Customer Reviews

Juggler, The

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a big fan of Beaumont's previous book `Thirteen', which cleverly melded a realistic monologue of a late-night taxi driver, with surreal events and insights. The Juggler is, I believe, intended as a partner to that book, although there are no overlapping characters.

There are similarities between the two books. The protagonist is placed out of his comfort zone, and the set-up is sufficiently realistic to work. He then follows a series of encounters and mishaps in the search for happiness, contentment, and/or a meaningful sense of self.

If I had not read Thirteen, I would have thought this a good effort. Compared to that previous book, it is slightly disappointing. The story is a little too linear, the changing points a little too signposted. There is not the sense of reality slightly distorted, that made Thirteen so enjoyable. There are also a couple of plot developments near the end that are implausible, and look shoehorned in to achieve a pre-ordained outcome. And endings are usually the part we take with us most clearly.

The main character is a little lightweight - possibly not enough backstory for us to form a convincing picture of him. Some of the details - such as the ongoing house renovations - go on a little too long, and a little too obviously.

All in all, this was a middling effort, and slight backward step from Beaumont's previous novel. A deeper sense of almost-tangible unreality would have served this story better.

Last year one of my favourite new books, and really deserving of five stars, was Sebastian Beaumont's debut novel, the marvellous Thirteen. Framed around the strange life of a depressed night-cabbie, it was multilayered, darkly surreal and edgy. It played tricks with your mind, (which with hindsight reminds me of master-mentalist Derren Brown's Trick or Treat TV series - mostly the tricks though!).

Could The Juggler be as good? Definitely! The story this time is about mid-life crisis and one man's journey through it.

Mark, a bored engineer, is provoked by a couple of strange occurrences to abandon his family and seven month old son. A comedian rants at him in a club and seems to know all his personal details, then a man gives him a bag, which he later finds contains forty grand, and tells him to take it to Jonathan. Armed with just a flyer for a mysterious `Club Covert', Mark takes a train and ends up at the seaside, with just the clothes on his back - and the cash...

I found it impossible to write about the story any further without making it seem banal, because that is something it emphatically is not. Saying that Mark finds an attitude of `You're not from around these parts are you?' is not doing it any justice. It's much weirder than that - Mark's mind plays tricks on him, and moments of paranoia and guilt keep changing everything. Added to this, the underlying air of menace leads Mark to seek refuge which in turn has its own mind-bending effects.

It's everything that Thirteen is, but pushing different psychological buttons - totally gripping!

This is a strangely compulsive book. I began reading it and I put it down deciding I didn't really want to be bothered completing it. But it nagged at me, nudging me every now and then. So I picked it up again and continued reading. I have to say I didn't take to Mark, the hero (if that's the right word) at all, but nevertheless felt compelled to follow him on his rite of passage journey. This is fiction obviously, but I got the distinct impression that even within this fiction we were not being told the truth. Much of the plot is far fetched, and the hero's reactions to events within the narrative are implausible. Despite this, the reader is drawn along with the concept of this very unusual novel. Reluctantly recommended, but not too enthusiastically.

I have read lots of very interesting books but this has to be up with the best. Ok you have to suspend a little belief to appreciate the plot but that's a minor issue. It's different. I loved the little nuggets of insight and wisdom scattered along the path that address real issues like guilt and responsibility in a gentle way. I could identify with the main character, Mark who realises that he just needs more from life than Amy, his wife, can possibly give him. I find him a thoughtful, likeable character, flawed but aren't we all?

This is a decent follow up to 13, and well worth a read. However, there is an element of having to suspend disbelief. For a start, the realistic setting that made 13 so fascinating is rather missing from this one. Instead, we're faced with a highly implausible premise, a rather pat ending and some quasi philosophising that doesn't really go anywhere.

The plot is basically simple. An unhappily married man is presented with a bag of money by accident, and takes off to find a new life (as you would!) But all is not what it seems, and there is the suggestion throughout that Mark, the lead character, has been oddly led to the nameless town where all the action takes place.

The town is better realised than some of the characters, and this element of the book is most enjoyable. It's a book about consequences and responsibilies, though it's nowhere near as profound as it seems to think it is. But those who liked 13 will probably like this, and this is certainly an author worth watching for the future.