The Grand Complication: A Novel - Hardcover

Kurzweil, Allen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786866039 ISBN 13: 9780786866038

Publisher: Hyperion, 2001

Synopsis

With a boss threatening to exile him to driving a bookmobile in Amish Country and a headstrong wife whose erotic pop-up books fail to revive the couples lost intimacy, Alexander retreats to a world of private annotation. Enter Henry James Jesson III, a collector with an improbably literary name, who shares a number of Alexanders unconventional interests. Soon, Jesson hires Alexander for some after-hours research. As his search advances, the librarian realizes there are many more secrets in Jessons life than the ones found in his dazzling Manhattan salon.

About this title

About the Author

Allen Kurzweil has won various awards, including fellowships from the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library and the Guggenheim Foundation. He is currently a Fellow at Brown University's John Nicholas Brown Center. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife and son.

Reviews

Using his highly acclaimed debut, A Case of Curiosities, as a springboard, Kurzweil delivers a remarkable novel a flawless blend of adventure, intellect, suspense, humor and antiquity. In the last novel, the case in question an 18th-century, glass-fronted box holding a collage of 10 objects had one empty compartment. In this work, set in modern-day New York City, a wealthy and eccentric bibliophile named Henry James Jesson III hires a witty, browbeaten employee of the New York Public Library, Alexander Short, to search for the missing object. Alexander, the sexually malfunctioning husband of a French artist who designs pop-up books, accepts the commission. Utilizing his exceptional research skills, he determines that the empty compartment once contained an 18th century timepiece made for Marie Antoinette. The watch, named "The Grand Complication" for its technical superiority, was stolen from a Jerusalem museum in 1983 and has been missing ever since. As the investigation deepens and Alexander becomes privy to the cloistered world of Jesson's elegant Manhattan townhouse, Alexander realizes that the elusive timepiece is not the only object under scrutiny. The robust cast of supporting characters includes a bawdy library director whose nickname is the "Librarian of Sexual Congress"; a Marie Antoinette groupie who once tried to steal the queen's pillow from an exhibit; and a no-nonsense businessman determined to open a museum devoted to all things obsolete. All come together with great finesse in this enchanting quest one that is sure to appeal to fans of Arturo Perez-Reverte and anyone who appreciates an intellectual romp. (Aug.)Forecast: Interest in anything Kurzweil produces should remain high, even this long after the success of A Case of Curiosities, which will receive a simultaneous paperback release. A national ad campaign and five-city author tour will help to fan the flames.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

*Starred Review* In a kind of sequel to Kurzweil's first novel, A Case of Curiosities (1991), Alexander Short, NYPL reference librarian, comes to the aid of a bibliophile named Henry James Jesson, who is searching for information about an eighteenth-century cabinet (the "case of curiosities") whose contents tell the tale of a man's life. Short's job is to determine what objects once occupied one of the cabinet's cubbyholes. No small task, but just right for this world-class reference librarian, who cultivates the most arcane of interests as a way of hiding from a plethora of life's more mundane complications--sex, love, commitment. This time, however, the search takes Short into rather than away from his own heart of darkness. Is Jesson really interested in the rare watch missing from the cabinet, or is it Short himself who is the object of the collector's passion? As Short is forced to confront the most challenging of reference questions (Who am I?), Kurzweil revels in the minutiae of librarianship while at the same time offering a thought-provoking, deeply philosophical meditation on the problem of identity. This is a delightfully intricate jewel box of a novel, and it works on multiple levels. Librarians will find the book a riotously funny in-joke (name the last novel in which the phrase "presort the reshelves" appeared), while connoisseurs of the most sophisticated literary-historical thrillers will lose themselves completely in Kurzweil's multifaceted world. The charismatic Short immediately joins the protagonists of Martha Cooley's The Archivist and Ross King's Ex-Libris on the short list of fiction's best bibliophile heroes. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786866039
• ISBN 13: 9780786866038
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360