This was a great book. It tells the story of both Houdini and of Martin Strauss, the man who killed Houdini twice. It is part fact, part fiction, and part memory that cannot be trusted.

Having loved Galloway’s The Cellist of Sarajevo, I so looked forward to his next novel. Unfortunately, I did not find it as emotionally satisfying.

The confabulist is Martin Strauss who in the novel’s opening is diagnosed with a degenerative physiological condition which affects his brain’s ability to store and process memories and so invents new memories. This clearly identified unreliable narrator claims that, “I didn’t just kill Harry Houdini. I killed him twice” (5). Interspersed with Strauss’s tale is a third-person omniscient account of Houdini’s life, though one that seems largely speculative, having Houdini, for example, at the centre of an international spy network.

The novel examines the nature of memory: real versus false memories. At the beginning, Strauss speculates, “How is it we can be so sure that we’ve seen, heard, or experienced what we think we have? In a magic trick, the things you don’t see or think you see have a culmination, because at the end of the trick there’s an effect. Misdirection tampers with reconstruction. But if life works the same way, and I believe it does, then a percentage of our lives is a fiction. There’s no way to know whether anything we have seen or experienced is real or imagined” (52 – 53). At the end, he concludes, “A memory isn’t a finished product, it’s a work in progress. We think that our minds are like a library – the right book is there somewhere if you can find it. A whole story will then unfold with you as the narrator. But our memory changes, evolves, erases. Moments disappear and are replaced and combined” (297 – 298).

Obviously, the novel is also an examination of reality and illusion. From the beginning it is implied that the reader is being tricked in the same way that an audience is tricked at a magic show: “Substance and illusion. Knowing which is which is difficult, maybe impossible” (45). Strauss wonders, “How long have I been seeing things that weren’t there” (53)? His description of killing Houdini is certainly suspect; his name does not match the historical record of the man who may have precipitated Houdini’s death and, if his story is to be believed, he must be well over 100 years old. It is unclear whether the biographical sections about Houdini are to be seen as the product to Strauss’s imagination, though this is what Galloway suggests in the Author’s Note at the end. Of course, Houdini himself was a persona created by Ehrich Weiss: “At times he didn’t know what parts of him were real and what parts of him had been made up in order to become Harry Houdini” (178).

The ending is surely intended to be a surprise, like the effect of a magic trick: “the effect is announced at the start, and you’re watching for it, waiting for it, but then when it happens, you’re still amazed” (49). Unfortunately, I was not amazed. The many similarities between Strauss and Houdini – their pre-occupation with escape, their “simultaneously loving someone and not treating them well” (208) – are the strongest clues to the dénouement.

Reading this novel is like trying to figure out a magic trick: “We know that what we see isn’t as it seems, but we want it to be and want to understand it. We want to be fooled, and then want to know how we were fooled. We cannot prevent our minds from trying to figure out how the trick was done” (48). Unfortunately, figuring out magic tricks does not really interest me. I want to be emotionally engaged and not just completing an intellectual exercise. And I was not emotionally engaged. Part of the novel reads like a stilted biography, the writer of which has not bothered to flesh out the people and significant events in the subject’s life, and the other part is an interior monologue that rehashes the same topics. There are strong themes, but the narrative is weak. The reader is left with the feeling that he/she is being treated like a dupe.

At one point, Strauss discusses the work of a magician: “There must be a moment when a logical outcome is made baffling and wondrous. If he fails to create this moment, then he is a failure as a magician” (46). I would certainly not say that Galloway is a failure as a writer, but he fails to create magic in this novel; there is no wondrous moment.

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The Confabulist by Steven Galloway is a fictionalized story of Harry Houdini and a man named Martin Strauss. The question what is real and what is an illusion lies at the heart of this book. The book has a magical quality about it and a circular approach weaving past and present and reality and illusion to the point that the lines between them are blurred.

Read my complete review at: http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2014/05/the-confabulist-novel.html

*** Reviewed based on a publisher’s galley received through NetGalley ***

The Confabulist is the story of Martin Strauss and Harry Houdini. In the first pages of the book, Martin reveals that he killed Harry Houdini, not once but twice. The rest of the book follows the separate lives of Martin and Houdini until the mystery of how their lives intersect is revealed. Martin is a purely fictional character and while basic outline Houdini's life is accurate, much of it is made up, which author Steven Galloway, freely admits in his Author's Note. He also states that he makes no claim of veracity for his descriptions of the methods behind magic.

Galloway's made up story of Houdini's life is intriguing and compelling. Even though it's not true, it's definitely realistic.

Strauss suffers from a medical condition in which he conjures false memories and thinks they are true. Thus, he is an unreliable narrator. Just how unreliable isn't revealed until the end in a surprise twist ending.

I enjoyed this book for just for being a great book. Even if there was no real-life Houdini and Galloway had invented the character all together, this is a fantastic mystery full of suspense. After I finished the book, I felt like I was in as much of a fog as Martin is in his old age, not sure of what's real and what's not. Usually, I prefer a straight forward, everything wrapped up in a nice little package with a bow type of ending but Galloway managed to satisfy me with the ending he wrote. That's high praise from me. Both mystery and historical fiction fans will enjoy this book.

I don't think I understood the ending of this book, but have since returned it and cannot go back for a re-read. I would really appreciate someone explaining the ending a bit to me...

Beautiful book. Don't go in expecting an accurate bio of Houdini. Some of the plot, though set in historical,context, can verge in the absurd. That doesn't matter (or, at least, it doesn't to me). What matters is the narrator's musings on life and love and death and loss, what it is to live.

I picked this up because I'm kind of a sucker for Houdini-related reading. This was a pleasant, quick read, but what is billed on the back of the book as some sort of amazing plot twist, isn't. It's pretty much out there from the second chapter if you're paying attention. That said, the book actually raises some interesting philosophical questions about the nature of perception, memory and illusion. So that, and Houdini, merits it a solid 3 stars.

a fantastic combination of fact/fiction/memory/illusion...this books, aside from being historical fiction (a genre i always love), asks fascinating questions about what is real, how do we determine what is real, how that determination of real often determines what is real for us. at one point, it made me think of alzheimer's and how does one deal with the erasure or simple doubt of memory. at another, i thought about stories we tell ourselves that maybe we tweek to make ourselves or the story appear better than they are, and how that tweek then becomes a truth...

i really loved this book: well constructed and thought out, written in a precise, descriptive, and entertaining manner. just great.

confabulate
— vb
1. to talk together; converse; chat.
2. (psychiatry) to replace the gaps left by a disorder of the memory with imaginary remembered experiences consistently believed to be true.
A mystery and a love story - this twists and turns its way through the life of Houdini and the life (real or imagined) of his supposed killer.
I would have given it 3.5 if I could.

I really enjoyed this novel. I like that its based on historical fact, although don't ask me which plot elements were true or not. I was particularly interested in the friendship between Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - I hadn't been aware of their friendship prior to reading this.

The characters were quite intriguing and I found it to be an engrossing read, so I'd recommend this to others.