Ask anyone who knows us – the real, deep down us – and you will learn that we love two things: Houdini and History.
Do not pay attention to the other things they say about us. They’re just haters and most of those things allegedly captured on video tape are not crimes anymore and the tape is grainy and they did take place, technically, within International Waters (as defined before the startling and over-reaching 1982 United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea).
The Confabulist, a new book by Steven Galloway mixes history and Houdini together into a literary frappé with sprinkles of mystery and murder. As much as we love history, you would imagine we love historical fiction. And as much as we love Houdini, you would bet good money – perhaps your own – that we love fiction about Houdini. Yet your imagination and betting prowess would be in error.
Myths, Voltaire once wrote, surround history like flies about a discarded meal.
Actually, the quote in French was, “Nous cherchons tous le bonheur, mais sans savoir où, comme les ivrognes qui cherchent leur maison, sachant confusément qu’ils en ont une.”
And actually, that translates roughly to “We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one.”
But we only know one of Voltaire’s sayings and few people who know French, so we use the French quote we have memorized and attribute different meanings depending on the need.
We view Houdini’s legacy as sacrosanct – a wonderful word taken from “sacro” meaning “sugary” and “sanct” meaning “smell” thus a sugary smelling thing – and do not enjoy revisionist versions of his remarkable life told with reckless disregard for the truth as we choose to believe it. We have few immutable things in our life. We never use a “Family Restroom” when alone, we use new dental floss every time we floss and we do not make up stories about Houdini.
All that being said, we are looking forward to reading this new book. It seems like our cup of tea – because we like our tea to be sugary and smell good – thus hiding the bitter taste of our hypocrisy and the stench of our self-righteous claims to be immutable.
According to Everyday E Book, “Galloway approaches his story as though it were a magician’s act, structuring the novel with the four elements of a trick (effect, method, misdirection, and reconstruction). In addition to sections from Houdini’s perspective, The Confabulist employs a first-person narrator, the fictional Martin Strauss. As the novel begins, Martin is an elderly man diagnosed with a rare brain disorder that causes him to recall false memories. We quickly learn that he is the man who killed Houdini — or, as he tells it, the man who killed Houdini twice. This intriguing hook sets up the central mystery of the story.”
We love books about Houdini, history and rare brain disorders even if it is a work of fiction. In fact, this plot sounds a lot like a novel we are writing at this very moment about Houdini who is in a history class, studying rare brain disorders. We call it, Houdini and History’s Head Case. It is just a working title and we have not written too much yet but we have a dynamite back cover quote we will attribute to Voltaire.
Check out Mr. Galloway’s book on Everyday E Book for yourself.
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