REVIEW: THE CONFABULIST by STEPHEN GALLOWAY

Few people would associate magician Harry Houdini with the work of Scotland Yard leading up to WWI or the assassination of the Romanov family in 1918.  Even fewer would be able to make a connection between Arthur Conan Doyle and the illusionist, though the two men had regular contact that was marred by tensions between Doyle’s unrelenting belief in the supernatural and Houdini’s ability to ground all supposed magic in the real world. Galloway exposes these and other aspects of the magician’s life that have been dismissed into the past in a semi-biographical text on Houdini and his killer, Martin Strauss.

Houdini 1899

The story opens with Martin’s visit to a doctor, who tells him that he will eventually lose his mind due to a cognitive dysfunction in Martin’s brain. The character’s need to tell the story of Houdini, and how he killed him twice, is driven by his fear of forgetting crucial events in his life that involved the magician and Martin’s own family.  The narrative then shifts to Houdini’s side of the story and explores his rise to fame with the help of Scotland Yard, for whom Houdini agrees to provide information on people of significance to the organization, like the Romanovs. As the magician becomes increasingly entangled with behind-the-scenes political crimes and scandals, he fights against the hold that the organization has on him and his career. At several points during his shows, his life is put at risk by mysterious and unidentifiable forces, which influences Houdini to disappear from the public eye. 

This is where Martin enters the story. While attending one of Houdini’s shows, Martin sees Houdini and without any explanation, punches him in the stomach, causing Houdini’s appendix to burst, leading to his death. By revisiting his memories, Martin attempts to make sense of his actions, including the events that lead to the loss of his love interest. With a highly unreliable character experiencing mental confusion and memory loss narrates the story, the reader has to decide what’s real and what only exists in the imagination, much like the audience members at Houdini’s shows. The result is a disconcerting narrative that questions the reliability of the mind to understand what it sees.

The Confabulist immediately entrances as the reader is pulled into a world of secret plots, illusions, and the politics that defined America and Europe at the turn of the century. The deceptions that are both purposefully and unintentionally created by the characters heighten the intrigue around Houdini’s life, which elevates Galloway’s book from a mere biography to a complex fictional work. By giving voices to real-life individuals, like Margery Crandon, who was an acclaimed medium during the time period, or Sergei Vasilyevich Zubatov, a dangerous Russian police administrator that operated in Moscow, they emerge from their two-dimensional historical identities and populate Houdini’s world, which adds to the incorporation of the real with the fabricated that occurs throughout the book.

While some parts of The Confabulist might appear to border on the absurd and force the reader to check the historical accuracy of events, the author succeeds in produced an absorbing story that at the very least satisfies the reader’s desire to learn about the reality behind magic tricks.

Alicja Grzadkowska is finishing up her final semester at the University of Guelph before moving on to study Journalism at Ryerson in the fall. Her bookshelf is stacked with yet-to-read fiction titles, which hasn't stopped her from regularly adding to her collection. Traveling to big cities across North America is another one of her obsessions, and one which she hopes to indulge in again this summer.

REVIEW: THE WORD EXCHANGE by ALENA GRAEDON

The Word Exchange is a thought-provoking novel, set in the future of technological superiority. Anana works at one of the few remaining places that produces paper-bound books instead of a computer based alternative. She soon starts to notice things changing at her workplace, and eventually people even become strange, speaking in words that don’t make sense. Before Anana knows it, her world is tipped onto its side and a technological plague forces her to seriously question the world she has gotten so used to.

Alena Graedon does a fantastic job of developing her characters. The future setting can sometimes be difficult for the readers to connect to, but her characters are so real and true that they tied the whole setting together. Graedon incorporates the strange words I previously mentioned in a very subtle but powerful way. When the reader can feel like they are noticing these strange occurrences on their own, it puts them in the centre of the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves reading and literature, but also to those who enjoy thrillers. Recently, so many areas in media are involved with zombies and other monster threats. It was a real breath of fresh air to read about a different type of threat, this new language plauge Graedon has thought of. I will definitely keep my eyes peeled for her works in the future. 

