His action results in the loss of his leg and part of an arm, damage that affects the choices his makes throughout the remainder of his story. Meanwhile, Staunton remains home in Canada, building up a fortune in the food industry. 

Upon Ramsay's return, he takes a teaching position at the boys' school he and Staunton attended, even becoming Headmaster during World War II while Staunton chairs their board of directors. Paul has meanwhile disappeared from Deptford, but Ramsay stumbles upon him in rural France performing a wonderful magic act for an otherwise broken-down circus.

It is the writing that pulls these seemingly connected, yet separate lives together. Author Davies captures the mind and phrasing perfectly of a history professor and researcher in the early 1900s, a man who seems open about his actions but holds many secrets. 

The story is full of unique characters, from magicians to fool/saints, soldiers to professors, lovers and hobos, and rural townspeople with their prejudices and beliefs. All are influences on Ramsay's life, both for good or evil. Ramsay himself, in the telling of his story, looks for causes of his current status and his own inner being.

One always learns one's mystery at the price of ones innocence.

I cannot recommend this highly enough for those like me not familiar with Robertson Davies. And personally I cannot wait to read the other two novels in the trilogy (The Manticore and World of Wonders). The characters are definitely people I want to follow further.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Davies, Robertson. World of Wonders

Just started reading this and it's a fantastic conclusion to the Fifth Business Deptford trilogy. Narrated by Magnus Eisengrim (Paul Dempster), we hear his story about how he became a magician as he talks with an eminent film director filming him for a Robert-Houdin project. Of course, Dunstan Ramsay is along to observe and record their discussions about magic, people, life struggles, and the Devil. Wonderfully written, great characters, and absorbing plot.

Gold, Glen David. Carter Beats the Devil

Based on the real life of Charles Carter, a magician who performed before President Warren Harding who died later that night under suspicious conditions. Fantastic details of the man and his magic. One of my favorite books of all time. (previously reviewed here)