Man From Beyond [Hardcover]

Molly Goodman, the protagonist of Gabriel Brownstein's first novel, is something of a prototype for the future. THE MAN FROM BEYOND takes place in the early 1920s during the postwar period. Molly is an independent woman working as a reporter for a New York tabloid and living with a roommate from Vassar. She smokes --- and not just tobacco --- and maybe is a little in love with her aforesaid roommate.

Molly starts off as a cosmetology reporter ("it's sort of a science," her editor explains to her), but ends up with a job that's very twenty-first century. She's the "personalities" reporter, reporting on celebrities in an era before there really were celebrities.

In her era, of course, Molly can't follow around brainless starlets, lip-synching nonentities or superannuated child actors. She has to report on celebrities from the past, and in that, Molly is more fortunate than those who have followed her into the profession.

First there is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Here, Conan Doyle is close to the end of his string, mourning the loss of his son in the Great War and fully enthralled in the clutches of that new religion, Spiritualism.

His friend Harry Houdini is deeply into middle age here, but can still amaze with his dexterity, particularly when it comes to handcuffs and the tools of the escapist trade. Sadly, Houdini may be less known than Conan Doyle nowadays. Outside of the admiring mention he gets in Michael Chabon's THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY, you might not have heard his name in the last ten years.

In THE MAN FROM BEYOND, Houdini has branched out into movies (the book shares its title with one of Houdini's silent films) and is into debunking the myth of Spiritualism. As Conan Doyle is the great scientific defender of Spiritualism, completely convinced of its tenets, this puts him into direct conflict with Houdini --- and this conflict is what drives THE MAN FROM BEYOND.

The scenes in the book where Conan Doyle matches wits with Houdini --- at séances and "spiritual writing" sessions --- are the heart of the tale. Houdini has too much respect --- real or feigned --- for Conan Doyle to take him on directly, and so he fights back against him in the press. This is where Molly Goodman comes in, as both Conan Doyle and Houdini use her to talk to each other in much the same way that children who aren't talking to each other utilize their parents.

There's a grand aura of mystery around both Houdini and the creator of Sherlock Holmes, and Brownstein is wise not to disturb that too much. Instead, he concentrates on the character of Molly Goodman, celebrity reporter, and brings us into her interior life. Unfortunately there isn't anything truly compelling or interesting about Molly, especially compared to Houdini and Conan Doyle. Even her (impressively) stereotypical Jewish parents are more interesting, more alive in some ways, than Molly manages to be. Her actions, reporting, and even sexual experiences seem to be in the passive voice; things happen to her instead of the other way around.

Nevertheless, THE MAN FROM BEYOND is a good read, and the conflict between Conan Doyle and Houdini is still an important one. Brownstein does an admirable job of bringing the period in between the wars back to vivid life. But there's a reason why people read about celebrities and not about celebrity reporters.

--- Reviewed by Curtis Edmonds, who writes movie reviews at TXreviews.com.

In 1922 renowned writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and famous magician Harry Houdini meet over the debate whether spiritualists can communicate with the dead. Doyle believes so while Houdini is a skeptic. In fact at a séance in New Jersey hosted by Doyle's wife, a spiritualist, she makes contact with Houdini's mother. While Doyle defends Margery as a communicator with the dead, who predicts future calamities, Houdini tries to debunk her.

While the two men argue the merits of Margery and Lady Doyle, twenty-two years old newspaper reporter Molly Goodman follows them in hope of a scoop. However, the debate seems over before she obtains anything meaty. While doing a magic trick Houdini fails to surface from a locked box dropped in the Hudson River; he actually frees himself but much further upstream, but everyone assumes he is dead. How he plans to reappear in Manhattan and what he will do next needs to decided as he is not finished with the spiritualist.

THE MAN FROM BEYOND is a fantastic historical fictionalized account of the age of spiritualism as predominantly seen through the eyes and camera) of the twenty something reporter but also based on real life debates between Doyle the believer and Houdini the skeptic. Readers will feel they are sitting in on a séance hosted by Margery, who's an intriguing character as she predicts future events instead of communicating between loved ones from the other side. Though a villain adds suspense, historical fans will wonder why bother as this terrific 1920s tale robustly stands on its spiritual underpinnings.

Harriet Klausner

Hot on the heels of last year's ARTHUR AND GEORGE readers are faced with yet another highly fictionalized account of an episode in the life of Sherlock Holmes' creator Arthur Conan Doyle. Set against the backdrop of the much-publicized 1922 press battle between Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini over the question of Spiritualism, Brownstein weaves an oddly multi-layered story that deftly blends questions of religious belief, real historical events and characters with a pointlessly contrived murder mystery thread involving the medium Margery and an attempt on Houdini's life. To guide us through this strange mish-mash, and complicate the narrative with a sub-plot exploring the social life of stereotypical `Golden Ghetto Jews', we have young reporter Molly Goodman. Covering the story of Lady Jean's automatic writing episode in Atlantic City, Goodman finds herself drawn into the Spiritualist debate, gaining the confidence of both Houdini and Doyle, giving her fledgling career a much needed boost. The medium Margery, and her husband the enigmatic Dr. Sabatier, are introduced into the mix creating even greater conflict between the supportive, and gullible, Spiritualist crusader and the skeptical magician. Things come to a head when Houdini is believed dead after a stunt promoting his new film "The Man From Beyond" goes horribly, and inexplicably wrong; allowing both Doyle and Molly to play detective.

The Man From Beyond can be a rather confusing read for those familiar with the actual events and people that form the backdrop to this entirely fictional story. To emphasize the fictional nature of the tale Brownstein has made some strange alterations: Doyle has two children named Timothy and Joanna, the medium Margery is here renamed Mary Twist instead of Mina Crandon, her husband is named Dr. Hugo Sabatier instead of Dr. Le Roi Goddard Crandon, psychic investigator J. Malcolm Bird becomes Dingwall Bird and is given some odd experiments as a sideline, and so on... To complicate matters further Houdini did in fact investigate Margery, but not until 1924-1925, and at no time did he and Conan Doyle attend her séance together. However, there are some wonderful real incidents effectively covered in the book including a faithful account of the Lady Jean automatic writing incident and Conan Doyle's stunt-showing of The Lost World footage at a meeting of the The Society of American Magicians. While Brownstein takes Houdini and Conan Doyle down some rather strange paths during the course of the novel, he is remarkably successful in creating very credible and authentic portraits of each man.

Bottom line: A largely appealing read that unfortunately works best as a character study of Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini rather than as a cohesive fantasy thriller. While time, place, characters and certain events are vividly recreated, the fantastical mystery elements and Molly Goodman thread sideline the strengths leading to an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion.