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Carter Beats the Devil
In Carter Beats the Devil, Glen David Gold subjects the past to the same wondrous transformations as the rabbit in a skilled illusionist's hat. Gold's debut novel opens with real-life magician Charles Carter executing a particularly grisly trick, using President Warren G. Harding as a volunteer. Shortly afterwards, Harding dies mysteriously in his San Francisco hotel room, and Carter is forced to flee the country. Or does he? It's only the first of many misdirections in a magical performance by Gold. In the course of subsequent pages, Carter finds himself pursued by the most hapless of FBI agents; falls in love with a beautiful, outspoken blind woman; and confronts an old nemesis bent on destroying him. Throw in countless stunning (and historically accurate) illusions, some beautifully rendered period detail, and historical figures like young inventor Philo T. Farnsworth and self-made millionaire Francis "Borax" Smith, and you have old-fashioned entertainment executed with a decidedly modern sensibility.
Gold has written for movies and TV, so it's no surprise that he delivers snappy, fast-paced dialogue and action scenes as expertly scripted as anything that's come out of Hollywood in years. Carter Beats the Devil has a mustachioed villain, chase scenes, a lion, miraculous escapes, even pirates, for God's sake. Yet none of this is as broadly drawn as it might sound: Gold's characters are driven by childhood sorrows and disappointments in love, just like the rest of us, and they're limned in clever, quicksilver prose. By turns suspenseful, moving, and magical, this is the historical novel to give to anyone who complains that contemporary fiction has lost the ability to both move and entertain. --Mary Park
563 pages, Paperback
First published September 5, 2001
356 people are currently reading
12601 people want to read
About the author
Glen David Gold
24 books253 followersGlen David Gold is the author of Carter Beats the Devil (Hyperion, 2001), a historical novel about Charles Carter, a real-life San Francisco stage magician who performs for President Warren Harding on the evening of Harding's mysterious death. It has been translated into 14 languages.
His next novel, Sunnyside (Knopf, 2009), is a dark romp concerning Charlie Chaplin's rise to fame during World War I and its parallels with America's embrace of its part on the world stage.
His most recent book is a memoir, I Will Be Complete (Knopf, 2018). About it, Darin Strauss (Half a Life, Chang and Eng) writes, "“I Will Be Complete is the best memoir I’ve read in years. It’s likely the best memoir published in years."
Gold's short stories have appeared in a number of issues of McSweeney's. He has also published fiction, essays, memoir and reviews in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Playboy, Wired and Zyzzyva.
Gold wrote a single 1997 episode of the cartoon show Hey Arnold. He has also ventured into comic books, including The Spirit, featuring artwork by Eduardo Risso, and The Escapist, with artwork by Gene Colan. He has written extensively about comics creator Jack Kirby, most notably for the Masters of American Comics and Comic Book Apocalypse museum show catalogues.
More recently, Gold co-wrote episodes of the stage show The Thrilling Adventure Hour and the podcast Welcome to Night Vale. He lives in Los Angeles not with but adjacent to his girlfriend, in a duplex, the logistics of which are addressed in a 2018 Modern Love column for The New York Times.
His next novel, Sunnyside (Knopf, 2009), is a dark romp concerning Charlie Chaplin's rise to fame during World War I and its parallels with America's embrace of its part on the world stage.
His most recent book is a memoir, I Will Be Complete (Knopf, 2018). About it, Darin Strauss (Half a Life, Chang and Eng) writes, "“I Will Be Complete is the best memoir I’ve read in years. It’s likely the best memoir published in years."
Gold's short stories have appeared in a number of issues of McSweeney's. He has also published fiction, essays, memoir and reviews in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Playboy, Wired and Zyzzyva.
Gold wrote a single 1997 episode of the cartoon show Hey Arnold. He has also ventured into comic books, including The Spirit, featuring artwork by Eduardo Risso, and The Escapist, with artwork by Gene Colan. He has written extensively about comics creator Jack Kirby, most notably for the Masters of American Comics and Comic Book Apocalypse museum show catalogues.
More recently, Gold co-wrote episodes of the stage show The Thrilling Adventure Hour and the podcast Welcome to Night Vale. He lives in Los Angeles not with but adjacent to his girlfriend, in a duplex, the logistics of which are addressed in a 2018 Modern Love column for The New York Times.
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September 11, 2013
Other reviews here go into the details of this wonderful novel, so if that's what you want, go read them. I'll just tell you what I knew before I went into it, which was pretty much nothing.
My friend Yuri gave me this book about 5 years ago. I was intimidated by its length, so I put it on the shelf and never opened it. Then, last year, my friend Ben gave it to me with a few other books for my 40th birthday, part of a collection he said were some of the best books he'd ever read.
Anne and I took a Secret Vacation, and I wanted something to read, so I brought this with me. It was long enough to last a week, and was an actual book, so it wouldn't be a big deal if it got wet or sandy or vacationed on.
I started it on the airplane before we took off, and read it for almost 6 straight hours. Then, I read it about 100 pages per day until I finished it this afternoon. Total days reading it? Five or six.
All I knew going into it was that two people who I respect were crazy about it, and that it was historical fiction about a great magician, so that's all I'm going to give you. I will tell you that I loved it, loved every word and every page and every single thing about it I am so glad I read it, and wish I could read it all over again for the first time.
Pick up a copy -- I strongly recommend the dead tree version -- and read it for about 20 pages. I'm pretty sure you'll be on board by then, and if you're not, maybe it just isn't for you ... but I suspect you'll love it as much as I did.
My friend Yuri gave me this book about 5 years ago. I was intimidated by its length, so I put it on the shelf and never opened it. Then, last year, my friend Ben gave it to me with a few other books for my 40th birthday, part of a collection he said were some of the best books he'd ever read.
