The Notorious Dr. August : His Real Life and Crimes

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Summary: My Review
Review: The Notorious Dr. August was a great book. When i first saw the cover i thought it was going to be a boring book and that i wasn't going to like it. But know that i read it i found it very interesting, excitting, and a fun book to read. I recomend this book to all young peole, and older people. Specially if they are into the Civil War and want to know more about the the Civil War. This is a fun book read.

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Summary: Tedious Dr. August
Review: "The Notorious Dr. August" is one of the few books I've read this year that I regret finishing. My instinct was to jump ship as soon as the clumsily woven-in Alice diaries began, and that was a good instinct. Things never quite recovered after that, and I ended up disliking the book and all its major characters. I can enjoy a book without sympathetic characters, but Fitz and Alice and Isaac didn't engage me for very long; each one was tedious in a different way. I remember admiring "Father of Frankenstein," but I found this foray of Bram's into Victorian melodrama often insufferable. His "big fat historical novel" (as he described it to a New York book group) retains many of melodrama's faults: a scramble of thin, exotic settings; laughably contrived plot twists; reams of overheated, cliched dialogue; a narrator who explains and explains. The Victorians were like that, Fitz remarks, "All those words!" A right enough observation, but that isn't license to dump another fresh load of them: his chatter goes on for five hundred pages. In addtion to this, Bram largely brushes off a confusing decision to have his narrator address his listener (who is also a character in the story) in both the second- and third-person; it doesn't work. The book had lots of promise; I thought I was in for something excellent. But I soon realized that like its protagonist, "The Notorious Dr. August" is more or less a fake.

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Summary: One of the best portrayals of love and loss I've read to dat
Review: "The Notorious Dr. August. . ." is the story of a family forced together by adverse circumstances and unconditional love. Isaac and Fitz meet during the end of the Civil War. Isaac is a slave fighting with his master in the Confederate Army. Fitz, an indigent Irish immigrant, is being escorted to a military camp by a Union Army soldier to perform a musical duet with his uncle. Isaac's camp tracks Fitz's entourage. In the pursuit, Fitz is thrown from his horse and left on the road by his uncle and the confederate soldier. Isaac's camp captures and takes Fitz as a prisoner of war. During an overnight encampment, the Confederate troops are ambushed. The Union soldiers kill all of the Confederate soldiers, sparing only Isaac and Fitz. The former slave and gypsy musician are bound not only by their status on the social scale of post-Civil War America, but also by a mutual love that is both physical and emotional.

Fitz takes on a variety of jobs as a pianist. Playing at brothels, for private showings, and ultimately for an audience. His is able to communicate with the dead and pass on information to survivors through his music. Isaac remains with him. Unable to escape the fact of his race, he masquerades as Fitz's man servant and later participates in Fitz's ruse as a musical conduit for the dead. Their performances take them to Europe and the Orient where Fitz - billed as Dr. August, the Metaphysical Pianist - plays for wealthy aristocrats and royalty. Their day-to-day living, lush at times, is made possible by the generosity of their clientele. On their voyage from New York to Europe, Isaac encounters a young woman, Alice. She is traveling to Europe from Connecticut to work as a governess for a wealthy family. Isaac is overwhelmed by Alice's presence and the connection he feels between them. The affection for Alice forces Isaac to reconcile his love for Fitz with his religious upbringing by a master who was also a minister. When Isaac and Alice marry, the triad remains together as Isaac's only source of employment is through Fitz and his music. As Alice's and Isaac's relationship deepen, Fitz is bereft of the loss of he and Isaac's physical relationship but maintains a deep love for his friend.

When Isaac and Alice begin a family of their own, Isaac struggles with the need to provide for his family in a world where his race limits his ability to do so. As a shield against the racism and indifference that is a relentless part of his everyday existence, Isaac becomes steeped in religion, righteousness, and impeccable moral character. With this armor, he is also better able to restrict his love for Fitz. During a private performance in Europe, Fitz meets a grieving widow and feigns a musical communication with her dead son. Fitz later realizes that the woman, Lady Ashe, is a friend - and former prostitute - from his days at the brothel. Lady Ashe invites him to return to Turkey with her. She provides a home for Fitz, Isaac and his family in exchange for Fitz's services as a musical medium. During their stay with Lady Ashe, Fitz befriends and develops a relationship with the woman's sole remaining son, Freddie. When Isaac becomes aware of the relationship, he is engulfed with jealously and moral indignation. He confronts Fitz demanding that he end the relationship and his sinful fornication with the teenager. Fitz complies, needing Isaacs love and respect more than Freddie's. When son and mother commit double suicide - he feeling unlovable and then she, feeling loveless - the triad's family spirals into despair and misfortune. Feeling responsible for Freddie's death and as a result Lady Ashe's, Isaac's moral indignation turns to guilt.

Unable to shoulder the guilt of his actions, his inability to provide for his family and his guilt for not being in America and contributing to the support of freed slaves during reconstruction, Isaac abandons his family to the care of Fitz. Distraught by the absence of Isaac and faced with homelessness by the death Lady Ashe, Alice and Fitz return to New York with the children in hopes of getting help from Alice's cousin. Upon their arrival in New York, Alice's cousin learns of her interracial marriage to Isaac and meets their biracial children. Disapproving of the union, the cousin is unable to allow the family to stay with her. Fitz takes his act to Coney Island where he is able to earn a living from his communications with the dead.

"The Notorious Dr. August . . . "is an incredible adventure story that spans the globe from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. The story is dictated by Fitz to Tristan, Isaac's oldest son from his marriage to Alice. The novel's tone is perfectly pitched for the period and the language flows like music. It is an absolute treat to experience an author for the first time through such a tightly drawn and flawlessly imagined story. I owe a big thanks to my neighbor who passed this one to me. Highly Recommended!


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Summary: I love this Book!
Review: A brilliant story line set in the post Civil War era. Deals with racism and homophobia of the time, as well as comlex feelings. Very clever style as the main character is dictating this to his another person.

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Summary: Absolutely enchanting!
Review: A unique and interesting love story from start to finish. Bram's style flows beautifully and I found myself not wanting to put the book down even when I turned the last page. I cried occasionally, really able to feel August's pain. Bram takes an unbelievable plot and slowly pulls the reader into it until you find yourself thinking maybe something like it could really have happened. An absolutely riveting and very worthwhile read!

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Summary: Aside from the point, what did I miss?
Review: Christopher Bram is one of my favorite writers and his talent is displayed excellently here. I must admit at first, I was not excited about reading this Civil War era novel, but once I started it I was taken over and captivated until the last page. Some books you forget soon after you finished them, but this novel still stays with me. The story revolves around a man named Dr. August, his fellow slave (and one time lover)Issac Kemp who loses his heart to a white governess, Alice Pangbourn. It appears at times that Dr. August is a brillant con man using his audiences to pray on their weaknesses. In parts of the book, there are the presence of "Spirits" that take over the piano playing of Dr. August. (Which I like since you are never truly sure of fact and fiction.) This book works on so many levels: racism, class, sexuality and the true spirit of human love, that to go one about each one would lead to a review that goes on for pages and pages. I would love to see this book as a television minseries and I think it would sell. Read this book, you will not be disappointed and you will soon see the talent of an amazing, wonderful storyteller and writer.

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Summary: Music to the Eyes
Review: Christopher Bram is one of my favorite writers and his talent is displayed excellently here. I must admit at first, I was not excited about reading this Civil War era novel, but once I started it I was taken over and captivated until the last page. Some books you forget soon after you finished them, but this novel still stays with me. The story revolves around a man named Dr. August, his fellow slave (and one time lover)Issac Kemp who loses his heart to a white governess, Alice Pangbourn. It appears at times that Dr. August is a brillant con man using his audiences to pray on their weaknesses. In parts of the book, there are the presence of "Spirits" that take over the piano playing of Dr. August. (Which I like since you are never truly sure of fact and fiction.) This book works on so many levels: racism, class, sexuality and the true spirit of human love, that to go one about each one would lead to a review that goes on for pages and pages. I would love to see this book as a television minseries and I think it would sell. Read this book, you will not be disappointed and you will soon see the talent of an amazing, wonderful storyteller and writer.

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Summary: Completely Captivating!
Review: I was so engrossed in following the story of Dr. August's unique life that I neglected to make dinner and stayed up until 3am to finish it in one sitting. "The Notorious Dr August" was a nice contrast to the Oprah-book-club-esque type novels I've been reading lately and I highly recommend it!

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Summary: A truly great book: it's worth putting up with its flaws
Review: So much is wrong with this book that that in itself adds to its indisputable stature. It is a tribute to Bram's genius as a writer that he gets away with a plot as twisted and overdressed as this one, hinging on a few extremely unlikely coincidences and introducing Brahms and Freud as walk-ons just to add some extra nostalgic flavour. And he not only gets away with it, he drags the reader along. This is old-fashioned, big time, deeply engrossing story-telling. But the ultimate success of the book is in the details of the characters, even the minor ones. The unforgettable image of Brahms blowing smoke-bubbles on a Baden-Baden street is not only very touching, but seems to tell us almost as much about the man as half a biography might do. And Bram pulls off this trick with equal deftness if the person at hand happens to be fictional. His main characters are few in number and the real plot is in their emotional development, which is quite as complicated as the surface plot of the book, but in contrast to that totally believable. It even makes you tolerate the absurd unlikelihood of, say, meeting an American enemy from many years ago in the streets of Constantinople, or happening upon your childhood friend from the brothel who is now rich and famous, and then falling in love with her son... I should add that at times I wondered if Bram was anticipating the (I suppose inevitable) movie to be made of this book.
So why not five stars? Well, frankly, towards the end all the symbolism and the search for a deeper meaning do get the better of Bram, and the characters turn slightly annoying. They have run their course, and the aftermath is distinctly less compelling. Also, just a little too much gay pride propaganda seems to seep in. Furthermore, the weird collection of characters suddenly crowding the story in the Coney Island finale give it a disconcertingly John Irving-like twist that to me felt very out of place, and even out of style. Nor does the compulsion for closure do much good; things are wrapped up just a little too neatly at the end. Actually, the book would have been better had it finished somewhere near the passage where the narrator himself observes that most books would end there.
Still, all this grumbling should be no reason for you not to read this book, because believe me: not many are better, and most are much, much worse! Bram is, no doubt, a very great writer, and I for one eagerly look forward to his next creation.

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Summary: Christopher Bram at his very best.
Review: This book was a great pleasure to read and I highly recommend it. Bram's skill in combining imaginative fiction with well-researched fact, (read also "Almost History"), is used here to great effect. I came away feeling that I had shared a lifetime with Augustus Fitzwilliam Boyd, (a.k.a. Dr. August), and what a life it was. From the civil war South to Coney Island in the 1920's with Paris, London and Constantinople in between, the book explores themes of love, loss, family, religion and the spirit world. The history through which the story passes is so richly detailed that it becomes a character in itself, and the musical references throughout are the closest I've come to reading a novel with a (classical) soundtrack. If you're interested in taking a journey through a life and its times, I can't think of a more fascinating guide than "the notorious" Dr. August.