'Carter Beats the Devil' by Glen David Gold

OK, so I desperately wanted to finish this book and, believe me, I really did try to, but when you have spent almost two weeks with one book, any book, you inevitably lose momentum and the desire to see what happens in the end, however good the writing may be. I began reading Carter Beats the Devil the weekend before last and although certain sequences proved riveting, particularly those involving magic tricks gone horribly wrong, on the whole Carter… failed to make much of an impression on me. But the novel isn’t all bad, as I shall explain.

Published in 2001 to widespread critical acclaim, a veritable wall of which prefaces this paperback edition, Carter Beats the Devil is a fictional account of the life and times of Charles Carter, an American magician who became famous during the 1920s. The novel, Glen David Gold’s first, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and it has since been translated into fourteen languages. Furthermore, Carter… has garnered comparisons to Wilkie Collins’ 1860 classic The Woman in White, though, given that I haven’t read much (any) Collins, I am in no position to comment on any such parallels. However I can certainly say that Carter Beats the Devil has the overall feel of something that was produced long before the dawn of the twenty-first century. In fact, for reasons I do not fully understand, I was often reminded of Thomas Hardy.

So why couldn’t I bring myself to finish it? Firstly, Carter Beats the Devil is one hell of a long book, boasting a total of 590 detail-stuffed pages. It is, as Michael Chabon describes it, ‘compendious,’ but unfortunately there are times when too much attention is given to minutiae and the narrative suffers as a consequence. This leads me to my second reason for throwing in the towel - the book’s narrative voice or rather the sad lack thereof. What Gold’s first person narrator boasts of in omniscience he lacks in energy and persuasiveness. In short, it is difficult to really 'get into’ the story when it is told in such a detached manner. Finally, Carter Beats the Devil buckles under the weight of its innumerable subplots; if Gold were to have trimmed some of the more extraneous stories I imagine Carter… would prove a more cohesive read.

And yet in spite of this barrage of criticism there is a great deal to admire. After all, Carter Beats the Devil is, somewhat unbelievably, Glen David Gold’s debut novel. Yes, really. While many debut novels, my own work-in-progress included, are semi-autobiographical/roman a clef/hallucinatory memoir etcetera, Gold’s is nothing of the sort. It is detailed and scholarly, and instead of writing about himself Gold has chosen a topic which he is passionate about - magic- and has breathed new life into it. Furthermore, he has done so in taut, measured prose that harks back to the nineteenth century greats. Carter Beats the Devil may not have put a spell on me (sorry I had to) but, by all means, go ahead and see if it might work its magic on you.

This piece was originally published on alisonlaurabell.tumblr.com in August 2012.