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dankeohane's review against another edition
4.0
This is quite an original short novel. As if written, and read, in a fever dream. That's not a bad thing, in fact this book is quite fascinating, following the narrator Leona in the years after Harry Houdini's death. She was his long time assistant (known in the industry as a 'box jumper') and best friend. The book alternates between various moments in time and stages of their relationship, focusing on Houdini's obsession with debunking the many psychic mediums of the day who claimed to speak to the dead. As the story unfolds in an almost stream of consciousness, nonlinear way, it becomes darker and darker, with the narrator trying to convince us, or herself, that some of these events were not real. Or they were. It's a great take on the unreliable narrator point of few and The Box Jumper slowly, craftily pulls you in deeper into itself. Nice job, this one.
omnibozo22's review against another edition
3.0
Box Jumpers are slang, somewhat affectionate, for the (ususally) female magician assistants who are required to do all the heavy work on stage during a performance. They are constantly in and out of boxes, being stabbed, beheaded, dismembered and generally mistreated, for the pleasure of the audience. Additionally, though less spoken about, they function as eye candy, especially at key moments when the magicians doesn't want the audience's eyes staring at him during a moment of tricky secret stuff. That's when box jumpers wiggle their stuff and strut across the stage, or bend over to defy gravity with their charms.
This book is barely about them. The protagonist, an assistant to Houdini, mainly does off stage stuff for him, including researching fraudulent mediums. For unknown reasons (fear perhaps), Mannetti changes the names of some real people, especially those in the fake spiritualism business. Only someone who has never read a thing about Houdini will not recognize that Margery is the key antagonist.
A couple of aspects of the book bothered me. Mannetti clearly did lots of research, relying heavily on Kalish's book on Houdini's purported spy activities. Still, she oddly exaggerates, with poor justification, the rumor that Margery was involved in the disappearance of young boys. This book claims there were dozens, but offers no explanation that makes any sense. About that not making sense... Mannetti tries to get out of trouble by resorting to one of the dirty tricks of poor authors... the protagonist goes nuts. ("spirits" seem to be partly or completely to blame... WTF?). The other common crap ending is "...and then I woke up." At least she didn't quite resort to that, as well.
This book is barely about them. The protagonist, an assistant to Houdini, mainly does off stage stuff for him, including researching fraudulent mediums. For unknown reasons (fear perhaps), Mannetti changes the names of some real people, especially those in the fake spiritualism business. Only someone who has never read a thing about Houdini will not recognize that Margery is the key antagonist.
A couple of aspects of the book bothered me. Mannetti clearly did lots of research, relying heavily on Kalish's book on Houdini's purported spy activities. Still, she oddly exaggerates, with poor justification, the rumor that Margery was involved in the disappearance of young boys. This book claims there were dozens, but offers no explanation that makes any sense. About that not making sense... Mannetti tries to get out of trouble by resorting to one of the dirty tricks of poor authors... the protagonist goes nuts. ("spirits" seem to be partly or completely to blame... WTF?). The other common crap ending is "...and then I woke up." At least she didn't quite resort to that, as well.
evavroslin's review against another edition
5.0
I thought this was a very well-written book that went into one of the "box jumpers" that were assistants to magicians. This one is about Leona, who helped Harry Houdini. If you enjoyed the movie "The Prestige", this book will TOTALLY be up your alley. It's fantastically well-written, it's well-researched, it's an incredibly evocative novel and it's a great piece of fiction. Historical fiction fans and those who are obsessed with Houdini will love it too.
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