The Contortionist's Handbook

by Craig Clevenger

Overview

With a new foreward from bestselling and Edgar award-winning author Jordan Harper, this reissue of the cult classic The Contortionist's Handbook follows a talented forger who continually reinvents himself to escape the authorities. A great read for fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Irvine Welsh.

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781915523365
Publisher:	Watkins Media
Publication date:	01/14/2025
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

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.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"I swear to god, this is the best book I have read in years."
– Chuck Palahinuk, author of Fight Club

"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

“Immaculately detailed and emotionally explosive: this is rolling, riveting stuff.”
– Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Clevenger’s talent is revealed in his ability to create a true testament to the resilience of the human spirit.”
– USA Today

“Clevenger has created a manic monologist whose paranoia-inducing world pulls you in completely.”
– Seattle Times

“A very impressive debut. The reader sees it from the con-artist’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

“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

"The Contortionist's Handbook is a brilliant fever dream of a novel that packs as much punch as it did twenty years ago"
– Lee Matthew Goldberg, author of The Mentor and The Great Gimmelmans

Editorial Reviews

"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

From the Publisher

Immaculately detailed and emotionally explosive: this is rolling, riveting stuff, of a piece with stylish, edgy movies like 'Memento' and 'Requiem For a Dream'.

Kirkus Review (Starred Review)

What sticks about this remarkable debut are its pitch-perfect shock ending and John Vincent himself‹his complex, conflicted mind, original voice and unnervingly self-defeating existence.

Time Out Magazine

The voice of Southern California writer Craig Clevenger is anything but calm. Yet it's just as masterfully controlled. And in narrator John Dolan Vincent, Clevenger has created a manic monologuist whose paranoia-inducing world pulls you in completely.

Clevenger delivers images that sear themselves into your mind. The result is a novel that is hard, pure, remarkably accomplished.

Seattle Times

Clevenger... creates a brilliantly savvy character.

Clevenger's talent is revealed in his ability to create a true testament to the resilience of the human spirit."

USA Today

Clevenger's debut novel is a well-crafted but underplotted character study of a brilliant, damaged man who struggles with mental illness and substance abuse as he bounces in and out of prison and a series of hospitals around Los Angeles. Most of the novel takes place in the latter setting; some tense early scenes pit protagonist John Dolan Vincent against a psychiatrist known as "The Evaluator," who probes Vincent's psyche to see if his recent overdose of muscle relaxants was really a botched attempt to cure his migraine, as Vincent claims, or a suicide attempt. The twist is that Vincent has checked into the hospital under an assumed name; after each of his previous overdoses he has changed his identity to avoid being placed in a mental hospital. The psychiatric interview provides a decent vehicle for telling the story of Vincent's difficult family life and his decision to use his mathematical talent to assist a murky criminal network. The trouble is that Clevenger has little to offer to push his story forward besides Vincent's efforts to protect Keadra, the woman he falls in love with during a hospital stint, from the thugs who are trying to track him down. Clevenger is a solid writer who does some good work when it comes to creating a noirish atmosphere and smart, compelling characters, but the pace is uneven at best. The quality of the writing warrants a follow-up effort; hopefully, Clevenger will know what to do with his characters the next time around. (Sept.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly