Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini (review)

Legendary escape artist Harry Houdini was a master of showmanship and thus, in many ways, his own creation, presenting a thorny challenge to biographers trying to separate myth from man. For longtime admirer and former professional magician Fleischman, the process of looking for answers among "conflicting information, rubber facts, and howling nonsense" provokes as much fascination as the elusive answers themselves. Houdini was a man of contradictions: born Ehrich Weiss in 1874, he named himself after the great French magician, Robert-Houdin, only to attack his idol's reputation once Houdini's own career was established. An outspoken critic of spiritualism, the then enormously popular practice of attempting to contact the dead, Houdini left a secret code word with his wife so that she could recognize him beyond the grave. A gifted escape artist, Houdini nevertheless regularly inflated his reputation by exaggerating and sometimes fabricating his exploits, doctoring his own history and even airbrushing other people out of photographs in order to keep the spotlight on himself. It's a rare feat to explode myths and uncover unflattering truths about one's biographical subject matter while retaining a sense of awe and admiration. Fleischman not only pulls it off but also does so with an engaging direct address, including questions, personal anecdotes, and clever asides that gives this inventive biography its fast pace and powerful voice. Fleischman's own early experiences as a professional magician complement his sources—he knows how Houdini walked through walls and slipped out of handcuffs, but he isn't telling. Informal and approachable captions supporting the illustrative primary source material (including newspaper clippings and photographs) are sometimes wickedly funny and other times pointedly thought-provoking, as when Fleischman puzzles over Houdini's appearance at a Klan hall—did they not know Houdini was Jewish? Did Houdini not know of their racist views? Fleischman does the story of Houdini justice with an accessible, witty, and fascinating ride that is sure to draw in the skeptical and the admiring alike. A bibliography is appended.