Anne and I took a Secret Vacation, and I wanted something to read, so I brought this with me. It was long enough to last a week, and was an actual book, so it wouldn't be a big deal if it got wet or sandy or vacationed on.
I started it on the airplane before we took off, and read it for almost 6 straight hours. Then, I read it about 100 pages per day until I finished it this afternoon. Total days reading it? Five or six.
All I knew going into it was that two people who I respect were crazy about it, and that it was historical fiction about a great magician, so that's all I'm going to give you. I will tell you that I loved it, loved every word and every page and every single thing about it I am so glad I read it, and wish I could read it all over again for the first time.
Pick up a copy -- I strongly recommend the dead tree version -- and read it for about 20 pages. I'm pretty sure you'll be on board by then, and if you're not, maybe it just isn't for you ... but I suspect you'll love it as much as I did.
October 25, 2016
Gold’s book is loosely based on the life of Charles Carter, a real magician. After reading his Wikipedia page, I appreciate that Gold was more than willing to stretch the historical facts for the amusement of the reader.
The book starts off with the death (murder?) of one of the greatest presidents ever, Warren G. Harding, who could give any president a run for their money in the floozie and corruption departments. Carter is somehow implicated.
Boyhood trauma propels Carter into magic and onto the vaudeville stage and eventually, his own traveling magic show. His involvement with Harding enmeshes him in a deadly conspiracy involving secret societies, the government and big business. There are plenty of real life people who also make an appearance throughout the book including, The Marx Brothers, Houdini and Philo Farnsworth (the inventor of TV).
Like any good illusionist worth his salt, Gold is expert at misdirecting the reader with literary sleight of hand. Seeming unrelated and unremarkable doings are used as diversions only to be of consequence later in the book.
Bonus: How to make an elephant disappear! Revealed!!!
Aside from the pulpy, dashing, derring-do, what made this an interesting read were the “I-wish-I-had-said/written-that-passage and Gold’s talent to take an extraordinary story and build it with relatable, ordinary moments.
Recommended for historical fiction fans or anyone interested in literary wizardry.
April 7, 2008
A Conversation I had earlier,
Friend: "So what are you reading."
Me: "Carter Beats The Devil, it's about a master magician battling a shadowy conglomerate of the government, corporations, and secret societies to find the truth about president Harding's death with the help of his pet lion."
Friend: "... There's no part of that sentence that doesn't appeal to me."
There is a word for this book and it is awesome. A big thank you to Natalie for bringing this to my attention.
Friend: "So what are you reading."
Me: "Carter Beats The Devil, it's about a master magician battling a shadowy conglomerate of the government, corporations, and secret societies to find the truth about president Harding's death with the help of his pet lion."
Friend: "... There's no part of that sentence that doesn't appeal to me."
There is a word for this book and it is awesome. A big thank you to Natalie for bringing this to my attention.
December 31, 2013
Carter Beats the Devil was set up superbly. I loved the way in which Glen David Gold really brought the early years of Carter alive and how these early childhood experiences influenced the magician he was to become. There was a pretty hefty amount of research undertaken in this project, and Gold really captures the atmosphere of the 1920's, with magicians vying to outdo each-other at every step.
Unfortunately, for me, what followed this impressive start, quickly descended into a confusing tangle of plot lines and characters.I can't help but feel that Gold wasn't sure if he was writing a fictionalised biography or a mystery novel. At times I felt large sections of the narrative suffered from over exposition. For me the story lacked focus, with too much time spend on accessory characters, and not enough on the story of Carter, which was built up superbly in the first section.
To his credit, Gold writes some pretty tense and exciting scenes, but unfortunately he'd lost me well before the impressive finale. For me this story had so much promise, but it was lost on distracting side stories which I found confusing, indulgent and unnecessary.
Unfortunately, for me, what followed this impressive start, quickly descended into a confusing tangle of plot lines and characters.I can't help but feel that Gold wasn't sure if he was writing a fictionalised biography or a mystery novel. At times I felt large sections of the narrative suffered from over exposition. For me the story lacked focus, with too much time spend on accessory characters, and not enough on the story of Carter, which was built up superbly in the first section.
To his credit, Gold writes some pretty tense and exciting scenes, but unfortunately he'd lost me well before the impressive finale. For me this story had so much promise, but it was lost on distracting side stories which I found confusing, indulgent and unnecessary.
February 8, 2017
It's so rare to have a book that I just can't wait to get back to reading. I always have a book with me (usually several in my car, as noted by certain friends of mine who can't help but comment on the apartment-like state of my vehicle), but then there's the one that leaps to the fore and all the other 'currently reading' titles are consigned, literally, to the back seat. Carter Beats the Devil is fun from the beginning. Gold has a knack for characters and for dialogue, and even the back story is interesting, rather than just poorly drummed-up filler to explain motivations. His pacing is perfect, like that of the showman he writes about. Some of the highest praise I can give is that it made me want to research characters and events to learn more about his source material. Finally, if that's not reason enough to love this story, it has one of the best lines ever uttered in a disagreement between brothers:
"Oh, dear God, you don't actually have a brain, do you, it's more a filigreed spiderweb, with little chambers in it where trained monkeys play the pipe organ."
Brilliant.
"Oh, dear God, you don't actually have a brain, do you, it's more a filigreed spiderweb, with little chambers in it where trained monkeys play the pipe organ."
Brilliant.
October 6, 2014
"Basically Dan Brown with magicians" is what I wish had been written on the cover, so I would have known not to read this. Based to some degree on the real life of the magician Carter the Great, it also includes (sigh) references to the Illuminati and Skull and Bones, and some fanciful ideas about the last days of President Harding, who was apparently a real guy. It's suggested that Houdini was gay, a claim I can find zero supporting evidence for online. About the only things I trusted were the (weirdly persistent) jokes about Pez.
The whole thing is pretty amateurishly written, and Gold has only the barest control over his plot. The romantic bits are especially wince-worthy; this is a book given to sentences like "It had taken Carter all these tours to realize his most fragile prop was his heart."
Despite all this shittiness, the book rolls along in an adequately entertaining way: it's about fuckin' magic; even the most hapless treatment of magic is bound to be fitfully fun. (Get it? Bound? Oh, forget it.) But the whole thing is really immature, honestly. Immature.
The whole thing is pretty amateurishly written, and Gold has only the barest control over his plot. The romantic bits are especially wince-worthy; this is a book given to sentences like "It had taken Carter all these tours to realize his most fragile prop was his heart."
Despite all this shittiness, the book rolls along in an adequately entertaining way: it's about fuckin' magic; even the most hapless treatment of magic is bound to be fitfully fun. (Get it? Bound? Oh, forget it.) But the whole thing is really immature, honestly. Immature.
June 11, 2017
I don't know if I hate or love this book since it is so off-the-wall. I picked it up at a book sale since the cover is very eye-catching but had no idea what it was about. I soon learned that it dealt with the death of President Warren Harding, the rise of the magician, Carter the Great (who was actually a real person), the discovery of television, Houdini, the Secret Service, the Illuminati, and a pet lion!! Mix all those things together and there you have it.....off-the-wall.
Basically it is a fictional semi-biography of Carter the Great, who is told a secret by President Harding that the President thinks will be disastrous to the US and the world. Soon the Secret Service is following Carter as they suspect that he murdered Harding because of this secret. Then the story goes off in a million different directions with sub-plot piled upon sub-plot. The story, which is certainly somewhat fragmented, pulls you in against your will. I kept thinking "this is stupid" and then couldn't wait to turn to the next page, so I guess I loved it after all. I'll say this......it is different but is a fun read and in the end you will find out something about Warren Harding and his death that you didn't know!!! Remember, this is fiction.
Basically it is a fictional semi-biography of Carter the Great, who is told a secret by President Harding that the President thinks will be disastrous to the US and the world. Soon the Secret Service is following Carter as they suspect that he murdered Harding because of this secret. Then the story goes off in a million different directions with sub-plot piled upon sub-plot. The story, which is certainly somewhat fragmented, pulls you in against your will. I kept thinking "this is stupid" and then couldn't wait to turn to the next page, so I guess I loved it after all. I'll say this......it is different but is a fun read and in the end you will find out something about Warren Harding and his death that you didn't know!!! Remember, this is fiction.
November 24, 2012
A friend gave it to me years ago. I figured eventually I had to read it, like you do. On page 67 I threw it at the wall. It's about magic, which is not very interesting to read about. Or to see for that matter. Magic is very annoying - it's not real you know, it's just a lot of tricks. I like it when they chop a person up and have parts of them in boxes spread around the stage - head there, feet way over there - but that's about it.
Likewise with Harry Potter, every one of which I've seen on the big screen with my daughter. A whole lot of firework displays and running about with a few nice monsters. Give me Lord of the Rings any day, at least that has a story along with the creatures.
Likewise with Harry Potter, every one of which I've seen on the big screen with my daughter. A whole lot of firework displays and running about with a few nice monsters. Give me Lord of the Rings any day, at least that has a story along with the creatures.
December 28, 2007
This is one of my favorite books of all time. I started it on a plane to D.C. and couldn't put it down- I stayed up all night when I got there until it was finished. It's historical fiction in the best sense and touches on so many things that fascinate me: the invention of television by Phil T. Farnsworth (see "The Boy Who Invented Television"), the Secret Service (see "Starling of the White House"), turn-of-the-century magicians (see "Houdini!!!," "Hiding the Elephant," and "Kellar's Wonders"), and the history of my hometown, Oakland (see "Oakland: Story of a City"). Full of mystery and adventure as well as historical fact, this is a MUST read.
November 20, 2008
Great sprawling blockbuster about battling magicians that goes on too long. I liked it but began irritating me after awhile because it had that "I wanna be a movie!" vibe that also marred "Da Vinci Code" and "Kavalier and Clay". It's like the writer custom made the book for Robert Zemeckis or Barry Sonnenfeld to direct into a big budget movie. Thank God they didn't take the bait.
August 2, 2016
This book took me longer than it should have. Partly I guess it was my fault, but partly also the book's. This is not a fast paced read, as I always hope big books to be.
Nevertheless, this is a fun book, with intriguing characters, an unpredictable story, many twists and turns that have you at the edge of your seat. There is a mix of action, character's past unraveling and magical shows.
I really liked the way this book was written, despite it being slow. I liked how so many of the character's were introduced and that you never got more information than you were supposed to have. In this aspect the author really played the role of the magician, never revealing everything to you.
Nevertheless, this is a fun book, with intriguing characters, an unpredictable story, many twists and turns that have you at the edge of your seat. There is a mix of action, character's past unraveling and magical shows.
I really liked the way this book was written, despite it being slow. I liked how so many of the character's were introduced and that you never got more information than you were supposed to have. In this aspect the author really played the role of the magician, never revealing everything to you.
March 28, 2019
I've learnt about this book from this discussion:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
and I love vintage magic posters, which means I also loved this cover, - and these are the two reasons for my reading it ;)
And, of course, it is a bit of a stretch to compare it to Susanna Clarke's novel, so I won't be doing it.
I was kind of disappointed with the beginning: the death of a President and its possible investigation didn't much interest me. Then I fell in love with Carter's story, and by the end of the 'first act', I was in love with the book. I loved the slight weirdness of the characters, the irony, and the dreamy mood of the story.
By the final 'act', though, it became a grotesque action-adventure thriller, which, actually, I didn't enjoy that much, although this must make the book more page-turner-ish; indeed, readers mustn't complain the book is too fast-paced for them, must we? But this is what I felt: 'Oh, please, don't make me worry so much, everything is happening so quickly I don't get enough time to think about how all of this is written'.
