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Carter Beats the Devil
 
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Carter Beats the Devil (Paperback)

by Glen David Gold (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 576 pages
  • Publisher: Sceptre; New edition edition (16 May 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0340794992
  • ISBN-13: 978-0340794999
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 4.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6,604 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
With romance, magic and science as its central themes, Glen David Gold's impressive debut Carter Beats The Devil is an inspired delight, a dazzling combination of fact and fiction. Charles Carter is given his stage name "Carter the Great" by the legendary Harry Houdini and the jazz age of the early 1900s is clearly well researched, yet the romance and strong cast of characters must owe more to the imagination than to history.

The novel begins in 1923 with the most daring performance of Carter's life. Unfortunately, two hours into the performance, US President Harding is dead and the magician must flee the country, pursued by the Secret Service. This is only an instalment in Carter's amazing life though as we are guided from his childhood, where both the family servant and a circus freak bullied him, to his rise to stardom and his eventual performance in front of the president. Subsequently, the protagonist is crippled by loneliness, widowed and hunted down by those who believe him a murderer and yet he rises again and again to delight and fulfil the highest expectations of his audience. The strong narrative and storyline make for a compelling read. And Carter is such a magical character that you cannot fail to be touched by him--loving whom he does and hating his enemies.

This is an ambitious and compulsive novel and deserves all the praise that Carter himself received and more. If you like this, you may also be interested in reading Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay --Hannah Smith --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Telegraph Summer Reading Paperback Fiction Choice
'An audaciously plotted and wonderfully camp adventure.'

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Carter Beats the Devil
84% buy the item featured on this page:
Carter Beats the Devil 4.3 out of 5 stars (48)
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Customer Reviews

48 Reviews
5 star:
 (27)
4 star:
 (11)
3 star:
 (9)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (48 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Magical!, 22 Dec 2003
When people ask you about the book you're reading and you tell them it's a fictitious account of the life of an early 20th century stage magician, the usual response is not for them to say "Really? You must tell me more!" But resembles much more a silent bewilderment at how boring you must be. At least, in my experience, and maybe because I'm not very good at making things sound exciting. But this really is a very good book indeed. Honest. It is funny, gripping and genuinely captivating. It's one of those books you sit down with the intention of reading for twenty minutes or so, then find four hours have magically disappeared into the ether. Charles Carter, the principal character, is depicted beautifully, as the book follows his life from a young boy with a book on magic and some paternally frowned upon dreams, to Carter the Great. It's really impossible to describe the story, with its array of characters and plot twists, I can only say it is a truly amazing story written in a beautiful, easy style, that captures you at the start and doesn't let you go, and may also make you go off and buy books on card and coin tricks. Hats off to Mr. Gold.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars What would you do if you knew an awful secret?, 21 Dec 2003
I bought this book when I was feeling really down. Long train journey ahead, I thought it looked a thick and meaty read, somthing value for money. I don't usually go for books about 'magic', so was a little wary, but I thought what the heck. I'm glad I did.

The first third is tightly written and dark, but with a dash of humour that makes it difficult to supress a smile (especially when Carter explores his mothers bedroom). This opens the rest of the book beautifully.

Carter is a believable character, even though he is an unlikely hero- he's written in a very human way, given his profession and background. He could well have felt like a bit of a smart arse, but you feel his pain accutely, and share his joys and victories.

A book for easing you back to reality by drifting you into fantasy, lifting your spirits and learning to accept that you too can grab joy from the jaws of dispair. Thrilling and moving.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable page-turner of a first first novel, 28 Sep 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Carter Beats the Devil (Hardcover)
Glen David Gold has made good use of his extensive research to give us a fictionalised account of the vanished world of stage illusion and magic before the coming of television. His central story is the progress of Charles Carter from the childhood events that give him the stimulus to explore the world of magic to his apotheosis as Carter the Great, one of the leading stage magicians in the last days of vaudeville. Along the way he makes and battles with enemies of several varieties and falls in love more than once. Gold paints his life in chiarascuro, putting Carter in situations that sent chills down this reader's back but also giving him joy and humour. The novel opens and closes with Carter's involvement in the death, or was it murder, of Gilbert Harding, the American President, but the book is packed with far too much colour and incident to be classified as a simple thriller; which is not to say that it is not thrilling - I found it compelling and was loth to put the book down whenever I had the chance to pick it up.
The author has learnt well the central lesson of magic: misdirection. Again and again the reader is led to draw conclusions that are confounded by subsequent paragraphs. Just as in a magic show one knows that one is being fooled - but the pleasure (heightened by frustration) is in knowing that one is being had, but still not being able to work out what is going to happen. This is a very impressive first novel - I look forward to Glen David Gold's next work. The only criticism I could offer would be that the book's very richness sometimes threatens to obscure the central narrative drive. The detailing is very involving and helps to give a strong sense of place and time, but from time to time the overall picture is at risk of being lost. However this is not a fatal flaw and I am confident that this book will give a lot of people a substantial amount of pleasure.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars They're Not "Tricks," They're Illusions
I was initially reluctant to read Carter Beats the Devil. Even though I love historical fiction and the era represented (the teens and twenties vaudeville years) I don't have much... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Graceann Macleod

4.0 out of 5 stars Gold
In 2001 a friend was given a proof copy of this book with the instructions to keep it safe, as in 20 years time it would be a best seller and the proof worth hundreds of pounds... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Madly Bobbington-Blythe

3.0 out of 5 stars Sub-plotted to Death
This is a whopping great big long book.
The story doesn't really seem to have much direction. Is it about a magician? Read more
Published 2 months ago by Emma Peel

4.0 out of 5 stars Holmes for the 21st century.
A fantastic, entertaining book. Waiting for each new turn in this delicious mystery reminded me of the thrill of a bedtime story you never wanted to end. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. C. M. Wyatt

5.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting!
This book came to me from recommendation from another excellent read "Water for Elephants". I was desperate to get my hands on it, and went to 4 libraries to find it! Read more
Published 12 months ago by Julie Barnard

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb
This is an exceptional read. It is set by and large in the early 20th Century, in the world of theatre, the protaganist being the charasmatic magician Charles Carter. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Y. Unni

4.0 out of 5 stars The Life of the Illusionist
A very good book. Carter starts at the end, with President Harding's death in 1923 but then we go back to Carter's humble beginnings. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Laura D

5.0 out of 5 stars Invigorating stuff!
Having started and failed to finish quite a number of books of late - reader apathy more than anything else - I wondered across Carter Beats The Devil with certain trepdation. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Mr. W. B. Newell

5.0 out of 5 stars What a debut!
I'd originally been put off reading this by the similarity of the artwork on the cover to that on Aberystwyth Mon Amour which I loathed. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Ms Alex

3.0 out of 5 stars Good story but overlong
This book has it all: a dead president, magic, lions and rogue secret agents aplenty. That is the problem. Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2007 by Caterkiller

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