Wesley Wilson is a zoology student at the University of Guelph and works on campus at a microbiology lab. When Wesley isn’t studying away, she spends most of her time reading. Anna Karenina is her favourite book, but she enjoys reading a variety of different genres. 

REVIEW: THE ECSTASY OF SURRENDER by DR. JUDITH ORLOFF

When asked to describe the most important factor in health and recovering from illness, Dr. Judith Orloff provided a one-word answer: surrender. While it is not the recommendation most people would expect to hear from a physician, it is not too surprising, considering her skill set—board-certified psychiatrist, assistant professor of psychiatry at UCLA, and intuitive healer.

In The Ecstasy of Surrender, Dr. Orloff challenges old beliefs about health, sex, aging, beauty, and money. Divided into twelve chapters, the book contains quizzes, meditations, and practical strategies designed to help the reader “flow with life rather than fighting it or pushing so hard you sabotage yourself.” Dr. Orloff shares stories from her own life and that of her patients clearly demonstrating the strength and power that comes from letting go of obsessive and destructive relationships.

Her advice is spot on, especially in the chapter entitled “The Fifth Surrender: Cultivating Impeccable Communication." In addition to providing insight on finding a soul mate, she discusses boundary setting and effective communication with anger addicts, narcissists, passive aggressive personalities, guilt trippers, and gossips.

Having experienced several personal and family health challenges, I reread the last three Surrenders several times. I was particularly interested in Dr. Orloff’s approach to pain and suffering. She starts by distinguishing between the two states: “Pain consists of the uncomfortable physiological sensations” while suffering is “your thoughts and emotional reactions to the sensations. And she stresses the following fact: “Suffering is amplified by the scary stories you tell yourself about pain.” While the pain will not necessarily disappear, harmonizing with it can dissipate the fear and anxiety.

An excellent reference book chock full of wisdom and humour.

After retiring from a 31-year teaching career, Joanne Guidoccio launched a second act as a writer. Her articles, book reviews and short stories have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online. In September 2013, Soul Mate Publishing released her debut novel, Between Land and Sea, as an ebook on Amazon. You can visit her website at www.joanneguidoccio.com

REVIEW: NEW LIFE, NO INSTRUCTIONS by GAIL CALDWELL

Three years make a lot of difference, especially when dealing with epidemics such as polio. Born in 1954, I escaped the clutches of the dreaded virus.

Gail Caldwell was not so lucky. In 1951, she caught polio when she was six months old. While she didn’t experience permanent paralysis, she retained a slight limp that followed her throughout an eventful life, one that Caldwell summarized using the following shorthand description: “Writer, grew up in Texas, slight limp from polio.”

As Caldwell approached midlife, she noticed increasing pain and lameness, exacerbated by the demands of raising Tula, a much loved Samoyed. Fearing the return of the “ghostly and conniving stalker” that had laid dormant for so many years, Caldwell faced an uncertain future until a standard X-ray revealed an unexpected diagnosis: Her hip was “a junkyard of bone” that required total hip replacement surgery.

I was surprised to learn that no health professional had ordered an X-ray in the over twenty years that Caldwell had complained about sprains, injuries, and progressive weakness. And I was shocked by some of the medical “mishaps and half-measures” she described throughout the memoir.

Thankfully, a competent primary physician stepped in and referred Caldwell to an equally competent surgeon who later delivered the following post-op report: “Things went very well. We were able to lengthen the leg by about one and a half to two centimeters, or five eighths of an inch.”

In the midst of her morphine cloud, she grasped the significance of that small measurement. The surgery had restored her ability to walk. What followed was a challenging period of rehabilitation where Gail Caldwell taught her leg to walk again at the age sixty-one.

New Life, No Instructions is an inspiring memoir, brimming with raw courage and the transformative power of unexpected blessings.

