Mitch Cullin

This is a dark but well written book featuring a very memorable character and voice. Jeliza-Rose is a young girl living in a run-down house on the Texas plains and adrift, mostly, in her own imagination. That imagination includes, for example, her friendships with several severed Barbie doll heads. The supporting characters are quirky, to put it mildly, and in a way that perfectly supports Jeliza-Rose's expectations of life. The writing, here, is hypnotic and compelling. This novel is show more essentially a reverie on the lengths a young mind may go to to escape from misery and sadness. I know there's a movie of this book, but I won't be seeing it, as I doubt it could do justice to this fine work. show less

Muchos son los autores que han recogido el testigo legado por Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, escribiendo aventuras sobre su eterno personaje como protagonista (unas con más acierto que otras, pero todas lejos del clásico). En 'Un sencillo truco mental', Mitch Cullin intenta ser más original y nos presenta a un Sherlock Holmes de 93 años, que lleva una vida tranquila en su hacienda de Sussex. Allí se dedica al cuidado de sus colmenas y a escribir, sobre las abejas, tratados de lógica y show more deducción, y antiguos casos. Su única compañía, aparte de las abejas, son su ama de llaves, joven viuda de guerra, y su hijo Roger, un chico de catorce años al que le apasiona el mundo de las abejas y que se convierte en una especie de discípulo de Holmes.

La historia transcurre en tres frentes distintos. Por una parte, está el Holmes del presente (1947), el que vive en su granja. A pesar de los años que han pasado, sigue siendo un personaje famoso, que recibe constantes cartas de admiradores y gente que solicita su ayuda. De vez en cuando, incluso es acosado en su propia vivienda. Resulta curioso porque la gente tiene una imagen de Holmes que no se corresponde con la verdad. El bueno del doctor Watson, cuando redactaba sus aventuras, era dado a rellenar los huecos y a fantasear en exceso.

Holmes acaba de regresar de un reciente viaje por extremo oriente. Este es el segundo frente de la novela. Holmes fue invitado a visitar Japón por un aficionado a la botánica con el que se lleva carteando desde hace tiempo. Ya en su casa, sigue teniendo frescos los recuerdos de este viaje y de las gentes que ha conocido; imágenes de un Japón que intenta sobrevivir a los desastres de la guerra, a las consecuencias de las Bombas.

El tercer frente del libro tiene que ver con un antiguo caso que Holmes está escribiendo, y recordando. Se trata de un caso que le dejó un huella muy profunda. A principios de siglo, un hombre solicita la ayuda del gran detective. Piensa que su mujer ha caído bajo el influjo de una malvada mujer, una profesora que le da clases de música.

Hay que tener claro que esta no es una novela de aventuras y detectives. Es la historia de un hombre que sufre los achaques de la edad, la historia de una mente brillante cuyo filo se está quedando romo. Es capaz de recordar los detalles más nimios de una caso de hace 50 años, pero no sabe qué hace cierto objeto en su bolsillo. Es por tanto, una reflexión sobre el paso del tiempo y todo lo que conlleva. Cullin humaniza al personaje en una novela bien escrita y original. show less

Yes, this is a book about Sherlock Holmes, but it is not a mystery novel; it is a melancholy meditation on age, death, loneliness, and love. How sad it is to watch a great mind such as Holmes's fading. His few friends are gone; after two devastating world wars, his world itself is gone; and yet he survives. He studies, writes, keeps his bees, and even makes the occasional human connection. The book is beautifully written, displaying a deep love for the character and the stories. The portrait show more of the 93-year-old Holmes is interwoven with his own recounting of a case from many years earlier, one that brought little to solve except for the mysteries of the human mind and heart. His journey to postwar Japan is not as well-integrated with the rest of the novel as it might have been, but it does show us a Holmes who, at last, has begun to understand the psychology of love and loss, as well as why the truth is not always what is most important.

I see that some reviewers are disappointed, perhaps having expected more detection. However, those of us who love Sherlock—especially if we ourselves have been dealing with the decline of body, senses, and mind that comes with age—can find in this novel, despite its sadness, some understanding of Holmes and ourselves. show less

This is the novel the recent movie Mr. Holmes was based on. I haven't seen that yet; I wanted to catch it while it was in theaters, but for one reason and another I never got to it. So, while I'm waiting to watch it on DVD, I figured I'd read the book.

It centers on an extremely elderly Sherlock Holmes, whose once-unparalleled mind now suffers from lapses of focus and memory. He makes a visit to post-WWII Japan, becomes a sort of paternal or mentor figure to a young boy with a talent for show more beekeeping, and relates the story of a case he investigated decades earlier, but none of it is really about any sort of plot. Instead it's about the character, and about themes of memory, loss, and the irrational mysteries of human life.

And I am so very torn about it. Because all of that sounds good, and it is good, really. The basic concept is a powerful one, Holmes and his cognitive issues are handled sensitively and well, the themes are rich, and there are some genuinely poignant moments. And yet, I can't help the feeling that I expected it to do more for me, somehow, to make me feel more. Instead, it's a mostly well-crafted thing that I appreciated intellectually, but that never quite engaged me the way I wanted it to. I find I keep thinking about this sketch Mitchell and Webb did about an elderly Holmes suffering from dementia. That thing existed solely as the punchline to a running joke about comedy shows dropping the jokes and getting all serious and emotional at the end, and yet, embarrassing as it is to admit, it made me want to cry. I think I wanted this to make me want to cry. And it never quite did.

Nevertheless, I do still very much want to see the movie. I'm very curious to see what Ian McKellan will make of it. Who knows, maybe he'll make me want to cry. show less