The Grand Complication — Allen Kurzweil

Penzler Pick, August2001: Most avid readers love everything about books--not only the words,but also the paper, the edition, the age, the texture of the binding, all ofwhich become part of the fascination for the printed word that makes a truebibliophile. So it is no wonder that the bibliophile mystery has achieved suchpopularity. The Grand Complication, well-written and well-researched, isthe latest in a long line of such mysteries.Alexander Short is a reference librarian who spends his days dealing with theminutiae of his work world. At night he goes home to his French wife who is alsoa book person. She makes pop-up books and other three-dimensional volumes,including a "girdle" that Alexander wears in the manner of medieval monks, tiedaround his middle and used for his "girdling" or taking notes--somethingAlexander does obsessively, to the detriment of his job. Two such people seemmade for each other, but their obsessions make for a rocky marriage.So Alexander is fascinated when he meets Henry James Jesson III, an elderly manwith equally obsessive interests. He would like Alexander to help him afterhours. In Jesson's Manhattan mansion there is a cabinet of curiosities that tellthe life of an 18th-century inventor. But one of the compartments is empty.Jesson, and soon Alexander, are agog with curiosity about what was in thatcompartment. Finding out is half the fun of reading this book.The other half, if you care (and somehow I think you do), is the design of thebook itself. Kurzweil is the son of an engineer, and he designed the small icon,a gear, that appears on many of the book's pages. Over the course of the novel,which runs 360 pages, that gear turns 360 degrees. And then there are theendpapers.... --Otto Penzler