The Contortionist's Handbook
by Craig Clevenger

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Book Reviews of The Contortionist's Handbook

Book Review: What fresh hell is this?
Summary: 5 Stars

There is no truth in John Dolan Vincent's life, only change. Neither victim nor apologist, Vincent is an addict, a con and a forger. These days he is driven by the need to escape from one identity to another, pursued by the "system" and some thugs who dig his exceptional talent and want to keep him nearby. The periodic migraine is Vincent's true nemesis. Once the horrific pain hits, John plunges over the edge of common sense into blind panic, indiscriminately downing illegal painkillers and booze. Unfortunately, he usually loses track and overdoses, saved by the quick response of emergency services.

Hence, the need for multiple identities. Once in the system, if listed as a patient previously flagged as a suicide risk, he would automatically be a candidate for mandatory 72-hour observation, or longer, and massive infusions of mind-numbing Thorazine. In this latest incarnation, Vincent is "Daniel Fletcher", running one step ahead of the other guy's synapses during the psychiatric evaluation/assessment. A self-admitted "contortionist", Vincent morphs identities the way a real contortionist changes shape.

John's personal life is complicated as well. One of the most likeable characters in recent memory, John tells all, holds nothing back from the reader. Women, sex and drugs blend together, depending on the amount of recreational drugs in his system at any given time, in one potent cocktail you just can't stop drinking, shooting out existential visuals of Heaven/Hell. In John's words, "...a thousand moments with Natalie blasted through my memory like a pillow torn open in a high wind."

(Note: Don't judge a book by its cover. Some readers picked up this extraordinary novel because of the cover; I almost overlooked this gem because the cover led me to a different conclusion about the contents...no matter, by the end of the first page, I was hooked.)

A few years ago, when the hip, irreverent Brett Easton Ellis hit the literary scene, the young author was an immediate star, a drug-speak party boy who was the darling of his niche in popular fiction, mixing with the denizens of the drug culture, cruising the spoiled-little-rich-kid LA party circuit. Less Than Zero offered a glimpse into that dangerous/seductive world of decadence, unspoiled by red lines of infected needle tracks or jonesing so bad, his couture slacks were urine-stained and stinking. Even the corpses looked good by the time they were transferred to film. But, like his tragic young junkies, victims of their own excess and too much money, Ellis' talent washed away as fast as cocaine stayed legal, eaten alive by his own PR machine. Worst of all, Ellis disrespected his audience, laughing all the way to the bank on the misogynistic profits of American Psycho.

In contrast, Craig Clevenger is the real deal, a writer's writer, who buys his experience the hard way and high-fiving the street folks who live down and dirty, gliding along one notch below visibility. A true "contortionist", Clevenger has shelf life. Luan Gaines/2003.

Summary of The Contortionist's Handbook

As an adult his migraines occur with alarming regularity, and his repeated attempts at self-medication send him over and over to the emergency room. He knows that to visit twice is to risk being institutionalized as a suicide risk. So, following each trip to the hospital, he draws upon his skill as a petty forger, and reinvents a new identity for himself.

The Contortionist's Handbook is about the lengths people will go to in order to protect themselves from others and ultimately from themselves.

United States Books

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• Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Psychological Thrillers