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I Been There Before by Carkeet David (1987-03-03) Paperback
As the years of Mark Twain's birth and death coincided with the two successive appearances of Halley's Comet, this book records Twain's fictive reincarnation, provoked by the comet's approach toward Earth in November, 1985
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 9, 2011
Okay, so I thought this had a pretty nifty premise. And maybe if the book had stuck to the idea outlined in the blurb on the back, it would have been a really good book. But, instead of just going with the idea that when Halley's comet comes back around in the 1980s that Mark Twain comes back to earth and writes a bunch more sketches about his experiences and commenting on modern life, Carkeet had to add this whole extra (and, in my opinion, unnecessary) plot line involving an imposter who's pretending to be good ol' Sam Clemens. So, we have the real resurrected Clemens and the imposter Clemens, and, well, it's just too much to take.
April 22, 2018
The Library of America's newest Mark Twain omnibus included a sketch from this book—an apparently reincarnated Mark Twain visiting the present-day offices of the Mark Twain Papers in California, where his manuscripts are stored—that I found brilliant, so I searched for it. I've read many volumes of Twain, things written for publication and things not, and I have a pretty good feel for his distinctive voice. Carkeet nails it. The parts of "I Been There Before" that are supposed to have been written by Twain—mostly letters—are completely convincing, and their turns of phrases and sly jokes even made me laugh aloud, the way Twain himself so often manages to catch me by surprise.
The plot is interesting, too, as Twain comes to earth in a way that's as much as surprise to him as to anyone else, making his way handily through 1980s America, always one step ahead (and in some ways behind) the academic investigators trying to track him down. There is an unfortunate subplot about a confidence man who falls in with Twain, then impersonates him, that overshadows the story of Twain himself. Because the story is told at a remove (mostly through the voices of the researchers, and through Twain's letters and sketches, which only give fragments of his experiences), the confusion is amplified and what should be the best parts of the story are obscured. In fact, I was so frustrated by the increasing farce of the impersonation story and by the mental hoops through which the narrative forced me to jump that I put the book down, not far from the end, and didn't pick it up again for over a month.
Twain's private life was always the weakest element of my knowledge of him, so I was fascinated by the light shed on his relationships with his older brother Orion (pronounced OR-i-on; who knew?) and daughters Susy and Jean. Although it was a frustrating reading experience, its high points were very high indeed, and I'd go so far as to call it a must-read for any Twain fanatic.
The plot is interesting, too, as Twain comes to earth in a way that's as much as surprise to him as to anyone else, making his way handily through 1980s America, always one step ahead (and in some ways behind) the academic investigators trying to track him down. There is an unfortunate subplot about a confidence man who falls in with Twain, then impersonates him, that overshadows the story of Twain himself. Because the story is told at a remove (mostly through the voices of the researchers, and through Twain's letters and sketches, which only give fragments of his experiences), the confusion is amplified and what should be the best parts of the story are obscured. In fact, I was so frustrated by the increasing farce of the impersonation story and by the mental hoops through which the narrative forced me to jump that I put the book down, not far from the end, and didn't pick it up again for over a month.
Twain's private life was always the weakest element of my knowledge of him, so I was fascinated by the light shed on his relationships with his older brother Orion (pronounced OR-i-on; who knew?) and daughters Susy and Jean. Although it was a frustrating reading experience, its high points were very high indeed, and I'd go so far as to call it a must-read for any Twain fanatic.
March 24, 2017
_I Been There Before_ was rather amusing to read, and I’m glad to have read it, if only to see that someone actually wrote a book on the topic of the Second Coming of Mark Twain. That said, I don’t really like Carkeet’s approach. I feel like he rather unnecessarily added unrelated miraculous things to the book: the resurrection of Mark Twain is all well and good, but his time-traveling powers and magical hair add additional complication without any explanation being given for why they should be present or what they have to do with anything. Similarly, the addition of a Clemens-impostor character adds plot complications without really seeming relevant. My general sense is that Carkeet had an interesting idea for a short story, and then realized that the plot wouldn’t fill a novel, so he just threw more things in until it would.
July 21, 2025
Started out very intriguing with the return of Mark Twain with Halley's Comet in 1985. The attempted sarcasm regarding the literary establishment was confusing and boring. the sections written in Mark Twain's style were the most enjoyable.
May 10, 2017
Very funny novel about Mark Twain—very cleverly written and original, to say the least. David Carkeet has a unique and appealing sense of humor. I loved it.
October 11, 2009
Highly entertaining story about Mark Twain reappearing with Halley's Comet 76 years after his death.
January 9, 2014
Strange, but surprisingly enjoyable.
I am an admitted mark Twain fan 'though...
I am an admitted mark Twain fan 'though...
March 23, 2015
On my honor as a mulatto, Yankee gentleman, this is one of the funniest books I have ever read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews