The Contortionist's Handbook
Published on 5. January 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
308 pages
978-1-915523-36-5 (ISBN)
Description
Following a near fatal overdose of painkillers, Daniel Fletcher is resuscitated in a Los Angeles emergency room and detained for psychiatric evaluation. Through a series of questions and tests, the psychiatrist must ascertain whether the patient intended to kill himself, or whether he can walk free. What the psychiatrist doesn't know is that 'Daniel Fletcher' is actually John - Johnny - Dolan Vincent, a brilliant young forger who continually changes his identity to save himself from a lifetime of incarceration. Johnny has done such assessments before - many, many times.
As he creates an elaborate bluff for the evaluator, Johnny reveals the true story of his traumatic past - a broken family, descent into the sinister world of forgers and criminals, and his one chance of salvation in the beautiful and elusive Molly. But time is running out; as his underworld clients lose patience and the psychiatrist's net closes around him, Johnny has to negotiate the escape act of his life.
Evoking the boulevards and strip bars of 1980s LA with cinematic intensity, The Contortionist's Handbook is a darkly hypnotic and stunningly original debut.
As he creates an elaborate bluff for the evaluator, Johnny reveals the true story of his traumatic past - a broken family, descent into the sinister world of forgers and criminals, and his one chance of salvation in the beautiful and elusive Molly. But time is running out; as his underworld clients lose patience and the psychiatrist's net closes around him, Johnny has to negotiate the escape act of his life.
Evoking the boulevards and strip bars of 1980s LA with cinematic intensity, The Contortionist's Handbook is a darkly hypnotic and stunningly original debut.
Reviews / Votes
"I swear to god, this is the best book I have read in years."- Chuck Palahinuk
"A dazzling and highly original debut [...] one of the most interesting writers to emerge in years. This book deserves to be massive and I think it will be."
- Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting
"What sticks out about this remarkable debut are its pitchperfect shock ending and John Vincent himself - his complex, conflicting mind, original voice and unnervingly self-defeating existence."
- Time Out
"Craig Clevenger's The Contortionist's Handbook is a brilliant fever dream of a novel that packs as much punch as it did twenty years ago, with sentences that bite like a piranha's teeth, a melancholy character study for the ages, and a notebook on how to disappear from a cruel world. Read it, read it again, and prepare to be transfixed."
- Lee Matthew Goldberg, author of The Mentor and The Great Gimmelmans
"A very impressive debut. The reader sees it from the conartist's perspective, delivered in a snappy, first-person voice that Clevenger writes with assured flair. This is a tightly controlled piece of work with an intriguingly original approach to the genre that marks the author out as one to watch."
- Metro
"Clevenger has created a manic monologist whose paranoia-inducing world pulls you in completely."
- Seattle Times
"Clevenger's talent is revealed in his ability to create a true testament to the resilience of the human spirit."
- USA Today
"Immaculately detailed and emotionally explosive: this is rolling, riveting stuff."
- Kirkus Reviews, starred review
More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Watkins Media Limited
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 214 mm
Width: 133 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
262 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-915523-36-5 (9781915523365)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Craig Clevenger is a Texas-born, Southern Californian-raised, author of contemporary fiction. He has travelled extensively and lived in Dublin and London, but currently resides in California. He is the author of two previously published novels, The Contortionist's Handbook and Dermaphoria. His work has been classified by some as neo-noir and has received praise from Chuck Palahniuk and Irvine Welsh.