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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
This is one of the best novels I have ever read. I read this years ago but I think about it constantly. You have to read this.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If Fight Club and Requiem for a Dream had a maladjusted lovechild raised on amphetamines and Nietzsche, this would be its fever dream.
The sardonic opening line, “I can count my overdoses on one hand.” is stark and immediately disarming. In just eight words, Clevenger delivers a chilling summary of the protagonist’s life and a blueprint for the story to come. He sets the tone with a voice being both coolly detached and darkly self-aware, while peering into the mind of the narrator who views his own self-destruction with clinical precision.
The Contortionist’s Handbook is a dark, cerebral novel centered on John Dolan Vincent, a gifted forger, former addict, and mathematical prodigy who is adept at creating new identities to escape detection by authorities and mental health institutions.
Along the way, our young hero learns essential life skills, such as:
• How to beat psychiatric evaluations with a charming mix of half-truths and high-functioning nihilism.
• The fine art of forging documents while half-conscious from a cocktail of narcotics.
• How to spot a societal safety net and deftly wriggle through the holes like a strung-out Houdini.
The protagonist’s coming of age is marked not by graduation or romance or some revelation of purpose, but by his slow mastery of one of life’s most underappreciated crafts: pretending to be someone else, forever. It’s about learning who you are by becoming literally anyone else.
The story opens with Vincent in a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital following his sixth overdose (the comedy being that he has Polydactyly - a sixth finger); an apparent suicide attempt. To avoid involuntary commitment, he must convince a psychiatrist that he is mentally stable and that his overdose was accidental. What follows is an intense, layered narrative of Vincent’s psychological manipulation and self-preservation, told through a series of confessions, lies, and strategic omissions.
The sardonic opening line, “I can count my overdoses on one hand.” is stark and immediately disarming. In just eight words, Clevenger delivers a chilling summary of the protagonist’s life and a blueprint for the story to come. He sets the tone with a voice being both coolly detached and darkly self-aware, while peering into the mind of the narrator who views his own self-destruction with clinical precision.
The Contortionist’s Handbook is a dark, cerebral novel centered on John Dolan Vincent, a gifted forger, former addict, and mathematical prodigy who is adept at creating new identities to escape detection by authorities and mental health institutions.
Along the way, our young hero learns essential life skills, such as:
• How to beat psychiatric evaluations with a charming mix of half-truths and high-functioning nihilism.
• The fine art of forging documents while half-conscious from a cocktail of narcotics.
• How to spot a societal safety net and deftly wriggle through the holes like a strung-out Houdini.
The protagonist’s coming of age is marked not by graduation or romance or some revelation of purpose, but by his slow mastery of one of life’s most underappreciated crafts: pretending to be someone else, forever. It’s about learning who you are by becoming literally anyone else.
The story opens with Vincent in a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital following his sixth overdose (the comedy being that he has Polydactyly - a sixth finger); an apparent suicide attempt. To avoid involuntary commitment, he must convince a psychiatrist that he is mentally stable and that his overdose was accidental. What follows is an intense, layered narrative of Vincent’s psychological manipulation and self-preservation, told through a series of confessions, lies, and strategic omissions.
A person‘s life story is equal to what they have plus what they want most in the world, minus what they’re actually willing to sacrifice for it. -page 87
Craig Clevenger writes with a precision that borders on clinical, using stripped-down, declarative sentences that reflect John Dolan Vincent’s analytical mind and obsessive attention to detail. Each paragraph is soaked in paranoia, self-loathing, and just enough poetic flourish to make you forget you’re following a protagonist who’d steal your identity. The dialogue is sharp and unadorned which enhances the noir atmosphere. Despite the cool detachment, moments of lyricism emerge, especially in flashbacks or scenes of internal unraveling, revealing the emotional fractures beneath Vincent’s carefully constructed façade.
I reached through the curtain to set the bottle on the sink and it slipped, blasted into a thousand shiny brown shards and amber foam inside the tub, and I cut my foot stepping out. The red was luminous, diluted from the shower against the white porcelain and swirling into the drain like a horror film close-up. Beautiful. -page 123
John Dolan Vincent survives by mastering deception: of others, of institutions, and of himself. But in doing so, he loses the possibility of real connection, stability, and peace. For me, it felt like an example of when identity becomes a performance, and survival requires constant erasure of the past, what’s left may not be a life, but a hollow performance of one.
I feel we need books like this if only to remind us that while most of us are anxiously triple-checking our resumes and avoiding eye contact at the supermarket, there are people out there forging medical licenses in motel bathtubs, high on precision and Ketamine.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Sometimes I can be so smart, and sometimes I can be so stupid.â€
I picked up this book basically blind. I was scrolling through audiobooks by my favourite reader, Ray Porter, and saw this one was free on Audible. The title was interesting, so I added it to my library and promptly forgot about it. A few months later, I wanted a short audiobook and went back to this one. A little under 7 hours, and with a fantastic reader, I hoped this would get me out of a rut of listening to old podcast episodes. I think this book succeeded!
In “The Contortionist’s Handbook†we meet Jonny (or Daniel, or Paul, or Eric) as he tries to extricate himself from potentially being sectioned following an overdose. It’s a great start, and Jonny’s strong character voice, brought to life by Porter, is immediate and fantastic.
Through the book we learn about Jonny’s dysfunctional family, his time in juvenile detention and his virtuoso ability to copy documents. Jonny is a great protagonist, lively and not altogether likeable but endlessly entertaining. Whilst there are large portions of this book where nothing much happens, I didn’t really notice, because Jonny could talk about anything and I’d enjoy it.
My only real problem with this book is that I got to the end and wondered, “What was the point of all that?†I still haven’t figured that out, but I’m not sure I mind.
I picked up this book basically blind. I was scrolling through audiobooks by my favourite reader, Ray Porter, and saw this one was free on Audible. The title was interesting, so I added it to my library and promptly forgot about it. A few months later, I wanted a short audiobook and went back to this one. A little under 7 hours, and with a fantastic reader, I hoped this would get me out of a rut of listening to old podcast episodes. I think this book succeeded!
In “The Contortionist’s Handbook†we meet Jonny (or Daniel, or Paul, or Eric) as he tries to extricate himself from potentially being sectioned following an overdose. It’s a great start, and Jonny’s strong character voice, brought to life by Porter, is immediate and fantastic.
Through the book we learn about Jonny’s dysfunctional family, his time in juvenile detention and his virtuoso ability to copy documents. Jonny is a great protagonist, lively and not altogether likeable but endlessly entertaining. Whilst there are large portions of this book where nothing much happens, I didn’t really notice, because Jonny could talk about anything and I’d enjoy it.
My only real problem with this book is that I got to the end and wondered, “What was the point of all that?†I still haven’t figured that out, but I’m not sure I mind.
I would've rated this book a 5 until I got to the last page. The ending kind of made me want to hurl the book into a wall. It's good other than that!
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
feel like this would be a good book for a sociology major to read cuz it is pretty much a case study about a super computer of man who doesn’t wanna deal with society. there’s a whole lot of palahniuk inspiration just from that description. the finer details of the story only affirm that notion. it can totally be read without knowledge of palahniuk, but it just makes the experience better if u have read palahniuk imo.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes