A Case of Curiosities

Rating:
Summary: A well-examined life
Review: A unique adventure lurks in the pages of a Case of Curiosities: one mans life, dreams, aspirations, failures and adventures following a highly unusual vocation. Stimulated to curiosity after the purchase of a memory box, the author begins a very detailed journey through 18th century France, Paris in particular, following the adventures of Claude Page, an apprentice to the dark side of human nature.

Regardless of the era, Victorian, Puritanical, unconventional or morally restrictive, there is always a lucrative market for anything of sexual interest, particularly perversions of every variety. Young Claude, living in extreme poverty, is offered an opportunity to apprentice as a painter of ivory, a skill requiring considerable dexterity and artistry. His relative innocence is irrelevant, as long as Claude can wield a paintbrush. He is charged with depicting tiny scenes of sexual deviance on objects such as pocket watches, personal jewelry, wherever the surface allows the rendition of perverse portraits. The network of purveyors and collectors is well established and rife with connoisseurs of this unusual art. In spite of the opportunity, Claude soon becomes bored with his latest endeavors, until he stumbles upon a new interest: the intricate mechanics of movement. This new curiosity becomes his quest, eventually leading him to the streets and underbelly of Paris and a myriad of experiences with the many faces of humanity, as friend and foe.

Claude's dreams remain unfulfilled, and he is driven to discover the knowledge that will unlock the key of his mind's invention. Along the way, Claude has attracted an unusual and urbane assortment of friends, denizens of the streets, who recognize his incipient genius. Eventually, their support and innovative methods of procurement enable Claude to achieve his goal: a fully mechanized figure, an innovative engineering coup that finds its creator heaped with praise and recognition. From the beginning of this intricate novel to the end, a whole layer of Parisian society is uncovered, one that lives by wit alone, surviving the dangers on the streets of the demimonde. Against this fascinating canvas, Claude's life is meticulously wrought, year by year, as he struggles for self-definition and the satisfaction of pursuing his particular path.

Rating:
Summary: Some Nice Details, But Thin Characters, Thin Drama
Review: Boy, did I want to like this novel. A young inventor in pre-Revolution France, when automatons were all the rage, and scientific enquiry was in its Natural History/specimen-collecting/leather-books-on-esoteric-subjects/freaks-and-oddities stage. Unfortunately, the novel infuriated me. The characters are all thin, even the main character, Claude, the young inventor, whom Kurzweil treats like a lay figure, placing him in various positions and predicaments. Kurzweil's writing is too often glib and general. "The beery fellow began a conversation that led to friendship." (pg 124) Too often he tells and doesn't show. Dialog lacks pop. There are a number of debates on arcane subjects which read like passages from a dry lecture. (No crafty, natural-flow, Socratic stuff here.) A crucial event mid-way in the book, which propels Claude to Paris, is obviously not the shocker Claude thinks, and it doesn't make sense that he would think it is. There are many nice details, details of the kind of milieu I was hoping for. But I need more than details....

Rating:
Summary: Some Nice Details, But Thin Characters, Thin Drama
Review: Boy, did I want to like this novel. A young inventor in pre-Revolution France, when automatons were all the rage, and scientific enquiry was in its Natural History/specimen-collecting/leather-books-on-esoteric-subjects/freaks-and-oddities stage. Unfortunately, the novel infuriated me. The characters are all thin, even the main character, Claude, the young inventor, whom Kurzweil treats like a lay figure, placing him in various positions and predicaments. Kurzweil's writing is too often glib and general. "The beery fellow began a conversation that led to friendship." (pg 124) Too often he tells and doesn't show. Dialog lacks pop. There are a number of debates on arcane subjects which read like passages from a dry lecture. (No crafty, natural-flow, Socratic stuff here.) A crucial event mid-way in the book, which propels Claude to Paris, is obviously not the shocker Claude thinks, and it doesn't make sense that he would think it is. There are many nice details, details of the kind of milieu I was hoping for. But I need more than details....

Rating:
Summary: My Favorite overall novel of 1999
Review: Great story, extremely detailed, beautiful environment. Interesting/funny/tragic characters. It's really too bad Kurzweil hasn't put anything else out.

Rating:
Summary: Entrancing
Review: I agree with the Kirkus review quoted above, which calls the novel A CASE OF CURIOSITY, "A leaden exercise that opens no new windows into the past [and] sometimes reads more like a museum tour." The author skillfully evokes the rude, scatological atmosphere of the 18th Century and occasionally hands the characters witty observations, ("Let us just say that Christ died for our sins. And I died for his," the Abbe sighs), but the plot isn't motored forward by a particular need. GREAT EXPECTATIONS - - which, as another reviewer pointed out, this book resembles on a surface level - - is about misplaced love and an impoverished youth becoming a gentleman. But Claude's journey in A CASE OF CURIOSITIES is about....what? (Though I read it fairly carefully, I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you what the theme of this novel is.) I am now going to discuss a story point that I hope will illustrate the writer's shaky hold on plot development, though if you haven't read the book, you might want to stop reading here: The young hero has fled his childhood village after a break with his mentor in his teens. Years later, the groundwork is laid for the rift to be mended after a fire sweeps through the town and Claude returns to check on his family. Could there be a more random, extraneous motivator for a reunion than that? The book features occasionally moving passages, ("There is in the pawnbroker's shop a profound and illicit sadness, a concentrated dose of personal failure."), but since the story isn't building toward anything, there would be no need to pick it up again if you set it down in the middle. If I hadn't had to finish reading it for work, I know that I wouldn't have.

