The Notorious Dr. August: His Real Life and Crimes

by Christopher Bram

Book Overview

Christopher Bram tells the story of Augustus Fitzwilliam Boyd, alias Dr. August, a clairvoyant pianist who communes with ghosts, and who finds meaning in his life through a strange love triangle with... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688175694
• ISBN13: 9780688175696
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Glorious love song

This is the fourth book by Bram I've read, and his writing is just getting better! I found the story utterly captivating and compelling. Beginning in the later years of the American Civil War through the 1920s, we follow the life of Augustus Boyd, a.k.a Dr August. He falls in love with an ex-slave named Isaac, eventually convincing him to make it an intimate relationship. August becomes an improvisational pianist, inspired by his "spirits", with Isaac as his manager. While on a voyage to Europe, Isaac is enraptured with a white governess, and breaks off the love affair with August to pursue Alice. Isaac & August remain friends & business partners as Isaac weds Alice, and the two have children. The love triangle is a strain on all, and it snaps finally in Constantinople, when Isaac meddles in August's new love affair with a teen. The outcome of a tragedy causes the destruction of the trio, and its reconfiguration into a strange new alliance, without one of its core members. Beautifully exploring issues of race, sexuality, class, sprituality, and the notion of love, "The Notorious Dr August" is a magnificent story including fully-fleshed characters and a delightful rendering of history. Bram rocks!

One of my Favorite Books...I'll have to admit...

The author of this book was unknown to me. Now, I'll seek him out. This book will certainly become a motion picture someday. If they made his other book (Father of Frankenstein) into the movie, Gods & Monsters...then, this will be up for film rights. It's an astonishing epic that mixes music into a novel that flows like non-fiction. It's so well written. You get caught up in the charachters of Dr. August (Fitz), Isaac, Alice, Fanny/Lady Ashe and more. What was amazing is that it takes you back in time to a time when something like this could NEVER have been written about. What a love triangle...I loved experiencing the end of the Civil War, the early 1900's in New York, a cruise ship, London, and Constantinople. If you want an ESCAPE...this book is your best bet! I SIMPLY LOVED IT. There were plenty of significant lines that you'll take with you too...There are just too many favorite lines for me to list here...but the story is quite unique. It's an A+.

A novel of Epic scope yet wondrously intimate

Christopher Bram has written perhaps the most unique and adventurous novel of the new century. By his own closing page note he attributes his inspiration for this amazing novel to great writers both of history and contemporary. The Notorious Dr August scoops us up from the very first page and runs with us hand in hand through the extraordinary life of a dreamer who starts as a fife player in the Civil War, becomes intimately bound to a freed slave, turns a potentially harmful sexual history into a revealing life pattern, using his musical skill to become a Spiritulaist Pianist to wander fascinating European cities in support of an adopted family. But oh, trying to capsulize this incredibly well-spun story into a sentence is as difficult as condensing Joyce's Ullyses into a paragraph. You simply must read this magical tale of intrigue, love, commitment, spiritual journeys for yourself. Bram is a consummate storyteller and has the guts to present us with characters who are potentially unloveable and make us thrill to sail through their development and destinies. This book has it all - the complete spectrum of love, the importance of self discovery, an examination of the post Civil War dilemma of racism, and the struggle of the Victorian era coming to grips with real people instead of comfortable stereotypes. Funny, tender, tragic, moving, entertaining - A thouroughly wondrous book by an incredibly gifted writer. A MUST READ for everyone!

Christopher Bram at his very best.

This book was a great pleasure to read and I highly recommend it. Bram's skill in combining imaginative fiction with well-researched fact, (read also "Almost History"), is used here to great effect. I came away feeling that I had shared a lifetime with Augustus Fitzwilliam Boyd, (a.k.a. Dr. August), and what a life it was. From the civil war South to Coney Island in the 1920's with Paris, London and Constantinople in between, the book explores themes of love, loss, family, religion and the spirit world. The history through which the story passes is so richly detailed that it becomes a character in itself, and the musical references throughout are the closest I've come to reading a novel with a (classical) soundtrack. If you're interested in taking a journey through a life and its times, I can't think of a more fascinating guide than "the notorious" Dr. August.

The Complex Geometry of Triangles

Christopher Bram pulls off a tour de force in his latest novel, "The Notorious Dr. August: His Real Life and Crimes". As a fan of his work, I eagerly awaited his latest contribution to my literary world, and found not the least bit disappointment in this story.In the book, he spins the yarn of Dr. August, or Fitz, a musical spiritualist who communicates to his audience messages through playing the piano. At first reading, I worried this device would become overblown, but through some excellent writing and plot twists, it manages to keep the story focused without totally consuming it. Dr. August is a great character, gifted without seemingly so, and yearning for love and companionship that is just beyond his grasp. Throw into the mix Isaac, an ex-slave who bravely overcomes his upbringing and learns to lead with his heart, and Alice, a 27 year old "spinster" just brave enough to buck societal norms, and we have a triangle that is complex, and so much more.You will notice upon reading "Dr. August" how quickly paced the story is. Never dwelling too much on any one moment, it is a brisk and consuming read. Yet Bram leaves nothing out, and creates a real world before, during, and after the turn of the century. Absolutely, spotlessly breathtaking.Do not delay in reading this fine work!