That said, this has been a very interesting read. I do recommend it to family and friends.
I liked it that the book is generally animal-friendly, although there is one very dubious scene in the end where an animal actually gets hurt.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
and I love vintage magic posters, which means I also loved this cover, - and these are the two reasons for my reading it ;)
And, of course, it is a bit of a stretch to compare it to Susanna Clarke's novel, so I won't be doing it.
I was kind of disappointed with the beginning: the death of a President and its possible investigation didn't much interest me. Then I fell in love with Carter's story, and by the end of the 'first act', I was in love with the book. I loved the slight weirdness of the characters, the irony, and the dreamy mood of the story.
By the final 'act', though, it became a grotesque action-adventure thriller, which, actually, I didn't enjoy that much, although this must make the book more page-turner-ish; indeed, readers mustn't complain the book is too fast-paced for them, must we? But this is what I felt: 'Oh, please, don't make me worry so much, everything is happening so quickly I don't get enough time to think about how all of this is written'.
That said, this has been a very interesting read. I do recommend it to family and friends.
I liked it that the book is generally animal-friendly, although there is one very dubious scene in the end where an animal actually gets hurt.
April 9, 2008
This is a thrilling, romantic, fascinating book and will probably be my favorite book read this year. Carter Beats the Devil is a historically fact-based novel about magician Charles Carter who performed in the golden age of magic (1890s thru the 1920s). This story pits Carter against rival magicians and Secret Service agents who suspect Carter had a hand in the death of President Harding. I was drawn in from the get-go. This book is full of suspense, humor, and panache. It came highly recommended from Michael Chabon, author of the Pulitzer-prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (also an excellent book). Carter Beats the Devil is a richly imagined story full of wonderful characters and it has perhaps the most thrilling, exciting, whiz-bang conclusion I've come across in ages. Great, great book.
November 11, 2019
I really liked the first section of this book. The rest of it was a bit of a slog to get through. The writing just seemed a bit unfocused to me. Abandoned at the two thirds mark.
December 9, 2013
Vaudeville is back. But don't look to the stage; look to the page. For the second time this month, the curtain is rising on a delightful novel about entertainment before television and movies. First, Elizabeth McCracken played the straight man in "Niagara Falls All Over Again," the story of a Laurel and Hardy comedy team. Now - shazam! - Glen David Gold has revealed "Carter Beats the Devil," an enormous historical novel about an early 20th-century magician.
Although he's since vanished from the cultural memory (poof!), Charles Carter, who billed himself as "Carter the Great," amazed audiences during the same time Harry Houdini was escaping from handcuffs and safes. (The book jacket reproduces a typically garish poster for one of Carter's shows in the 1920s.)
Gold opens his debut novel with the death of President Harding. As the nation mourns, an investigation begins, starting with the magic show he attended the night before his passing. Aides knew their commander in chief was unwell and burdened by a horrible secret, but he had seemed so full of life when he volunteered for one of Carter's grand illusions.
Allowing the president to participate in an act involving fire, guns, knives, cannons, and lions - ending with his dismemberment - seemed like a bad idea to Secret Service agent Jack Griffin. Having accidentally assisted President McKinley's assassin, Griffin is loath to take the rap for another presidential death, but Harding had insisted.
The next day, as the news of his death spreads, Carter disappears, Harding is cremated, and his widow destroys a trove of evidence detailing more scandals than Bill Clinton could deny in eight years. Griffin finds himself battling his own department and a shadowy group of corporate thugs to track down the president's killer and his "horrible secret."
But no sooner do we see these acts of mayhem, magic, and mystery, than Gold whisks us back to Carter's childhood in San Francisco, recreated here in brilliant detail. "From the moment Charles Carter the Fourth first learned it," Gold writes, "magic was not an amusement, but a means of survival." Actually, Carter's struggle was more for identity than survival. His wealthy parents loved him, but had no time for him. Nevertheless, his mother conveyed a smattering of the new Freudian psychology and a large dose of appreciation for melodrama, tools more crucial to the future "Weird Wonderful Wizard" than any wand or rabbit.
Assured that their son will head off to Yale in the fall, his parents send him touring as a Vaudeville magician. While Houdini is making $5,000 a week, Carter is "devoured by fleas, his earnings are regularly stolen, and he returns to California smelling like a smoldering cheroot." Naturally, "he loved every moment of it."
He finally gets a small part in a show led by Colonel Mysterioso, a mustached villain so wonderfully classic that the book seems to shift into jerky black and white whenever he appears. (Keep an eye on his hideous little bald dog, too.) He stares daggers, tortures animals, and treats Carter with utter contempt.
What's worse, he rules over Annabelle, "the most fantastic furious female fighter ever to be tamed." During the show, she takes on a group of angry Indians. "The crowd had never seen a woman who could fight before. They went wild." To Carter, whose "most fragile prop was his heart," she's captivating - but forbidden.
In a gambit to vanquish his foe with a wicked act of humiliation, Carter devises a lavish stage trick called "Blackmail." Naturally, I can't give away the secret (Rule No. 1), but eventually, he beats Mysterioso, weds Annabelle, and enjoys performing with her around the world.
Ah, but keep your eye on Gold's sleight of hand, ladies and gentlemen. When Carter's happiness is cut tragically short by a trick gone awry, he falls into the dark side of his trade, devising morbid, ambiguous illusions that leave audiences more unsettled than amazed.
Nothing can cheer him or save his show until he meets a blind woman named Phoebe, who lives in a home for wayward girls funded by Francis Smith, the Borax millionaire and an early fan of Carter's. This is a sweet romance, drawn with charm and wit. He's distracted by guilt, but a woman who can't see his illusions is the perfect person to perceive the good man he really is.