Rating:
Summary: AHHHHH...Intelligent writing, At Last!
Review: I could probably write a treatise about this novel which is a cool stream of relief and high entertainment. Relief, as I had almost given up hope of finding a living author who can manipulate words as well as intellect. Well, here he is, ladies & gentlemen, Mr. Allen Kurzweil. Rejoice and be entertained. I'll admit, the plot has its weaker moments, but who doesn't. I am getting ready to purchase anything Kurzweil writes and recommend them to my friends who love a very good read.

Rating:
Summary: Too densely written
Review: I don't understand how this book gets so much high overall praise. I must be too much the lowbrow bore to appreciate the literary heights which this book apparently achieves. I plowed through seemingly endless dense pages, full of arcane references without explanation. Nothing flowed. I tried skimming - I still couldn't find somewhere to start things better off. I had to give up.

Rating:
Summary: The Empty Compartment
Review: I thought this was a deeply affecting book by the same author who penned the more lighthearted novel, The Grand Complication.
It is clever, witty, and sharp like a precocious little know it all brat. That said, the book is peppered with hilarious puns, esoteric references to mechanical gears, bawdy asides, and little snips of wisdom with a Twainesque ring.
Character development slightly suffers from the flood of dense information that Kurzweil provides, but becomes more pronounced as our protagonist, Claude Page, meets more people (including his future wife) and gets out of Tournay. However, I realized this in retrospect, but I found the book as enjoyable as a Discovery show hosted by John Cleese.
The book is great. Read it...!

However, in a note of speculation, the book is after all set in the very late 18th century, there is probably a surprising reference to a hit disco song from the 1970's. Maybe I am reading too deeply into it, but I believe Kurzweil was winking at the song "Ring My Bell." Ring any bells anyone? I guess we will shelve that question in the "Empty Compartment."
Darn! Way too many jokes and asides today! LOL

Rating:
Summary: A 12-year-old pornographer brings the 18th century to life.
Review: Though this intriguing picaresque novel is full of esoteric pursuits in late 18th century France, the novel is remarkably accessible and great fun to read. Claude Page, a 12-year-old farm boy of huge imagination and intelligence, is "adopted" by the Count of Tournay, a defrocked priest who studies "everything from the grandeur of the heavens to the minutiae of the terrestrial world." In reality, he is training Claude to be an enameler of pornographic watches. As Claude pursues his interest as a "mechanician," the reader is introduced to many facets of society and the forces which animate them.

Kurzweil obviously delights in playing games with the reader, breaking down defenses and challenging expectations. In an early scene, for example, a surgeon's removal of "the devil's handiwork" from a child stimulates our sensibilities and anticipates our revulsion. Then Kurzweil jerks the chain and shows us who is in control. In serious or scholarly scenes, he lightens the mood with puns, word play, and jokes, some clever, some groaners--a nobleman's motto, "Born to Serve," refers to his tennis abilities; an expert in insanity is named Battie. Unique images provide constant surprises and vitalize his descriptions--"[The sound of] feet walking through snow was indistinguishable from the noise when the baker squeezed a sack of cornstarch"; "her costume was a taxidermist's dream."

Kurzweil's ability to bring this period to life in a context accessible to the reader is daunting. Gracefully incorporating such diverse subjects as the enameling process, watchmaking, contemporary 18th century science and philosophy, and love of pornography, Kurzweil makes these esoteric subjects come alive, not because they are so alluring to the reader, but because they are important to the characters, whose lives are intriguing and whose problems, despite the 18th century context, are nevertheless universal. This precursor to The Grand Complication does not have as tight a plot that that novel, but I thought it just as intelligent and just as much fun to read. Mary Whipple

Rating:
Summary: A 12-year-old pornographer brings the 18th century to life.
Review: Though this intriguing picaresque novel is full of esoteric pursuits in late 18th century France, the novel is remarkably accessible and great fun to read. Claude Page, a 12-year-old farm boy of huge imagination and intelligence, is "adopted" by the Count of Tournay, a defrocked priest who studies "everything from the grandeur of the heavens to the minutiae of the terrestrial world." In reality, he is training Claude to be an enameler of pornographic watches. As Claude pursues his interest as a "mechanician," the reader is introduced to many facets of society and the forces which animate them.

Kurzweil obviously delights in playing games with the reader, breaking down defenses and challenging expectations. In an early scene, for example, a surgeon's removal of "the devil's handiwork" from a child stimulates our sensibilities and anticipates our revulsion. Then Kurzweil jerks the chain and shows us who is in control. In serious or scholarly scenes, he lightens the mood with puns, word play, and jokes, some clever, some groaners--a nobleman's motto, "Born to Serve," refers to his tennis abilities; an expert in insanity is named Battie. Unique images provide constant surprises and vitalize his descriptions--"[The sound of] feet walking through snow was indistinguishable from the noise when the baker squeezed a sack of cornstarch"; "her costume was a taxidermist's dream."

Kurzweil's ability to bring this period to life in a context accessible to the reader is daunting. Gracefully incorporating such diverse subjects as the enameling process, watchmaking, contemporary 18th century science and philosophy, and love of pornography, Kurzweil makes these esoteric subjects come alive, not because they are so alluring to the reader, but because they are important to the characters, whose lives are intriguing and whose problems, despite the 18th century context, are nevertheless universal. This precursor to The Grand Complication does not have as tight a plot that that novel, but I thought it just as intelligent and just as much fun to read.