Rating: 
Summary: A Truly Fun "Time"
Review: A beautiful pocket watch. A mad librarian. An antiquated old man. All of this adds up to a most delightful, enchanting read in Allen Kurzwell's "A Grand Complication".Literally, I learned of this book yesterday in an e-mail I received from another source. Piquing my interest, I purchased a copy on a whim, and sat down to devour this deliciously juicy story. Part mystery, part literary banter, part biography, this book brings us reference librarian Alexander Short, who is short on his marriage, his job, and his obsessive note taking. Approached in the first chapter by Henry James Jesson III, who asks for his help in solving a personal mystery, Short becomes a Burt Ward to the older man's Bruce Wayne as they puzzle out the reason for an empty cupboard in a cabinet of wonders. This story is brisk, engaging, and entertaining. Literally filled with literary puns and some literary references that I didn't understand, the story moves along in a very bright way. I was fascinated by Alexander Short. He's both brilliant and somewhat manic, and somehow really, truly understood him. Mid in the book, he gets a phrase stuck in his head that is stuck in mine as well, "Santo Domingo, Caracas, Miami, Divorce". Rich. Rarely do I find a book that captures me so and refuses to be put down, but "A Grand Complication" does just that. By the time you hit the final page, you'll be sad that this rich tale is over.
Rating:
Summary: A Truly Fun "Time"
Review: A beautiful pocket watch. A mad librarian. An antiquated old man. All of this adds up to a most delightful, enchanting read in Allen Kurzwell's "A Grand Complication". Literally, I learned of this book yesterday in an e-mail I received from another source. Piquing my interest, I purchased a copy on a whim, and sat down to devour this deliciously juicy story. Part mystery, part literary banter, part biography, this book brings us reference librarian Alexander Short, who is short on his marriage, his job, and his obsessive note taking. Approached in the first chapter by Henry James Jesson III, who asks for his help in solving a personal mystery, Short becomes a Burt Ward to the older man's Bruce Wayne as they puzzle out the reason for an empty cupboard in a cabinet of wonders. This story is brisk, engaging, and entertaining. Literally filled with literary puns and some literary references that I didn't understand, the story moves along in a very bright way. I was fascinated by Alexander Short. He's both brilliant and somewhat manic, and somehow really, truly understood him. Mid in the book, he gets a phrase stuck in his head that is stuck in mine as well, "Santo Domingo, Caracas, Miami, Divorce". Rich. Rarely do I find a book that captures me so and refuses to be put down, but "A Grand Complication" does just that. By the time you hit the final page, you'll be sad that this rich tale is over.
Rating:
Summary: creative intrigue
Review: a book written with the full use of the english language. words pour out here in a very intriguing way and capture the audience very well. a well written novel using a protaganist that has been rarely used before
Rating: 
Summary: 3 1/2 stars. Intellectual story, eccentric characters
Review: A suspense novel, this book is full of eccentrics and literary/historical curiosities. Alexander Short is a quirky reference librarian; Henry Jesson is an extremely eccentric, extremely wealthy bibliophile who lures, then hires, Short to help solve a mystery. Jesson is the owner of a mysterious cabinet of drawers, each drawer of which is filled with items from the life of an eighteenth century inventor. One of the drawers is empty. Jesson commissions Short to find out what that drawer once held and recover it to complete the cabinet. An intellectual mystery, Kurzweil fills this book with bizarre lifestyles, obscure linguistics, arcane bibliophilia and a bunch of other peculiarities. You gotta like that kind of stuff to enjoy this one, but if you do, it's a fine read.
Rating: 
Summary: As good as Umberto Ecco or Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Review: Alexander Short is a librarian. His job is in jeopardy and his marriage is coming apart. He meets a curious figure improbably named Henry James Jesson III, a book-lover who hires Alexander for some research in order to complete a cabinet of curiosities chronicling the life of the mysterious Henri Breguet, an eighteenth-century inventor. As his investigation progresses, Alexander understands that there a further secrets lurking in Jesson's cloistered world than those inside his elegant Manhattan town house.
An intellectual delight, this literary thriller will enchant you if you like books, antiques and watches. And Horace's sentence "Habent sua fata libelli" - All books have their fates - will stay on your mind forever!
Rating:
Summary: Good read overall
Review: Alexander Short is the main character of this book and reminds you of that one strange friend of yours that just gets very caught up in the weirdest things. The funny thing about this book is that you want it to be good and you want to like the characters but Kurzweil makes that a little difficult. The idea of the story is quite intriguing and as it unfolds you'll be amazed at all the intricate details and how it comes together. The problem is that by the end you don't want things to come out so . . . normal. The book is so fanciful in ideals and even the mechanics with which the plot unfurls itself that the end should be just as fanciful. Lets face it. If you can make it through the details and craziness of the first 359 pages, why change styles on the 360th? But don't get me wrong, these are just my problems with the book. Its still fabulous and an easy read most of the time. It might be a tad far-fetched but for a mystery or even a flat-out book lover, I think you'll be able to suspend your disbelief.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and fun.
Review: Alexander Short, the hero of this pretentious yarn, is a reference librarian who has written "Slips of Love", a book featuring the use of call slips used to endear himself to his future wife. Into his library steps Henry James Jesson III, a rich old eccentric with archaic mannerisms. He's got a glass cabinet stocked with the innovations of an 18th century inventor; the set is complete except for what turns out to be a missing watch reputedly made for Marie Antoinette. Jesson invites Short to his posh Manhattan townhouse, which has more secret panels and hidden gadgetry than either Bruce Wayne's stately manor or the Bat Cave. In short order (get it? Short? Kurzweil will never let slip ... get it? Call slips? ... a stupid joke without the verbal equivalent of an elbow in your ribs). Anyway, the dynamic duo get to work trackng down the whereabouts of the the royal Rolex of its day. Unfortunately, the "Grand Complication" is neither; it is cartoonish and facile. I slogged through the last 100 pages only to see if the ending was as bad as it was cracked up to be. In fact, it is worse. Much. If you have started the book already, just put it down and pick up something by Henry James or Dickens or George Eliot since it is apparently the Victorian author Kurzweil was straining to emulate. The result is a precious, unbelievably stilted style. Jesson, for example, says things like "My missteps would only poison the purity of your investigation." Poison the purity? Even bad Victorian writers wouldn't come up with that. And then there is "A faithful record of your efforts will be more than enough to animate my cloistered world." "Animate my cloistered world" is doubly bad: not only does it sound the tin in Kurzweil's ear like feedback at a rock concert, also the defining characteristic of a cloister is NOT its lack of animation, but the fact that it is sequestered. And what comic book clone would be complete without someone saying, "Time is of the essence"? The attempt to maintain the façade of an obsolete style leads Kurzweil to redundancies--or 'pleonasms' as he would have it since he likes to dig up words no one else has any use for--such as "a brass door knocker shaped in the form of a fist." "Shaped like a fist" is quite enough. Or "took the form of a fist". Or, in keeping with the saccharine façade he's contrived, "a door knocker of brass wrought in the shape of a fist". Another sentence of this ilk: "Mr. Singh ... doweled through my satchel with his stick of polished pine ..." Well a dowel is pretty much a stick and if you use it a verb, you don't need the noun. And then there is "an unauthorized loan of a temporary nature" as if we don't know loans aren't meant to last forever. If you want all the campiness of the old Batman series with none of the laughter, you might consider "The Grand Complication". I would not be exaggerating much recounting that a guillotine makes an appearance in the book, the blade comes slicing down and Alexander says, "Holy close shave Batman!" (He left out "Holy" and "Batman".) Here are a few more (think librarian): "Nic and I decided to reclassify our relationship ..." "Nic and I were well-matched, two acid-free volumes bound together," and in case you don't understand what "bound together" means, he adds, "as one." How about a variation on a theme? "You and this character are two pages from the same cube of wood pulp." Even if the style were better, there isn't much of a story here beyond the first 100 pages and the last 100 are so absurdly far-fetched it requires the suspension of disbelief ... indefinitely and without pay. Worse, the characters who try lamely to move it along are flat, trite caricatures. Alexander, for example, meanders happily through 90% of the book impotent. If only Hemingway had known impotence could be taken so lightly he could have saved himself the trouble of "The Sun Also Rises." Most vile (get it? Kurz-vile?) is that the author winds up congratulating himself on this embarrassingly bad book when Jesson, listening to Alexander read from it (yes, his follow-up to "Slips of Love"), sticks "you have made the dull sublime" in Jesson's mouth. The best writing in this book, not surprisingly, is a quote from Henry James, part of which reads: "The 'historic' novel is, for me, condemned to a fatal cheapness ..." Kurzweil drops this in likely in hopes of blunting the criticism he knew the book was sure to draw. Alas, it is such an apt observation for this bit of atavistic buffoonery, Kurzweil only succeeds in making it more obvious.
Rating:
Summary: A Star is Reborn
Review: I love this book. To me it demonstrates a mind working the language at full capacity, with loads of linguistic twists and turns, puns, riddles, and more. The setting of the book is really the mind, specifically the mind of the librarian. It is a book for people who love books in every way, who enjoy holding them almost as much as they enjoy reading them. Henry James Jesson III is one of the characters, and he is someone who revels in his own acquired knowledge. The book's protagonist, Alexander Short, loves the fact that Jesson is an intellectual/literary show off, and he falls under Jesson's spell. I suppose that at its heart the book is a sort of intellectual thriller, with mysteries inside mysteries.Where is Marie Antoinette's stolen timepiece, The Grand Complication? Does it really exist? Is it what is learned along the chase that is as interesting to the protagonists as finding the watch? I also love the fact that it refers back to the author's previous novel, A Case of Curiosities, without in any way being a sequel. This is the kind of novel I love to read during those luxurious-feeling summer moments.
Rating: 
Summary: Henry James Reborn... Unfortunately
Review: OK, the story line is original (I can't imagine anyone could have come up with it), but totally boring. Searching for a missing watch to complete a "case of curiosities" is hardly engaging material. Though, the interaction between the characters prevents this book from being a total snoozer. Worst of all (for me), the writer's prose reads as if the book were written in the late 1800's, which would be great, if you find that sort of thing entertaining. I don't. The story is a mystery, just not kind of mystery that I would have picked (the book was a gift) or preferred to read. Bottom line, to the writer's credit, there is great potential as the character development is excellent, but they're caught in a weak story line.
Rating:
Summary: The Grand Complication
Review: The Grand Complication is a strong follow-up to A Case of Curiosities and an engrossing and entertaining read. The story begins when the note-taking obssessed librarian, Alexander Short, is approached by the wealthy and mysterious collector Henry James Jesson III to help him find, as it eventually turns out, a pocket watch made for Marie Antoinette. The book is well written, full of historical and literary references. Like the watch it describes, the story is packed with clever features and diverting details. I would recommend this book to anyone, particularly any lover of books and libraries. My only complaint about the book is in the handling of some of the secondary characters, particularly Emmanuel Ornstein, an orthodox jewish jewelery broker. Although the character is meant to be somewhat comical, I felt that the use of dialect in rendering his yiddish accent was a little heavy handed. Moreover, although he turns out to be more ethical than is initially suspected, his character plays too easily into malicious old stereotypes of Jews as thieves or fencers of stolen goods. A hindu security guard, Mr. Singh, is treated similarly. This point aside, I greatly enjoyed The Grand Complication and I look forward to Mr Kurzweil's next book.
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