After retiring from a 31-year teaching career, Joanne Guidoccio launched a second act as a writer. Her articles, book reviews and short stories have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online. In September 2013, Soul Mate Publishing released her debut novel, Between Land and Sea, as an ebook on Amazon. You can visit her website at www.joanneguidoccio.com

REVIEW: THE FULL RIDICULOUS by MARK LAMPRELL

In The Full Ridiculous, Mark Lamprell has written a unique exploration of what it means to be alive, and what it means to live. And what most of us forget is really important about living.

The title is inspired by a quote from Zorba the Greek, a book that once inspired Lamprell's protagonist: "Am I not a man? And is a man not stupid? I'm a man, so I married. Wife, children, house, everything. The full catastrophe." And so it is with Michael O'Dell. A man with wife, children, house, everything... on the verge of a massive catastrophe. Or, more appropriately, a massive series of catastrophes. We start off big, with O'Dell being launched over the hood of a car. From hospital to home to hell. From there, things quickly unravel, with O'Dell desperately trying to hang on to the few threads that remain.

The Full Ridiculous is a complicated book. Simple on the surface, it would be easy to simply treat it as a farcical romp through the modern day challenges of hanging on to your job, your spouse, your house, your kids and your sanity. And, predictably, there is a time in the book where it would appear that Michael O'Dell is on the verge of losing all of them. But this isn't a predictable book. And while it ends well, the path to the finish line is anything but straight and sure. Lamprell explores profound issues about identity, relationships, love and loss, in a way that is sympathetic and sure-footed.

For me, I knew from the outset that this was going to be a difficult book to read, but a rewarding one. For anyone that has struggled with identity, purpose and meaning, the themes and events in The Full Ridiculous cut a little too close to the bone. Nonetheless, the book is compassionately written, wryly constructed and both hilarious and humanizing. A curious device is that the book is written (almost) entirely in the second person, intermingling you the reader with O'Dell the protagonist. Within pages, you accept this fact as normal. Right until the point where you realize why. I won't spoil the surprise.

This is a delightful book, that I found virtually impossible to put down. The vast majority of it was consumed in one sitting. It is tightly crafted, tautly honed and touchingly haunting. At the end, it leaves you hoping for a little bit more. Except that, really, it has provided you with just enough.

Mark Mullaly is an avid reader, sometimes writer, enthusiastic motorcyclist and lover of wine (and endeavours to engage in only one of these pursuits at any given time).

REVIEW: THE NEWS by ALAIN DE BOTTON

A book like Alain de Botton’s The News: A User’s Manual is hard to review because it defies genre boundaries. As a work of non-fiction, it is both a philosophical treatise and a self-help book.  It is a cultural history, an exposé, and a historical account. It covers subjects as varied as economics, natural disasters, politics, and celebrity. And it is as pessimistic about the present as it is optimistic about the future of the news. The News is a book for anyone interested in the story behind the story: how the news exploits human psychology and how its power over us has the potential to make us better people.

Alain de Botton

The News is also difficult to review because of its unusual structure. The book is comprised of eight large sections, each of which is split into chapters on multiple topics. For example, the “Consumption” section is split into two chapters: “Dining, Travel and Technology” and “Culture.” Each chapter opens with a news item that exemplifies the chapter’s topic, such as a restaurant review, which is followed by numbered, miniature essays. These essays often bleed into one another, but are distinguished by a particular point or argument. In a chapter called “The Details” within the “World News” section, there is a news excerpt from the BBC about the Ugandan government. The next couple of essays go on to criticize, firstly, the news coverage of Uganda—as unemotional and devoid of interest for much of its potential audience—and secondly, the choice of consumers to follow celebrity news more willingly than an unarguably more important piece of world news. Botton goes on to conclude that world news will only “ignite our interest” by not trying to be blindly objective and sterile. By letting the artists and travel writers and poets explore the nuances of a place, they would be able to shed light on the “less obtrusive beauty and tragedy” that makes a country like Uganda more than the latest casualty report. The news should cover real people, and not just the macro-statistics that describe them.

