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The Contortionists
When five-year-old Joshua Christopher disappears off the street as he walks to a friend’s birthday party, his family is forced to confront the unimaginable. What happened? Why? Who took him? The convicted sex offender caught lurking near the search? Why won’t police leave his family, his parents, alone? In his second novel, his first in twenty years, Robert H. Van Wagoner explores a family in extremis tottering at the edge of in God and church, in family, and in marriage, in the institutions that promise safety and meaning. Both lyrical and explosive, The Contortionists unfolds as a page-turning mystery. Van Wagoner’s wrenching narrative propels the reader forward, toward the novel’s harrowing climax, while deftly unpacking its major themes—mental illness, sexuality, and substance abuse in a culture that would rather not confront them. Does the truth ever set anyone ultimately free? The stakes for Joshua and his family could not be greater.
- GenresMormonism
308 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 17, 2020
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54 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 22, 2020
The feel of this book is somewhat similar to the HBO series Six Feet Under. It is dark, authentic, and occasionally funny. It's also very visceral in a way that can be disconcerting--sometimes it's a little too real for comfort. A kid goes missing, is kidnapped, and what happens afterwards seems very plausible. This isn't the kind of action-packed thriller where a secret agent fights through throngs of baddies to heroically rescue the damsel in distress, nor is it one of those high dramas full of theatrics and exaggerated cookie-cutter conflicts. What set this book apart, and what makes it leave such a lasting impression is simply this: it feels real. It feels like this is something that could actually happen. And that makes for a heavy, heavy book.
I will remember this book for a long time. If you're looking for something rich, a book that puts you in touch with life in all its magnificence and terror, then this is a book for you.
I will remember this book for a long time. If you're looking for something rich, a book that puts you in touch with life in all its magnificence and terror, then this is a book for you.
December 30, 2020
Powerful book. Can't say more without spoilers. Please read it.
February 1, 2021
Excellent prose and suspenseful tone. Robert enters into the peculiar culture of Utah Latter-day Saints and a frightening pathos of dysfunction that will leave readers haunted.
March 24, 2021
Overall, not bad; kept me reading to the end. Set within the religious environment of the LDS church, which gave it an interesting spin.
My main issues were with motivations - the author's and the characters'. I got the big picture motivation for the culprit, but I didn't get why some of them boomeranged around in attitude, sometimes over minutes. I couldn't tell why the author had the detective work while he was sick to the point of an emergency; what did that do for the story? I couldn't tell why the author included some of the sex scenes, not that I objected to them on principle, but because they felt like they were in that awkward middle spot where it's too much detail to be there solely for carrying the story forward but also not hot enough to be that interesting to read? I guess the author was going for a feeling of realism but there was a lot that was unreal about the characters' motivations.
Also, there was a lot made of some fibres at the crime scene, but as far as I could tell they weren't explained at the end.
My main issues were with motivations - the author's and the characters'. I got the big picture motivation for the culprit, but I didn't get why some of them boomeranged around in attitude, sometimes over minutes. I couldn't tell why the author had the detective work while he was sick to the point of an emergency; what did that do for the story? I couldn't tell why the author included some of the sex scenes, not that I objected to them on principle, but because they felt like they were in that awkward middle spot where it's too much detail to be there solely for carrying the story forward but also not hot enough to be that interesting to read? I guess the author was going for a feeling of realism but there was a lot that was unreal about the characters' motivations.
Also, there was a lot made of some fibres at the crime scene, but as far as I could tell they weren't explained at the end.
January 31, 2022
First of all, this was a really quick, engrossing read and I was invested from the start. A young boy is missing from a tight Mormon family in Ogden, Utah. In many ways this is a regular detective novel, but placed in a very specific setting, which definitely peaked my interest as a Utahn. The characters ranged from the devout, to the questioning, to the disillusioned, to the outsiders looking in and each responded to this crisis in ways influenced by their point of view. The "contortionists" that the title points to, refers to the mental acrobatics required of the truly devout. Melissa, an initially sympathetic and particularly strong willed character, has to somehow reconcile the life she believes she should have and the life her god requires, with the life she actually has and this is no easy feat. The story itself is the unravelling of a conclusion to which religious belief might lead.
October 25, 2021
I enjoy reading books set in places I recognize and in a culture familiar to me. This book fit the bill in that way in that Ogden, Utah is only a couple of hours away from where I grew up in Provo and is also my father’s hometown. And the story is a good one if not a great one. It was interesting enough, and I found I could follow the storyline pretty effortlessly until right up close to the end, where everything started to get a little muddled in my mind.
That may have been partly to do with the fact that I listened to the book rather than reading it off the printed page. That's not usually a problem for me, but it was a little bit here. A couple of times, I skipped (we used to say ‘rewound’) back to the beginning of the chapter I was on just to make sure I hadn't missed a critical detail somewhere, but it didn't seem like I had. I think the details just weren't spelled out as clearly in spots as they could have been. And, in places, the information was presented out of order deliberately, presumably to serve the unfolding of the plot, yet it merely confused me.
The characters I most identified with were the sister, Carly, and her Norwegian husband, Hans. The main character, Melissa, remains a mystery to me. At the beginning of the novel, she's intelligent enough to avoid getting roped into a marriage with an overly pious fellow named Ezra, who tells her God has told him they were meant to be together. I can understand her attraction to the next guy, Joe, on some level, but it becomes more and more apparent as the plot moves forward that she really belonged with Ezra. I guess maybe that’s the point of the tale, the tragedy of it, but it didn’t strike me as particularly authentic somehow. (I guess, somehow, she seemed smarter than that.)
And Joe, likewise, is an enigma to me. Aside from his drinking problem and his coding skills, I don't feel like I know anything about him. Overall, he seems pretty wooden and one-dimensional, but perhaps that is what a family tragedy early in life does to a person. (Read the book for more details.)
At one point, he pens a letter to the LDS church announcing his resignation. Presumably this is out of exasperation with his overly pious wife. But I just don’t think the stage for this was set very well. (Perhaps I'd feel differently about it on a second reading of the novel, though. She is, after all, overly indignant about her sister’s failure to finish her mission and remain true to the gospel, and she has weird ideas about sex, except that her sexual proclivities are already pretty weird in the first place. But, if the story included more details like these, perhaps I’d feel more convinced.)
Again, I enjoyed the novel but, personally, I prefer novels like The Tabernacle Bar and Rift, the novella A Short Stay in Hell or the short stories of Levi Peterson as found in The Canyons of Grace: Stories and other collections. If you enjoy Mormon fiction, though (by which I mean stories based in a Mormon setting, not necessarily faith-promoting literature), give it a try.
That may have been partly to do with the fact that I listened to the book rather than reading it off the printed page. That's not usually a problem for me, but it was a little bit here. A couple of times, I skipped (we used to say ‘rewound’) back to the beginning of the chapter I was on just to make sure I hadn't missed a critical detail somewhere, but it didn't seem like I had. I think the details just weren't spelled out as clearly in spots as they could have been. And, in places, the information was presented out of order deliberately, presumably to serve the unfolding of the plot, yet it merely confused me.
The characters I most identified with were the sister, Carly, and her Norwegian husband, Hans. The main character, Melissa, remains a mystery to me. At the beginning of the novel, she's intelligent enough to avoid getting roped into a marriage with an overly pious fellow named Ezra, who tells her God has told him they were meant to be together. I can understand her attraction to the next guy, Joe, on some level, but it becomes more and more apparent as the plot moves forward that she really belonged with Ezra. I guess maybe that’s the point of the tale, the tragedy of it, but it didn’t strike me as particularly authentic somehow. (I guess, somehow, she seemed smarter than that.)
And Joe, likewise, is an enigma to me. Aside from his drinking problem and his coding skills, I don't feel like I know anything about him. Overall, he seems pretty wooden and one-dimensional, but perhaps that is what a family tragedy early in life does to a person. (Read the book for more details.)
At one point, he pens a letter to the LDS church announcing his resignation. Presumably this is out of exasperation with his overly pious wife. But I just don’t think the stage for this was set very well. (Perhaps I'd feel differently about it on a second reading of the novel, though. She is, after all, overly indignant about her sister’s failure to finish her mission and remain true to the gospel, and she has weird ideas about sex, except that her sexual proclivities are already pretty weird in the first place. But, if the story included more details like these, perhaps I’d feel more convinced.)
Again, I enjoyed the novel but, personally, I prefer novels like The Tabernacle Bar and Rift, the novella A Short Stay in Hell or the short stories of Levi Peterson as found in The Canyons of Grace: Stories and other collections. If you enjoy Mormon fiction, though (by which I mean stories based in a Mormon setting, not necessarily faith-promoting literature), give it a try.
March 29, 2021
(This review was first published in the February 2021 issue of The Concrete Herald newspaper. )
We’ve all engaged in mental gymnastics at some time or another in our lives. So desperately do we want to rationalize our actions that we’ll come up with one excuse or another to justify them. In this way, we are all contortionists, trying to bend people and situations to our will. The Contortionists begins like any other detective novel – a missing boy, a distraught family, a gruff detective, duty-bound to solve the mystery. What makes Van Wagoner’s novel more interesting, however, is the slow revelation of how the mental gymnastics of one Utah-based family brings about tragedy. While the family grapples with how their Mormon religion shapes their lives, truly anyone can face the ramifications of whatever societal construct they may either deviate from or adhere to, and this makes the story frighteningly easy to relate to.
The Contortionists is a fast-paced book despite its flashback scenes. Van Wagoner creates imagery with his words that puts the reader right in the room with the family and those aiding them, as if they too were related to the missing boy. While serious in tone and subject matter, there are brief moments where the author allows some sardonic wit to come through in dialogue, giving a spark of life to certain characters. Those unfamiliar with the Mormon faith needn’t be afraid of being left behind in the narrative; even if you don’t know the first thing about the religion, the tenants of their faith inform the characters’ choices and are explained in a way that is accessible to those who don’t who don’t know much about it, without feeling like a lecture. Information flows organically in this novel and doesn’t feel like forced exposition.
By far the most interesting characters are the members of the Christopher/DeBoer family – particularly Melissa, Joe, and Karley. Unfortunately, the detective from which the point of view comes from in certain chapters – Milo Craig – doesn’t stand out. There is a small through-line where Craig suffers an illness that becomes relevant, but this subplot feels too detached from the crux of the story, and readers will struggle to find its relevance. The time spent with Craig is time we’d rather spend with the Christophers or DeBoers. Perhaps in a sequel we may find out more about him, but this novel doesn’t feel like it’s being set up as a serial: the point was made; the case closed with a tragic, thrilling conclusion.
In terms of formatting, editing, and other minor plot points, there are a few decisions and mistakes in the book’s production that could be addressed in the next round of printing; among the occasional typo or curious phrasings are questions such as: why does every chapter have a blank page separating it from the previous one? Why did we have a full, awkward, paragraph devoted to a minor character sucking on a mint? What even is a “breasty squeeze?” Is that a real phrase that real people say? Why would you buy a five-year-old the seventh Harry Potter book? While some of these quibbles are jarring when encountered, overall, they don’t do much to diminish the enjoyment of the overall story, which for this reviewer, is actually pretty impressive. For fans of the mystery genre or explorations of society’s impacts on the human condition, pick up this second novel from a local author – it’s worth the read.
We’ve all engaged in mental gymnastics at some time or another in our lives. So desperately do we want to rationalize our actions that we’ll come up with one excuse or another to justify them. In this way, we are all contortionists, trying to bend people and situations to our will. The Contortionists begins like any other detective novel – a missing boy, a distraught family, a gruff detective, duty-bound to solve the mystery. What makes Van Wagoner’s novel more interesting, however, is the slow revelation of how the mental gymnastics of one Utah-based family brings about tragedy. While the family grapples with how their Mormon religion shapes their lives, truly anyone can face the ramifications of whatever societal construct they may either deviate from or adhere to, and this makes the story frighteningly easy to relate to.
The Contortionists is a fast-paced book despite its flashback scenes. Van Wagoner creates imagery with his words that puts the reader right in the room with the family and those aiding them, as if they too were related to the missing boy. While serious in tone and subject matter, there are brief moments where the author allows some sardonic wit to come through in dialogue, giving a spark of life to certain characters. Those unfamiliar with the Mormon faith needn’t be afraid of being left behind in the narrative; even if you don’t know the first thing about the religion, the tenants of their faith inform the characters’ choices and are explained in a way that is accessible to those who don’t who don’t know much about it, without feeling like a lecture. Information flows organically in this novel and doesn’t feel like forced exposition.
By far the most interesting characters are the members of the Christopher/DeBoer family – particularly Melissa, Joe, and Karley. Unfortunately, the detective from which the point of view comes from in certain chapters – Milo Craig – doesn’t stand out. There is a small through-line where Craig suffers an illness that becomes relevant, but this subplot feels too detached from the crux of the story, and readers will struggle to find its relevance. The time spent with Craig is time we’d rather spend with the Christophers or DeBoers. Perhaps in a sequel we may find out more about him, but this novel doesn’t feel like it’s being set up as a serial: the point was made; the case closed with a tragic, thrilling conclusion.
In terms of formatting, editing, and other minor plot points, there are a few decisions and mistakes in the book’s production that could be addressed in the next round of printing; among the occasional typo or curious phrasings are questions such as: why does every chapter have a blank page separating it from the previous one? Why did we have a full, awkward, paragraph devoted to a minor character sucking on a mint? What even is a “breasty squeeze?” Is that a real phrase that real people say? Why would you buy a five-year-old the seventh Harry Potter book? While some of these quibbles are jarring when encountered, overall, they don’t do much to diminish the enjoyment of the overall story, which for this reviewer, is actually pretty impressive. For fans of the mystery genre or explorations of society’s impacts on the human condition, pick up this second novel from a local author – it’s worth the read.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews