Spoonbenders
A hilarious and heartwarming family drama, a BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick
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4.8 • 5 Ratings
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
'As gripping as it is hilarious' Steven Rowley
'Funny and charming . . . magical' New York Times Book Review
'Hilarious' Guardian
Teddy, Maureen, Frankie, Irene and Buddy were the Amazing Telemachus Family, who achieved widespread fame for their magic and mind reading act. Until, that is, the magic decided to disappear one night, live on national television.
We encounter this long-forgotten family two decades on, when grandson Matty, born long after the public fall from grace, discovers powers in himself - and thus realises his dispirited, dysfunctional family members are actually amazing after all.
Spoonbenders is the legacy and legend of the Telemachus family, across three generations of big personalities and socially inept recluses: each with a tarnished reputation, each now tasked with finding redemption...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A family plagued with malfunctioning superpowers, persistent federal agents, and the mafia should make for a fast-paced and enthralling story, but a stalled plot grounds the latest from the author of Pandemonium. Expert con man Teddy Telemachus believes only in a good hustle until he meets Maureen McKinnon. Believing her act's a scam, he soon realizes that she's what he always pretended to be: a true psychic. Teddy and Maureen fall in love, get married, and have three supernaturally gifted children: Irene the "lie detector," Frankie the psychokinetic, and Buddy the clairvoyant. After Maureen dies of cancer, any potential for a functional family unit falls apart. In 1995, 21 years after Maureen's death, the family is in shambles: Irene, unemployed and broke, is forced to move back in with her father in Chicago; Frankie has big dreams but also a big debt to the local mob; and Buddy seemingly bumbles around with no attachment to reality. But when Matty, Irene's 14-year-old son, realizes he can astral project, it begins a series of events that lead to September 4th, the last day Buddy can see in the future. Gregory seamlessly switches between different points of view, creating vivid voices for each Telemachus family member. But the intermittent bursts of incomplete information seem aimed at creating a surprise reveal, and result in a less-than-concrete understanding of the Telemachuses' dynamics. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Customer Reviews
Great
Thoroughly enjoyable with good characters and an intriguing storyline. Slightly unusual in and a good ending.