Carter Beats the Devil Paperback – September 18, 2002

This review is not about the quality of the book, which I bought for my husband and he was reading with considerable interest - until he suddenly ran smack dab into a giant blank in the story.The PROBLEM is that he suddenly got "short-sheeted" so to speak by a book that doesn't pass the publisher double-check-the-editing (or galleys or something) test: On page 635, in Act 3 Chapter 10, the chapter has no ending. The bottom of page 635 is mid-sentence and the very next page - page 636 is already the next (?) "chapter" which is a whole new Act not called Act 4 but rather "Curtain." Who knows how many pages got left out at the end of Act 3 Chapter 10, but at least one page got left out. The page numbering was also wrong on the galleys or whatever because there is no missing page NUMBER - it goes from 635 to 636. But there is no end to the chapter - just swallowed up. The book is missing the equivalent of pages 635b and possibly 635c, 635d, etc...As further evidence of just how many pages might be missing, your site says the book has 672 pages. The copy we got only has 662. (And there's no blank back page or anything - very odd to have a book's last page of story be facing the back cover. Clearly, a lot is wrong in this printing - and apparently about 10 pages of the story are missing -- and of all places, the 10 or so pages just before the final "Curtain"!We of course didn't know that he had to start reading it the minute I gave it to him in order to discover this problem while the book was still in Amazon's returnable time window - as being defective.Grrr. Help.3/20/12 update: Well, an amazon worker responded to the above review by emailing me the same day to apologize and say they were sending a replacement book by 2-day mail the next day (yesterday), something I hadn't even asked for, and I was impressed - but also wary. I wrote her back saying "I assume this means you will have someone check to make sure the replacement book doesn't have the same problem as the first one?" and she wrote back (quoting her exactly "I would like to assure you that the replacement order for the book "Carter Beats the Devil" will be having all its pages. I'm very sorry about all of this. I hope you'll consider this an isolated incident and give us another chance in the future."Can you guess where this is heading? The replacement book arrived today - meaning it took only ONE day to get here - but to what avail? Second book, same as the first. NOBODY tells a stock person after a review like this to check the stock and see if they've got a problem with a batch of books. This was clear to me that it was not an isolated case, the amazon worker was insistent that the new book would be perfect. All this wasted shipping expense on their part because somebody couldn't instead just check their stock for defective copies??! And now i have TWO bad copies of Carter Beats the Devil to send back! And try to find a complete one ... GRRRRRR. HELP.4/27/12 final update: After getting 3 - that's THREE - flawed copies from amazon (each time a live phone respondent or emailer assuring me I was going to get a perfect copy with no text missing but instead each copy was yet another incomplete text), I finally gave up on amazon and contacted the publisher Hyperion (reaching them was no piece of cake either). THEY sent me a copy which is complete. And it turns out that amazon is wrong in saying the book has 672 pages - It is only supposed to have 662 pages, so what was missing in the flawed copies turns out to be the rest of one sentence, not multiple pages, but the information provided by amazon forced a tentative conclusion that as many as 10 pages might have been missing.So, for those of you who get the version amazon has been sending out that ends mid-sentence on pg. 635, here is the rest of the sentence: "...that when you had lived enough of your life, there was no difference between the two." This completes the sentence that begins "And now, the very moment he stood, pulling Phoebe up with him, he felt-" ...Why amazon couldn't have had its own staff see this and contact the publisher like I wound up having to do is beyond me. Amazon gets lousy marks on how they handled this - very cavalierly.

Combining riveting storytelling, engrossing characterization and exquisite descriptive writing, "Carter Beats the Devil" is an extraordinary novel. Glen David Gold has transformed the life of Charles Carter, stage magician, into a compulsively readable account of one man's search for artistic and personal integrity. On the surface, "Carter" reads as a melodramatic account of the struggles and successes of a dedicated, quiet magician; drawing on the magician's need for "misdirection," Gold subtlely converts Carter's life into a symbolic representation of the American success quest, of decency combatting evil and of the possibilities of love overcoming existential loneliness. It is a tale of reconciliation of the impossible with the possible and the growing awareness that life's paths often intertwine the two without our being aware of which steps lead us in which direction. There is magic on every page, the delightful demonstration of the performer's craft, to be sure, but also the stunning talent of a writer who assuredly holds his readers' attention in his hands."Carter" reminds one of "Ragtime" and "Dreamland;" historical figures have significant or cameo appearances. Such luminaries as President Harding, Philo Farnsworth and Harry Houdini involve themselves in the intricacies of the action. Gold also involves the Secret Service and introduces a particularly affecting agent, Jack Griffin, whose tortured conscience matches his selfless devotion to a public service whose highest-ranking officials reek with moral corruption. Even the craft of stage magic receives scrutiny. The villainous Mysterioso, whose tendency towards mendacity is matched only by his cynical vanity, also comes to represent any talented individual who has lost passion for the beauty of his/her abilities but manipulates those skills for personal gain. "Carter" is an intensely moral novel, and no character better represents the quest for moral certainty than its protagonist, Charles Carter.The author's characterization of Charles Carter is at once both sympathetic and critical. Gold's comprehensive research into Carter's life permits him to draw a character whose isolated childhood induced the study and practice of magic. A terrifying episode with the family's garderner provides the impetus for what becomes a life-long courtship with illusion, escape and misdirection. Detached from his family's wealth but unsure of his own direction, Carter works his way from the bottom up as he sharpens his craft. Assiduously respectful of the artistry of illusion, he develops a respect for the ethics of magic -- whose core tenets involve self-discipline, an honoring of the participants (including animals) in a show and a consuming desire to create original material. Charles Carter is such a fully-developed character that it becomes easy to see how he would not fit into today's glitzy, self-absorbed culture. Carter is simply too honorable, too self-deprecating to mesh with the "superstar" mentality of our current era.In honoring the magician's admonishment that no details can be shared about the third act, this reviewer will abstain from details about Charles Carter's personal life, the inner and external conflicts he must wage in order to gain a sense of harmony on and off the state, and the implications that he may have been involved with the death of a President. The colorful cover of "Carter Beats the Devil" should lure passersby to purchase this marvelous novel and enter a world where the impossible becomes the expected and illusion supplants reality. Once you enter the domain of Charles Carter, you will surely be enthralled.

When I first received this book, I was shocked by its size--almost two inches thick and 662 pages long! I wasn't sure I had the time to read it but once I started I couldn't put it down. There were nights when I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning reading this book. I'm impressed by the amount of work the author put into this book. Every paragraph has a historical detail that required tons of research. But apart from that, I fell in love with the characters, especially Carter and Phoebe. Finding love again after the tragic death of his first wife was just the right ending to his magical life.

Fun read. Historical fiction. Interwove many 1920’s characters well. Not literature but well written without an obvious ending. Would recommendNeil

My son bought me this book for Fathers' Day (to be precise he bought me an Amazon voucher and sent me a list of recommendations to download). He's a lover of all things American from the NFL to the great American novel, but for me it was something refreshing. I haven't read a great deal of American fiction; it was different; it was a pleasant surprise.It's a very long book and, as Fathers' Day was only just over a week ago, it's a credit to Glen David Gold that he got me turning the pages fast enough to have finished already. Opening with a spectacular magic show "Carter Beats The Devil" in which Carter The Great and "The Devil" perform a series of outrageous illusions, each one more mind blowing than the next before ending in a magnificent finale involving audience member President Harding coming to a theatrical end in Grand Guignol style, the novel does nothing by halves.Many of the characters in the book are real; Carter The Great was a famous illusionist, Houdini makes a brief appearance and President Harding was visiting San Francisco at the time that the story begins. As I am not particularly familiar with any of the real characters I simply read it as fiction. After reading the book I checked out Harding and Carter and I think it's fair to say that fiction is the best way to describe it - there's plenty of hocus pocus.After the opening extravaganza we have several story strands involving secret agents, rival magicians, Carter's childhood and his career and love life and Gold plays tricks with the reader as we try to second guess what is real and what is an illusion.Some of the illusions appear far fetched but the author explains in his notes that all of them were performed (or attempted) during the magical music hall heydays that preceded the movies and television. The same feeling of implausibility applies to the plot but I urge you to suspend your cynicism as you would if attending a performance by Derren Brown or David Blaine and simply settle down to be entertained.Its all quite brilliantly done - well written with plenty of humour and it comes together in a wonderful, breathless and exciting finale. And that's where I felt that the novel should have ended as my only minor gripe was in the lengthy epilogue in which the author ties up a large number of loose ends. I felt that this was unnecessary and could well have been left to the reader's imagination.

I haven't even finished reading this book, but it is so good that I just had to tell someone!!By now you know the plot and what other reviewers think but if you are still hesitating because 'magic' isnt a subject you'd normally like to read about, then forget that and BUY THIS BOOK! The plot is fantastic, compelling, and a magical mystery tour indeed.Previously a huge fan of horror, I was terrified beyond words at the chapter when Jenks the gardener attacks Charles and his brother, terrified at the 'home alone' chapters and terrified by the missing knowledge of Carter's final act, when he beats the devil.I beg you to buy this book, and sit back, comfy chair, cup of tea, pile of choccy biscuits, no children, winter's night, cosy duvet, and dont stop until you've read it!I'm just glad I've still to finish it!

Gold is a superb storyteller and the first third of the novel is mesmerising and taut and gives you that excited page turning feeling that i can only remember from a mere handful of books taken from the hundreds that i've read. The finale is similarly good, but the middle section rambles a bit. This is the only flaw in this otherwise excellent first novel, because it ruins some of the tension built up in the first section, so by the end you don't care quite as much as you could have done.One of the reviews on the back of the book compared this novel to Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White. It's good, but it ain't that good.

Great book. Read it 10 years ago and have bought many copies as gifts for friends ever since - who also agreed.Highly recommend it.

Seriously love this book - proper escapism, really well written and well researched - adventure and mystery books don’t come much better than this.