{"id":2760,"date":"2010-08-01T23:12:44","date_gmt":"2010-08-01T13:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=2760"},"modified":"2010-08-23T02:27:41","modified_gmt":"2010-08-22T16:27:41","slug":"the-contortionists-handbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=2760","title":{"rendered":"The Contortionist’s Handbook"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It has been a long time since I last picked up a book and was instantly hooked. But after the reading the very\u00a0first line of Craig Clevenger’s 2003 debut The Contorionist’s Handbook that was exactly the\u00a0case.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The story introduces you to John Dolan Vincent, a man born with an extra finger on his left hand. Not only does he struggle with this abnormality, but he has led a life blighted by\u00a0substance abuse and mental illness. In essence the protaganoist is a damaged man.<\/p>\n

The novel is\u00a0narrated\u00a0by the protagonist as he\u00a0flicks between the present day and periods of his life in the past.\u00a0In the present day,\u00a0Vincent finds himself within a\u00a0hospital interigation room in California, where he is probed by the “evaluator” who attempts to learn from Vincent’s psyche whether the overdose that has put him in hospital was accidental or an attempt at suicide.<\/p>\n

The author shows his cards early on by revealing that\u00a0this is not Vincent’s first evaluation, but\u00a0the hospital has no record of Vincent at all – as far as they are aware they are talking to Daniel Fletcher. The novel from here sees a tet-a-tet between Fletcher\/Vincent and the evaluator as Vincent attempts to avoid letting slip that after every overdose he takes on a different identity, and therefore avoid being placed into\u00a0either jail\u00a0or a\u00a0mental hospital.<\/p>\n

Clevenger uses the\u00a0psychiatric\u00a0evaluation as the vehicle allowing him\u00a0to flick between Vincent’s rough upbringing, where he was constantly ridiculed for his extra digit, and where he constantly found\u00a0himself on\u00a0the wrong side of the law.<\/p>\n

Texan-born Clevenger’s first novel really hit a note with me. The creation of\u00a0Vincent as an\u00a0architype antihero is well developed. Sympathetic to his plight of years of him being plagued by ‘godsplitting’ migranes and constant trouble with the law from a young age, Vincent seems to have simply had enough. Knowing nothing else he falls in love with Keara, who gives his life a meaning and direction that he had never had before.<\/p>\n

Creating the atmosphere in the interogation\u00a0room is definately Clevenger’s strength,\u00a0creating a tense\u00a0mood\u00a0as we are walked through\u00a0the miticulous thought process of Vincent.<\/p>\n

For a\u00a0novel that\u00a0would seemlessley transfer into the big screen, I would firmly sink my flag in the opposition’s corner. At only 200pages, with\u00a0 plot twists and enough will-he-wont-he charachters \u00a0that the modern day movie goers are so enticed by, this reallly is a standout book, that can easily be devoured over a summer’s weekend.<\/p>\n

out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been a long time since I last picked up a book and was instantly hooked. But after the reading the very\u00a0first line of Craig Clevenger’s 2003 debut The Contorionist’s Handbook that was exactly the\u00a0case. The story introduces you to John Dolan Vincent, a man born with an extra finger on his left hand. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,230],"tags":[607,605,606],"class_list":["post-2760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-book-club","tag-book-review","tag-contortionist-handbook","tag-craig-clevenger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2765,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions\/2765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}