The Spirit Cabinet - Softcover

Quarrington, Paul

3.56

138 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802138071 ISBN 13: 9780802138071

Publisher: Grove Press, 2001

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After a long, slow climb out of the strip clubs of Europe, Jurgen and Rudolfo have hit the big time in Las Vegas, headlining a magic act as slick as their own buffed and usually half-naked bodies. Rudolfo is content orchestrating the spectacle and attempting to twin his soul with Jurgen's. But Jurgen hungers for more--and finds it in a mysterious collection of magician's paraphernalia that once belonged to Harry Houdini. With the knowledge he finds there, and his own faith in the unknown, Jurgen becomes the miracle worker of the Las Vegas strip. "Darkly comic, deeply sad, and always ironic" (Library Journal), The Spirit Cabinet takes dead aim at the place within us that yearns for miracles. "It is not a book about magicians and their pursuit of magic," wrote Alan Beaton in The National Post; "it is a book about human beings, and their pursuit of faith."

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From the Inside Flap:

After a slow climb out of the strip clubs and flesh pots of Europe, Jurgen and Rudolfo have hit the big time in Las Vegas, headlining a slick and well-oiled magic act. Rudolfo, a true misfit, is content orchestrating the spectacle, but Jurgen, stricken since childhood with the irrational desire to make magic, hungers for more. He finds it in a musty, mysterious collection of old manuscripts and magic cabinetry that once belonged to Houdini. And when he turns into the miracle-working saint of Las Vegas, chaos results. In a narrative that is whimsical, comic and melancholy by turns, Quarrington takes dead aim at the place in the human heart that hopes that doves can bloom from top hats and illusions can come true.

From the Back Cover:

"A marvellous, funny novel." --Roddy Doyle

"A magical novel, dazzling us-- Often funny, always surprising, and ultimately profound and very, very moving. In a sense, fiction writers are illusionists, making us believe in other worlds, and Paul Quarrington is a master of that ancient craft. He is a sorcerer, and his novel is spellbinding." -Tim O'Brien

"With the possible exception of Mordecai Richler, Quarrington is probably the funniest novelist writing in Canada today. It's not surprising that one of the richest gifts The Spirit Cabinet delivers is wave after wave of laughter." -The Toronto Star

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