Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold

I have a terrible memory. I say it all the time, but I don’t think people really believe me. Generally, people assume that if a person is intelligent, they must also have a good memory. They think that I am simply being modest when I disparage my barely existent recall skills. The truth is, my brain very clearly divides information into two types: concepts and facts. As soon as I’ve understood a concept, I have it for life. Facts, however, I can only remember for as long as is absolutely necessary.

For example, I can’t remember the name of the street I lived on before I moved into our current house. I just can’t. I remember how to get there. I remember that my parking spot in the garage was a tight fit and once, when I borrowed my parents’ SUV, I didn’t quite make the angle when backing out and scraped the door. I remember the floor plan of the apartment and the view from the balcony. I just can’t remember the address. Don’t even bother asking me what my phone number was. As soon as I moved out, my brain began the work of erasing it from its memory.

My poor memory is most obvious when it comes to my leisure activities. At work, I make a huge effort to hold things in my brain for quick access. At home, things escape me very quickly. E makes fun of me because we go on vacation, and then a few months later I can’t remember most of the things we did while we were there. I remember the big, conceptual things: we saw the Grand Canyon; we gambled until 4:00 am; it was very warm the day we visited the Forbidden City. But he’ll ask me if I remember doing something detailed, and I’ll search and search my brain and there’s simply no memory of it. (The one exception is food: I can remember every detail of what I ate at most restaurants.)

Books and movies are the worst. I wanted to write about Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold because I loved the book when I read it. It was one of my favorite books in 2001. I liked it even better than The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, despite what the critics thought. But when I started to think about what I would write, I realized that I couldn’t even remember what the book was about. No, seriously. I know it’s about a magician named Carter (I gathered that from the title and the cover art). I remember that it takes place in Oakland, because I can recall being delighted with recognizing many of the landmarks. And… that’s it. Tha'ts IT.

According to Amazon, the novel

“opens with real-life magician Charles Carter executing a particularly grisly trick, using President Warren G. Harding as a volunteer. Shortly afterwards, Harding dies mysteriously in his San Francisco hotel room, and Carter is forced to flee the country. Or does he? It's only the first of many misdirections in a magical performance by Gold. In the course of subsequent pages, Carter finds himself pursued by the most hapless of FBI agents; falls in love with a beautiful, outspoken blind woman; and confronts an old nemesis bent on destroying him.”

I had no idea. Wow, that sounds great. I’d love to read this book!

I swear, it doesn’t even sound familiar. And I so loved this book at the time. When Glen David Gold was at the NCIBA conference, I sent E over to get his autograph for me because I couldn’t get away from my booth at that moment. I was so excited that I had a signed copy of Carter Beats the Devil, even if I hadn’t gotten to meet Gold myself. I loved the book that much. But as far as my memory goes, I might as well have never read it all.

Of course, there is one obvious advantage to being recollection-challenged: I can always reread a book and be surprised and delighted all over again. I just wish I didn’t have to.

Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold

Tags: books book+reviews magicians memory Oakland Glen+David+Gold