This is one of those books I pick up on a whim and end up totally addicted to the writing. Clevenger’s voice is distinct making the Palahniuk and Welsh comparisons apt. This book is an insanely interesting life story wrapped up in this box of a mental evaluation following a(nother) questionable overdose. John is incredibly clever and likable and so much of this book was fascinating.

The entire forging concept was wild and the detail Clevenger puts into the various sects of the book makes me wonder where his research originates from. Overall I loved it.

I could definitely relate to many of the themes presented in the book which only made it more compelling. The prose is beautiful and not overly simplistic but also not particularly verbose. “He put a bottle to his head and pulled the trigger for years.” Simple in structure but wholly accurate.

John, Keara and even Carlisle were all well nuanced and flawed in relevant ways. I loved the simplicity of the ending but easily could’ve continued reading this book and would’ve loved it to be longer. I’ve found a new-to-me author and I can’t read to read his other novels.

A "cult classic" for a reason, this book falls solidly in the love it or hate it category. I've never met someone who read this book and felt "meh".

I like the world-building, the characters that more the story and feel like people I've met. People are messy, complicated, hypocritical, and so are Clevenger's characters.

An astounding literary highwire act -- evocative of the best Jim Thompson, but completely its own beast. A must for lovers of noir and crime fiction, but impossible to slot as just that. Why this book isn't better know is beyond me.

My thanks to NetGalley and Datura Books for an advanced copy of this reissue of a cult novel from the early part of this century that deals with living a life that is a lie, forging a new path for oneself and others, and of course making money any way one can.

I have always loved to watch and read about professionals doing what they are best at. As long as they are the best they can be at their trade, doesn't matter if it is cake decorating, doing sanitation work, dancing on a pole or making people disappear, both physically and on paper, I can't get enough. The lingo that people use, their tricks honed by years of experience. Even the confidence. There is something reassuring when the world is going to heck, that some people out there care about what they do. From knowing how to carry a garbage can, to chilling a cake before icing, to knowing how to age paper stolen from the end papers of old books to create false birth certificates. I also like books that I have no idea where the plot is going, but I am willing to take the ride, for in this book we are in the hands of a professional, and what a ride it is. The Contortionist's Handbook by Craig Clevenger is a reissue of a book that was known to few, but those few were incredibly passionate and we as readers get to enjoy this psychological noir about a man with a unique skill, able to create fictions that seem real, and the trap he has set for himself.

Daniel Fletcher is found on the floor of the apartment he shares, first by his blind dog, than his girlfriend. Fletcher has taken an accidental overdose one that nearly kills him to deal with a chronic migraine that does not seem to want to go away. Stomach pumped and body flushed Fletcher is ready to go home, but must pass a medical evaluation to make sure that the accidental overdose was truly an accident, and not a self harm moment. Fletcher knows this as this has happened before. At least 6, which is the exact amount of fingers Fletcher has on one hand. Along with a skill for sleight of hand. And a secret. Fletcher really is Johnny Dolan Vincent, a man of rare skill in finding ways to make documents that help people disappear. And the longer he stays to be evaluated the more things in his life might fall apart. Vincent has a few commitments that need to be done, he wants to see his girlfriend, one he has just set up a new name and papers for. Most of all he wants a way out of the life he has made for himself, but first he has to fool a psychiatrist into believing he is who he says he is. Or is he.

A book that the term fake it to make it was invented for. This is noir study of a man who is smart, talented, and cursed equally, living a life on the margins, because nothing in his life every made him aim for more. Vincent spends most of his day trying to act normal, to fit in the way that he presents himself, giving himself headaches, and guilty feelings for how he is. The writing is very good, funny, real and mostly focused on Vincent with a lot of professional memos discussing Vincent from a difference. Craig Clevenger has a great way of writing, not showing but telling how to fake an id, to pick a name, and a past. To create the clutter that fills a life, not a clean stark life, but one with notes, pictures, receipts, old tickets, and detritus that make a person what they are. Clevenger keeps the story going, and slowly ratchets everything up, until there are so many way things can go wrong, one can't even figure out how it can go right. A real lost story of 90's America with a sleeze and scruffiness that is timeless.

I'm glad this book has been reissued, as I never heard of it when it came out. This was quite a surprise, and much better than I expected. For fans who like their stories dark, mean, and yet hopeful.