Too bad their happiness arrives as government and corporate assassins move in to bring the curtain down. Carter finds himself at the center of a scheme to gain control of a magical new technology that will transform the world (and ruin dinnertime). How can he possibly escape from this death-defying ordeal? As a real Carter poster once boasted, stay tuned for "marvels that obfuscate the will, charm the imagination, confound intelligence!"
In the tradition of E.L. Doctorow's "Ragtime," Gold weaves the rich history of this period through his own stagecraft, creating a novel worthy of the hype that announced those great Vaudeville magicians. This was, after all, a time of perpetual gasping at new scientific and consumer miracles. Behold - the X-ray! The vacuum cleaner! Carter and his colleagues levitated along that shifting line between fantasy and reality.
In a book full of conjurers, Gold emerges as the best magician of all, pulling surprises out of his hat throughout this wildly entertaining story, which captures America in a moment of change and wonder. The third and final act alone is worth the price of admission, but I'd rather face the devil himself than reveal any details about that part of the show.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0920/p1...
Although he's since vanished from the cultural memory (poof!), Charles Carter, who billed himself as "Carter the Great," amazed audiences during the same time Harry Houdini was escaping from handcuffs and safes. (The book jacket reproduces a typically garish poster for one of Carter's shows in the 1920s.)
Gold opens his debut novel with the death of President Harding. As the nation mourns, an investigation begins, starting with the magic show he attended the night before his passing. Aides knew their commander in chief was unwell and burdened by a horrible secret, but he had seemed so full of life when he volunteered for one of Carter's grand illusions.
Allowing the president to participate in an act involving fire, guns, knives, cannons, and lions - ending with his dismemberment - seemed like a bad idea to Secret Service agent Jack Griffin. Having accidentally assisted President McKinley's assassin, Griffin is loath to take the rap for another presidential death, but Harding had insisted.
The next day, as the news of his death spreads, Carter disappears, Harding is cremated, and his widow destroys a trove of evidence detailing more scandals than Bill Clinton could deny in eight years. Griffin finds himself battling his own department and a shadowy group of corporate thugs to track down the president's killer and his "horrible secret."
But no sooner do we see these acts of mayhem, magic, and mystery, than Gold whisks us back to Carter's childhood in San Francisco, recreated here in brilliant detail. "From the moment Charles Carter the Fourth first learned it," Gold writes, "magic was not an amusement, but a means of survival." Actually, Carter's struggle was more for identity than survival. His wealthy parents loved him, but had no time for him. Nevertheless, his mother conveyed a smattering of the new Freudian psychology and a large dose of appreciation for melodrama, tools more crucial to the future "Weird Wonderful Wizard" than any wand or rabbit.
Assured that their son will head off to Yale in the fall, his parents send him touring as a Vaudeville magician. While Houdini is making $5,000 a week, Carter is "devoured by fleas, his earnings are regularly stolen, and he returns to California smelling like a smoldering cheroot." Naturally, "he loved every moment of it."
He finally gets a small part in a show led by Colonel Mysterioso, a mustached villain so wonderfully classic that the book seems to shift into jerky black and white whenever he appears. (Keep an eye on his hideous little bald dog, too.) He stares daggers, tortures animals, and treats Carter with utter contempt.
What's worse, he rules over Annabelle, "the most fantastic furious female fighter ever to be tamed." During the show, she takes on a group of angry Indians. "The crowd had never seen a woman who could fight before. They went wild." To Carter, whose "most fragile prop was his heart," she's captivating - but forbidden.
In a gambit to vanquish his foe with a wicked act of humiliation, Carter devises a lavish stage trick called "Blackmail." Naturally, I can't give away the secret (Rule No. 1), but eventually, he beats Mysterioso, weds Annabelle, and enjoys performing with her around the world.
Ah, but keep your eye on Gold's sleight of hand, ladies and gentlemen. When Carter's happiness is cut tragically short by a trick gone awry, he falls into the dark side of his trade, devising morbid, ambiguous illusions that leave audiences more unsettled than amazed.
Nothing can cheer him or save his show until he meets a blind woman named Phoebe, who lives in a home for wayward girls funded by Francis Smith, the Borax millionaire and an early fan of Carter's. This is a sweet romance, drawn with charm and wit. He's distracted by guilt, but a woman who can't see his illusions is the perfect person to perceive the good man he really is.
Too bad their happiness arrives as government and corporate assassins move in to bring the curtain down. Carter finds himself at the center of a scheme to gain control of a magical new technology that will transform the world (and ruin dinnertime). How can he possibly escape from this death-defying ordeal? As a real Carter poster once boasted, stay tuned for "marvels that obfuscate the will, charm the imagination, confound intelligence!"
In the tradition of E.L. Doctorow's "Ragtime," Gold weaves the rich history of this period through his own stagecraft, creating a novel worthy of the hype that announced those great Vaudeville magicians. This was, after all, a time of perpetual gasping at new scientific and consumer miracles. Behold - the X-ray! The vacuum cleaner! Carter and his colleagues levitated along that shifting line between fantasy and reality.
In a book full of conjurers, Gold emerges as the best magician of all, pulling surprises out of his hat throughout this wildly entertaining story, which captures America in a moment of change and wonder. The third and final act alone is worth the price of admission, but I'd rather face the devil himself than reveal any details about that part of the show.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0920/p1...
August 19, 2007
Glen David Gold's Carter Beats the Devil is something that's becoming increasingly rare: a novel about magic with no fantasy elements in it. But what makes the book truly remarkable is Gold's ability to make real-world stage magic just as interesting and amazing as the feats performed by that uppity British kid in the big glasses: even when the reader is told how the tricks are done.
The book gives us the tale of Charles Joseph Carter, a real-life magician thrown into a highly fictionalized story involving the (also real but fictionalized) untimely death of President Warren G. Harding. It just so happens that Carter performed a rather morbid trick onstage with the president just hours before he died, and now the FBI considers him a prime suspect in his death. Carter also has to deal with his own fading career, the painful memory of his late wife's tragic death, and a rival magician with a homodical grudge. Throughout it all, he devises an incredible magic show designed to get his career back on track and knock the people of 1920's San Fransisco off their feet.
But what makes the book truly remarkable is Gold's ability to transfer the techniques that make magic so enjoyable unto his own writing style. The entire story relies on Gold's skill at misdirection: the soul of the magician's act, where the audience's attention is drawn in the wrong direction so an illusion can be performed. Time and again Gold gets the reader to think about the wrong person or situation so he can surprise us with an unexpected outcome to a sequence. Somehow this trick never gets old, as Gold, like any good magician, comes up with countless ways of dressing up his tricks so they seem brand new. The book boasts a great mystery and an excellent climax, along with a surprise ending that Gold seemingly pulls from nowhere, like a rabbit from a hat.
Carter is a fine historical adventure novel, but there are a few problems. Carter himself is an excellent and full realized character, but hardly anyone else in the cast approaches his complexity; the FBI agent who persues him comes close, but several other characters are rather flat and one-dimensional, including Carter's love intrests and various backers of his performance. The worst offender is Mysterioso (his real name is never given) the rival magician and the "devil" of the book's title. A Snidley Whiplash style campy bad guy, he abuses animals, demeans his co-workers, murders people (with playing cards!) for no apparent reason, looks down on everyone, attempts rape, and so forth. Mysterioso is a fun bad guy, but that's all he is; he's easily the second most important character in the book but there's nothing whatsoever to his character besides being a jerk. Several of the book's supporting characters suffer similar fates, filling necessary roles which they never come close to breaking out of.
Despite this, Carter himself is more than strong enough a character to carry the book all on his own, and his feats of magic, along with the era in which he lived, come alive vividly. So if you're looking for a story that blends adventure, mystery and some truly diabolical tricks, Carter and Gold have quite a show in store for you.
The book gives us the tale of Charles Joseph Carter, a real-life magician thrown into a highly fictionalized story involving the (also real but fictionalized) untimely death of President Warren G. Harding. It just so happens that Carter performed a rather morbid trick onstage with the president just hours before he died, and now the FBI considers him a prime suspect in his death. Carter also has to deal with his own fading career, the painful memory of his late wife's tragic death, and a rival magician with a homodical grudge. Throughout it all, he devises an incredible magic show designed to get his career back on track and knock the people of 1920's San Fransisco off their feet.
But what makes the book truly remarkable is Gold's ability to transfer the techniques that make magic so enjoyable unto his own writing style. The entire story relies on Gold's skill at misdirection: the soul of the magician's act, where the audience's attention is drawn in the wrong direction so an illusion can be performed. Time and again Gold gets the reader to think about the wrong person or situation so he can surprise us with an unexpected outcome to a sequence. Somehow this trick never gets old, as Gold, like any good magician, comes up with countless ways of dressing up his tricks so they seem brand new. The book boasts a great mystery and an excellent climax, along with a surprise ending that Gold seemingly pulls from nowhere, like a rabbit from a hat.
Carter is a fine historical adventure novel, but there are a few problems. Carter himself is an excellent and full realized character, but hardly anyone else in the cast approaches his complexity; the FBI agent who persues him comes close, but several other characters are rather flat and one-dimensional, including Carter's love intrests and various backers of his performance. The worst offender is Mysterioso (his real name is never given) the rival magician and the "devil" of the book's title. A Snidley Whiplash style campy bad guy, he abuses animals, demeans his co-workers, murders people (with playing cards!) for no apparent reason, looks down on everyone, attempts rape, and so forth. Mysterioso is a fun bad guy, but that's all he is; he's easily the second most important character in the book but there's nothing whatsoever to his character besides being a jerk. Several of the book's supporting characters suffer similar fates, filling necessary roles which they never come close to breaking out of.
Despite this, Carter himself is more than strong enough a character to carry the book all on his own, and his feats of magic, along with the era in which he lived, come alive vividly. So if you're looking for a story that blends adventure, mystery and some truly diabolical tricks, Carter and Gold have quite a show in store for you.
May 16, 2010
A disappointing read, Carter Beats the Devil is both overlong and underwritten. The historical detail just about succeeds in evoking the pre-WWI and interwar years in which the majority of book is set, but the characters, especially Carter himself, are strangely one-dimensional, and the plot is ludicrous, and, ironically, boring. You want books like this to be rip-roaring page-turners, but honestly, for all the supposed "magic" in the book it really wasn't very magical or exciting. I feel like Glen David Gold missed an opportunity to tell a good tale, to really evoke the vaudeville era and it's shabby end, to explore the imagination and wonder of stage magic. Instead, the book is a bland, messy and unsatisfying. Not the worst book I've ever read, but really not very good at all.
March 15, 2018
The best book I have read in 2018 so far and most likely one of the greatest and most enjoyable books I have ever read. Full review to come on the PolarBearAcademy blog.
May 25, 2025
Between 3 and 3.5. Can't decide. There were great moments, but the overall impression left on me was ho-hum.
September 30, 2024
I originally decided to read Glen David Gold’s “Carter Beats the Devil” because it was mentioned in another book I was reading—“Little Princes” by Conor Grennan. I also love magicians and magic shows! I was hoping for this book to have the essence of the magical realism genre as is seen in the works of Haruki Murakami. Unfortunately, asides from the general plot I did not get an overwhelming sense of magic imbued in the story.
As for a historical fiction I do believe it captured the essence of the 1920s, but I disliked how the author distorted historical figures and locations for his plot. For example, Gold describes San Francisco’s Orpheum theatre, “The lobby had a million-dollar Tiffany glass barrel-vaulted ceiling depicting peacocks in top hats courting peahens in ball gowns among Elysian fields. The walls were mosaics and frescoes improving on Pompeii’s finest discoveries…” (p.107). Gold describes the theatre beautifully, but only with partial truth. It is correct that the Orpheum theatre had Pompeii inspired decor, but it did not have a Tiffany stained glass ceiling. Others may find small details to be insignificant, but I believe this can lead to misunderstandings of historical places and figures—such as Philo Farnsworth or Borax Smith who are depicted by Gold. I also found it confusing because I would not have known which characters were based upon real people if I had not Google searched them. It would have been nice if he included a short description of the real people at the end of the book.
Overall, I found Gold’s writing to be entertaining. I felt the plot was a bit convoluted, but I was able to follow it well enough and Gold illustrated characters quite well. I would give this book a rating of 3.5 stars.
As for a historical fiction I do believe it captured the essence of the 1920s, but I disliked how the author distorted historical figures and locations for his plot. For example, Gold describes San Francisco’s Orpheum theatre, “The lobby had a million-dollar Tiffany glass barrel-vaulted ceiling depicting peacocks in top hats courting peahens in ball gowns among Elysian fields. The walls were mosaics and frescoes improving on Pompeii’s finest discoveries…” (p.107). Gold describes the theatre beautifully, but only with partial truth. It is correct that the Orpheum theatre had Pompeii inspired decor, but it did not have a Tiffany stained glass ceiling. Others may find small details to be insignificant, but I believe this can lead to misunderstandings of historical places and figures—such as Philo Farnsworth or Borax Smith who are depicted by Gold. I also found it confusing because I would not have known which characters were based upon real people if I had not Google searched them. It would have been nice if he included a short description of the real people at the end of the book.
Overall, I found Gold’s writing to be entertaining. I felt the plot was a bit convoluted, but I was able to follow it well enough and Gold illustrated characters quite well. I would give this book a rating of 3.5 stars.
March 31, 2014
"я просто хотів показати, що деякі фокуси дуже хитрі. аж занадто хитрі. мені, виконавцеві, прикро, коли я щось роблю, а ніхто цього не помічає".
мабуть, у письменницькій роботі теж таке є. коли ти вибудовуєш текст, створюючи фантастичні фігури, а читач потім відмовляється їх бачити, повторюючи несмішний жарт про сині штори. на щастя, письменники не так часто бачать безпосередні читацькі реакції (або їхню відсутність), як фокусники.
але то так, асоціації. книжка ж – захопливий роман про ілюзіоніста, сам наповнений фокусами й ілюзіями. у цій магічній атмосфері і збіги обставин, і передбачувані сюжетні ходи, і жанрові кліше виглядають природно й правильно: адже нам показують магію, в якій усе може скінчитися несподівано, але неодмінно добре.
мабуть, у письменницькій роботі теж таке є. коли ти вибудовуєш текст, створюючи фантастичні фігури, а читач потім відмовляється їх бачити, повторюючи несмішний жарт про сині штори. на щастя, письменники не так часто бачать безпосередні читацькі реакції (або їхню відсутність), як фокусники.
але то так, асоціації. книжка ж – захопливий роман про ілюзіоніста, сам наповнений фокусами й ілюзіями. у цій магічній атмосфері і збіги обставин, і передбачувані сюжетні ходи, і жанрові кліше виглядають природно й правильно: адже нам показують магію, в якій усе може скінчитися несподівано, але неодмінно добре.
June 27, 2007
Magic, thriller, period - three specific strands and together they make for a great book.
Set in the fictional world of 1920s magic, this references real people, such as Houdini, but the set-up is pure imagination.
Funny, entertaining, nail-biting and genuinely heart-warming, this is one of those books that not that many people have read, but should be recommended to everyone! I love it!
As a footnote, the author is Alice "Lovely Bones" Sebold's husband
Set in the fictional world of 1920s magic, this references real people, such as Houdini, but the set-up is pure imagination.
Funny, entertaining, nail-biting and genuinely heart-warming, this is one of those books that not that many people have read, but should be recommended to everyone! I love it!
As a footnote, the author is Alice "Lovely Bones" Sebold's husband
August 25, 2021
I was going to give this 5 stars. But the book was too long. There were stories within it that were captivating but it felt like a series of short stories and I lost focus in the threading together. Maybe it needs to be read quickly in one go. By the last 100 pages I really wanted it finished. The twist was a bit lost on me because I’d grown a little bored. But aside from the length I thought it was a good read. Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars.
August 27, 2016
An abomination. The absurdities of this book are pretty close to unmatched in anything else I've ever read. A kid gets tortured and then his dad comes home and pays his torturer. The Secret Service throws a guy in a packing crate because... why?
The dialogue is painful. I went to the same school as Gold did, and you can see why he's so awful--the place was hell.
The dialogue is painful. I went to the same school as Gold did, and you can see why he's so awful--the place was hell.
June 5, 2018
(3.5 stars)
A pretty fun read, as long as you don't mind reading a lot about magic and magicians. Carter Beats the Devil recounts the fictionalized adventures of an early 20th C. magician, Charles Carter (Carter the Great), who becomes involved in the mysterious death of President Warren G. Harding and then with the teen-aged Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television. (All real people, although the action of the novel bears almost no resemblance to actual historical events, as best I could tell from Wikipedia.) I loved the opening scenes of the book: during his renowned solo magic show in San Francisco, Carter performs a stupefying illusion (the one in which he "beats the Devil") using President Harding as a volunteer from the audience; unfortunately, Harding is found dead later that evening -- oops! -- causing Carter to be questioned by the Secret Service as a possible suspect in a plot to murder the president. We then have a long section that takes us through much of Carter's life and career. While I liked the first part of that -- about Carter's childhood and the beginnings of his interest, and ultimate career, in magic -- I felt that the book flagged a bit towards the middle, particularly the bits about the dimwitted Secret Service agent who's hot on Carter's trail. (About halfway through, I was thinking: why is this book so long?) But then I found the last third of the novel pretty much unputdownable; and I give the author credit for managing to make a number of the obscure and seemingly meandering scenes from the middle ultimately turn out to be critical to the plot resolution.
A pretty fun read, as long as you don't mind reading a lot about magic and magicians. Carter Beats the Devil recounts the fictionalized adventures of an early 20th C. magician, Charles Carter (Carter the Great), who becomes involved in the mysterious death of President Warren G. Harding and then with the teen-aged Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television. (All real people, although the action of the novel bears almost no resemblance to actual historical events, as best I could tell from Wikipedia.) I loved the opening scenes of the book: during his renowned solo magic show in San Francisco, Carter performs a stupefying illusion (the one in which he "beats the Devil") using President Harding as a volunteer from the audience; unfortunately, Harding is found dead later that evening -- oops! -- causing Carter to be questioned by the Secret Service as a possible suspect in a plot to murder the president. We then have a long section that takes us through much of Carter's life and career. While I liked the first part of that -- about Carter's childhood and the beginnings of his interest, and ultimate career, in magic -- I felt that the book flagged a bit towards the middle, particularly the bits about the dimwitted Secret Service agent who's hot on Carter's trail. (About halfway through, I was thinking: why is this book so long?) But then I found the last third of the novel pretty much unputdownable; and I give the author credit for managing to make a number of the obscure and seemingly meandering scenes from the middle ultimately turn out to be critical to the plot resolution.
December 26, 2023
it truly pains me to give this book only 3 stars. truthfully, i would rather say 3.5/5, but that’s not possible.
carter beats the devil started off as such a convincing and interesting read! i got through it swimmingly and absolutely loved it. then, however, came a part which was quite boring. it was difficult to continue reading. i really struggled. the last 100 pages were good again though. unfortunately, that dry period in the middle causes my rating to fall quite significantly, so from 5/5 to 3.5/5 stars.
i must say i absolutely loved charles carter as a character. he was so funny at times, and i thought it was particularly smart that he was referred to as charles when he was not seen as a magician (before he started with magic, after his first great failure which led to his brother stopping magic and him himself being traumatised), but was called carter when he was seen as a magician (his first “magic show” held for the gardener, throughout the rest of the book). that felt very satisfying and nice to me.
also, the relationship with annabelle and the relationship with phoebe absolutely warm my heart omg!! it was so sad but also so lovely, i don’t want to elaborate in case someone wants to read it.
but should one read it? do i recommend this book? if you are able to brave a slightly mind numbingly, boring part in the middle for the sake of a generally speaking well written book with many fascinating, gripping and nice parts, for sure! despite that one part, i do really like carter beats the devil, which is why it saddens me that its rating was ruined by its middle.
carter beats the devil started off as such a convincing and interesting read! i got through it swimmingly and absolutely loved it. then, however, came a part which was quite boring. it was difficult to continue reading. i really struggled. the last 100 pages were good again though. unfortunately, that dry period in the middle causes my rating to fall quite significantly, so from 5/5 to 3.5/5 stars.
i must say i absolutely loved charles carter as a character. he was so funny at times, and i thought it was particularly smart that he was referred to as charles when he was not seen as a magician (before he started with magic, after his first great failure which led to his brother stopping magic and him himself being traumatised), but was called carter when he was seen as a magician (his first “magic show” held for the gardener, throughout the rest of the book). that felt very satisfying and nice to me.
also, the relationship with annabelle and the relationship with phoebe absolutely warm my heart omg!! it was so sad but also so lovely, i don’t want to elaborate in case someone wants to read it.
but should one read it? do i recommend this book? if you are able to brave a slightly mind numbingly, boring part in the middle for the sake of a generally speaking well written book with many fascinating, gripping and nice parts, for sure! despite that one part, i do really like carter beats the devil, which is why it saddens me that its rating was ruined by its middle.
August 28, 2025
A fictional account of the magician Charles Carter's and US President Harding.
Industrial espionage, assassination plots, murder, animal cruelty, government conspiracy, medieval torture implements,tragedy.....and so much warmth, life and a central character who you feel you know personally by the end.
Considering the material, its quite the achievement that this feels relatively cosy. The pace is unhurried, and covers multiple phases of Carter's life, but I always felt I wanted to know what was next.
There is a mystery here too, but honestly the pleasure for me was far more in Carter's life and than in the whodunnit.
Industrial espionage, assassination plots, murder, animal cruelty, government conspiracy, medieval torture implements,tragedy.....and so much warmth, life and a central character who you feel you know personally by the end.
Considering the material, its quite the achievement that this feels relatively cosy. The pace is unhurried, and covers multiple phases of Carter's life, but I always felt I wanted to know what was next.
There is a mystery here too, but honestly the pleasure for me was far more in Carter's life and than in the whodunnit.
July 23, 2022
This has been quite pleasant so far, particularly if you like an old-fashioned rambling tale with some fun magic tricks thrown in. The story of Carter here is as if told by a popular writer of, say, the 1930s, which fits the time period (though that is a bit earlier) and the characters (who are drawn pretty broadly). I keep waiting for the mystery to start, since it has the feel of a Golden-Age mystery. But I guess the mystery will be tied in with Harding and before that we have to go along and see what Houdini is like. Stopping at page 200 but leaving the bookmark in, since I feel like I can put this down now and pick it up again and I won’t have forgotten anything crucial. We’ll see.
January 13, 2024
4.5 taking off half a star for some whack plot stuff but omg i loved this book charles carter u are my baby girl and i love u and your gf, gay brother, his football player boyfriend, and pet elephant and lion
July 30, 2022
Super tightly plotted and a lot of fun.
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