Deryl Gregory’s Spoonbenders does to psychic powers what Anne Rice’s Interview with the vampire did to immortality.
So, you want to be psychic? You want to have special powers? Be careful what you wish for, because in Deryl Gregory’s book, Spoonbenders, the members of the Telemachus family have just that. And as the author eloquently shows, the psychic life isn’t all it’s cracked out to be.
Spoonbenders, by award winning fantasy and science fiction author, Deryl Gregory follows the lacklustre current life of the Telemachus family, as each of its members try to navigate through life with the burden of supernatural powers, the pressure of expectations, or both. Their past in show business still follows them like an overbearing shadow, a trauma from which none emerged unscathed. The plot of the novel, for the most part, takes place in the 1990’s, long after the family’s life of fame has been brought to a sudden stop, after being debunked on national television. The great Telemachus family has faded into abscurity.
The Patriarch of the family, Teddy, still copes with the death of his wife. As a retired and aging conman, formerly involved with the mafia and in various scams, he is really not cut out to function as a single parent. This is no less true because his children are all grown up. They still hover around his house, unable to break free and really manage a life of their own. They all suffer the repercussions of their past as wonder-children. Maurin, a human lie detector has moved back into her father’s house with her son, Matty, after getting divorced and losing her job. Eccentric and sensitive Buddy, who can remember the future, never left. At age 27 he still lives with his father, doing all kinds of weird projects around the house, in preparation for some obscure apocalypse. Frankie, who possesses powers of telekinesis, is the only child who has managed to break free and start a traditional family, but his ambition to revive the family’s former glory days has just about brought financial ruin. Having taken substantial loans from local loan sharks, his life is in danger, too.
All members of the family show have learned from a very young age the people outside their own tight circle either want to expose them, or they want to use them… or they want to expose them in order to use them. Eventually, the Telemachuses can only trust themselves. In a sense, Gregory’s book does to psychic powers what Anne Rice’s Interview with the vampire did to immortality. It makes you wonder whether you would really enjoy having such powers. It makes you thankful that you don’t. While this is quite a bleak view of life a a psychic, Gregory also infuses the story with his special brand of humor, which makes for a very balanced and enjoyable read.
The plot is told in the third person, but each chapter changes perspectives from one character to the next. The various main characters are believable and engaging, even when their morals and motivations are brought into question. The story progresses at a leisurely pace, which fits the overall feel of it. Despite the pace, the novel possesses an almost overpowering sense of impending doom. The various plot lines develop well and intertwine nicely towards the end.
Trully, however, I think the book’s main selling points and advantages of the novel, is Gregory’s beautiful and insightful writing style, full of descriptive gems. This just goes to show that genre writing – fantasy and science fiction – can also be beautifully and artfully written.
In Conclusion
Those who love Gregory’s style from his previous novels will certainly enjoy Spoonbenders. Those who are not familiar with the author’s work might be in for a pleasant surprise, and a solid entry point into his works.
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Spoonbenders
By Deryl Gregory
Published by Knopf (2017)
416 pages