The scope of this humble book is huge. It covers an immense amount of ground in 255 pages that can be read either cover to cover or one section at a time. There is so much information that I had to reread passages just to digest their multiple meanings. Like a scientist, Botton uses firsthand experience to explore how current events are being communicated to the public. He analyzes the results of his investigation and is able to make conclusions about what news actually does and what it should be able to do. The news is not only the main character, but it is simultaneously the protagonist, the antagonist, and the test subject. And Botton is not only putting the news under a microscope, he is examining human behaviour and what it reveals about human nature. An entire section is dedicated to “Celebrity.” After examining the typical celebrities of ancient Greece, Botton illuminates the relationship between the human qualities that a society values and who they choose to emulate. Those ancient Greek statesmen, athletes, and musicians were considered worthy guides to follow. What Botton goes on to criticize is neither that we have celebrities nor that we want to emulate them, but rather that they should be used more productively, “as case studies to be pored over and rigorously dissected with a basic question in mind: What can I absorb from this person”? News coverage of celebrities shouldn’t evoke jealousy or ambition, it should teach us how to be better versions of ourselves.

After reading this book, I felt ashamed of my own habits of news consumption, and rightly so. It made me think of how I consume news—where I get it from, what I click on, what I choose to read—and then what I do with news once I have digested it. Truthfully, I might bring it up with a friend as a topic of conversation, or bring it up on a date to make myself seem smarter, but the reality is that even the phrase “news consumption” is incredibly passive, immature and, in a word, gluttonous. But all of that is okay. By reading this book, I have become more conscious of my own habits. I am more aware of my power as a literate, semi-intellectual citizen of the world. I now realize my responsibility to be an active participant in the news—to take ownership of what I spend my time reading.  Because it matters.

Alain de Botton expresses an infectious optimism towards the future of the news, and the world, that is undeniable. In a later chapter, he states that the reviews made by cultural journalists “should direct our lonely, confused, scared and stricken souls to those works of culture most likely to help us survive and thrive.” As a cultural journalist, I believe that both The News and the news are worth your time.

Michelle Hunniford is a PhD student studying animal behaviour and welfare.  Poultry specialist.  Grammar enthusiast.  Orwellian and Darwinian.

REVIEW: UNWRAPPED SKY by RJURIK DAVIDSON

I love debut novels. It's exciting to read something that you know somebody has worked really hard on in order to break into the publishing field, and fun to discover new talents. A debut novel can also be extremely telling about the writer; whether they are destined to go far in the literary world or crash and burn along the curbsides.

Rjurik Davidson's debut, Unwrapped Sky, is undoubtedly in the former group. It's a very beautiful novel that was obviously constructed with a lot of care. The world-building is phenomenal; there is enough detail given to make the city of Caeli-Amur feel like a real place, yet enough gaps are left to allow expansion in further writings. The pseudo-Greek mythology used to construct the city doesn't feel like mythology...it feels almost weirdly natural, like a half-memory or potential path that was never taken. This in turn allows the reader to relate to the characters, which is advantageous, as in this situation there are three.

The first is Boris Autec, a former cityworker who has risen to the lofty position of a House officiate, a member of the form of government that Caeli-Amur is run by. He is bound and determined to eliminate the rebellious Maximilian, the leader of a seditionist group whose goal is to overthrow the houses and free Caeli-Amur's citizenry. To defeat him, Boris sends a spy into Max's group – the philosopher-assassin Kata, a troubled girl who owes more to the Houses than she is comfortable with. Throw in a few Greek creatures, mysterious decaying overlords, demigods, and warped magic system (the more you use it, the more it kills you) and you have the makings for a very special novel.

I very much look forward to revisiting the city of Caeli-Amur in the future, and would urge you all to join me as soon as you can.

Robert Green is a confirmed bibliophile and aspiring writer whose love of sci-fi has caused him to own many more books than he has physical room for. He is also the owner and creator of the up-and-coming company Verity Books, which can be seen at various cons throughout the year. Any questions or comments can be sent to veritybooksanddvds@gmail.com or facebook.com/veritybooksanddvds.