Kevin GuilfoileCritiques

Beautiful a poignant on so many levels.
If you played or followed baseball in the 60s & 70s, you'll love this book.
If you love baseball, you'll love this book.
If you love dads, you'll love this book.

Os.

I really wanted to like this book. It was recommended in some forum somewhere where supposedly smart people were discussing another book I really liked and someone suggested this was a good one in the same vein. It wasn't. Poor character development. Some of them don't ever have backstory. Some characters are introduced only to further a single plot point and then disregarded. Entire sub-plots are introduced and go nowhere. Too much emphasis on a twist ending that could be seen miles away. (Although admittedly the author sprinkled in so many clues that this, perhaps, was his intent.) It disappointed me, and I'm glad I'm done and can move on. That said, I'll give it as many stars as I have because the writing (the prose) itself wasn't bad. I've certainly read worse writing before and I suspect Guilfoile could turn out a good book if he abandoned cliches and gimmicks and focused more on his characters.½

A fun and fascinating little memoir.

I thought this a really great book. Lots of twists and turns, but nothing that seems cheaply plotted. About choices and their consequences--consequences for the choice maker and all of those around him/her. This is one of those stories that pops into my head years after having read it.

Guilfoile propels a cast of stock characters through a plot from the school of "The DaVinci Code." He manages to breathe life into his Vegas-Chicago players with some close observation on people and scenery, but his clever Pythagorean conspiracy seems too broad for any writer to triangulate.

Short (‘tis the season!) book that has one of my very favorite themes—the way memory and stories can contradict one another but somehow still make sense—the one here is baseball-related (Clemente) and family-related. Two more of my favorites!

A good baseball yarn, intercutting contemplations of his father, a founder of the Baseball Hall of Fame now declining into dementia, with the story of Roberto Clemente's 3000th hit and the bat he used. Or was that the bat he used? Fact and memory blur, and it would be a shame to spoil the ending…

boek had kunnen geschreven worden in 100 pagina's. Enkel op het einde werd het spannend.

Guilfoile (I defy you to spell that name after seeing it only once) is another The Morning News staffer with a novel out, and The Thousand is his second. If you haven't seen the videotrailer for the book, go find it now. Guilfoile counts to one thousand, number by number, but the video lasts only two minutes. It's fun to watch.

The Thousand has been described as The DaVinci Code for people who care about the material that goes into their head. Having read both, I can tell you that the Thousand is much, much better than TDaVC. Bonus: the antagonist isn't some masochistic, paperthin religionist. In fact, the Thousand's antagonists are a world-wide conspiracy of Pythagoreans who control the world with numbers. Interesting note: I read this book at the same time I listened to Michael Lewis's The Big Short, which is also about a group of oligarchic conspiracists, and I have to say that the experience left me feeling rather anxious for a few months. In a good way.

This book, a short one about the duration of long-term memory, centers on the relationship between the author and his father, a one-time executive at the Baseball Hall of Fame museum, also a late-stage Alzheimer’s patient.

There's a memorable story in chapter 5. It's a throw-away account of a practical joke that Jerry Ruess, who worked for the L.A. Dodgers, once played on Tommy Lasorda, the team’s general manager. Here’s what Ruess did. He took a game ball and wrote a message to Frank Pulli, the home plate umpire. The message said, “Frank -- Hope you’re enjoying the game, Tommy Lasorda.” Jerry gave the ball to the pitcher. The pitcher noticed the message on the ball and thought to himself, Strange that the team’s manager is sending messages to umpires on game balls. And then he threw the pitch anyway, which fouled into the stands.

After the game, the pitcher told Tommy Lasorda that he thought the message he’d sent Frank Pulli was pretty funny. Lasorda scratched his head. Later that night, Lasorda’s wife, Jo, asked him about the autographed ball. Now Lasorda was really confused. Jo said that the fan who caught the foul ball was amazed to find that the ball had already been signed by the general manager.
Even more amazing, the fan, whose name was Frank, was impressed that Lasorda had somehow singled him out of the crowd and inscribed the ball just for him.

We don’t know what happened to foul-ball-catching Frank of the ballpark stands, but I imagine that Moses himself can’t have felt much different on the day that a decorative shrubbery on Sinai burst into flame and called him by name, twice: Moses, Moses.

Wouldn’t it be funny if the real story about the bush on Sinai was that some desert denizen had meant to play a trick on one of his friends, some guy named Moses Abobay or something, but the wrong Moses had come along? And then that wrong Moses had gone and freed the Israelites from slavery, parted the Red Sea, and led them to the promised land. All because of a practical joke.

Blasphemy, you may say, but then I’ll tell you that the difference between the cosmic and comic is only a single sibilant -- the soft hiss of air leaking from a bicycle tire, molecules of air streaming single-file out of our skull’s inner-tube.

And then the tire goes flat and playtime is over.

Great read and quick. Filled a jet lagged night in India very well, thank you.

A very interesting and well developed book, it's overly complex at times (the person before me was reduced to writing notes in the library book to keep track of events), but it all spawns from a very interesting premise and is a good read if you can get through it.

I found the premise quite intriguing, enough to keep the story going for me, though I found the trials of Wayne to be a little over the top. The climax seemed a little contrived (I don't want to spoil it, as I DO think it worth a reading, so I'll leave it at that). All in all, a great concept in the vein of the Da Vinci Code.

This baseball bat mystery is incredible. A must read for ANY nostalgic baseball kid/dad. I LOVED EVERY PAGE. A great story about many outstanding people, and several really brave dads.

I really loved the characters and plot created by the author, but his writing style holds me back from loving the book. Conspiracy, bionics and a plot with solid pace make this novel worth reading.

In the near future, cloning is legal. Dr. Davis Moore is a fertility doctor specializing in reproductive cloning.

His daughter, AK is raped and murdered. The killer escapes and when Dr. Moore picks up AK's belongings, he obtains a sample of the killer's DNA. With no other way to identify the killer, he clones a child with the killer's DNA so the child will grow up to be the exact replica of the killer.

Mickey the Gerund is a religious fanatic and member of the group the Hands of God. He feels he's a soldier in God's army whose mission is to destroy fertility clinics and the doctors running them. He'd dubbed Byron Bonavarti by the press.

The novel proceeds at a leisurly pace which allows the suspense to build. It spans many years and we see the baby, Justin Finn, born and grow older.

The author provides information about the moral and ethical considerations of cloning. Our interest heightens as Justin turns various ages and develops an avid interest in serial killers and in Bryron Bonavarti.

With haunting prose, Justin seems to become more like his cloned father and we wonder if the author has cloned another mass murderer.

There are some excellent surprises and twists along the way which add to the interest.

The author has delivered a unique and interesting novel pitting the forces of good against evil and we wonder which side will win.

I'm giving this high ratings because I really just did not see the ending coming! The story seemed a little slow for a while but then it took off and didn't stop. Of course it was highly contrived and circumstances were over the top with how they worked out but I'm impressed with what the author pulled together.

This book isn't for everyone, but I certainly enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the Da Vinci Code, which this book certainly reminded me of (Except that it featured Pythagoras rather than Da Vinci and a secret society of mathematicians rather than Catholic priests. And the writing was better overall.).I wish that it had concentrated more on Canada and Wayne, since I didn't feel I got to know them as well as their key roles in the book would justify. It simply wasn't a character oriented book.The conspiracy and convoluted schemes were simply crazy. That's the fun of the book, but if you don't have patience for bizarre twists and unlikely turns, this isn't for you.

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

Although I've been an acquaintance of local author Kevin Guilfoile for nearly a decade now, I've never actually read any of his full-length work, mostly because of him working in the crime/mystery genre that I neither follow nor care for that much; so I was glad to randomly spot his latest, the DaVinci-Codesque The Thousand, on the "new release" shelf at my neighborhood library this month, because it meant I could make my way through it fairly quickly and without a lot of fuss, frankly just like how I read through most novels in this genre. And indeed, this book is full of the kind of stuff that makes me kind of roll my eyes a bit when it comes to titles like these, which is why I try for the most part simply not to review these kinds of books, because of knowing that I'm far from its ideal audience; our main character, for example, is basically Lisbeth Sanders meets the Bionic Woman, a plucky female private investigator who received a sort of experimental body-wide pacemaker thingie as a child which now gives her nearly supernatural physical abilities, which she uses to slowly uncover a secret society that worships the hidden codes found in the work of the Greek mathematician Pythagorus, a group which believes our tomboyish hero to be the star-child or something that will finally bring all the ancient prophecies to fruition. Or, er, something like that. It's certainly as good as the other novels of this sort that I've read over the years, so I feel confident in recommending it to those who are naturally into this genre; but to really see Guilfoile at his best, you should instead check out the short, smart, bitter humor writing he's done in the past for places like McSweeney's and Funny Or Die.

Out of 10: 8.0

The Thousand isn’t typically a book I would have picked up to read. I don’t tend to read thrillers and try to avoid anything involving math. But I happened to win a copy of the book from the author in a contest on twitter (which I didn’t know I entered). And because the book is set partially in Chicago and Guilfoile is a Chicago author I felt compelled to give it a shot.

I’m so glad I did because I found the story to be completely captivating. It’s one of those books that as soon as you think you have figured something out… guess again.

The Thousand is a group of people who for generations have followed the teachings of Pythagoras. His teachings have to do with the relationship between numbers and the order of the universe.

Set in Chicago and Las Vegas, the book centers around a woman named Canada Gold. When Canada, or Nada as she is known to friends, was a child she received a neurostimulator implant in her brain as a last attempt to control her severe attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The neurostimulator or spider (as Nada called it) gave her special abilities. She notices things that people didn’t see. She hears things that people didn’t hear. She uses these abilities to her benefit in Las Vegas first counting cards and then as a private investigator.

Because she is so skilled she is hired by a businessman to return to Chicago and help him acquire art from an eclectic artist named Burning Patrick. Nada grew up in Chicago the daughter of a famed musician who was murdered shortly after he was acquitted for the murder of a young student. As the story progresses the reader finds that everything believed to be truth is really part of an elaborate scheme. And everything is connected. Both factions of The Thousand are looking for Nada and she doesn’t know who she can trust.

As a life-long Chicagoan, I found Guilfoile’s descriptions of the city to be gripping. He nails the descriptions of the people and the places. I found the scene involving the riot in the park to be particularly haunting. I also fell in love with some of the characters. I felt for Wayne Jennings, the head of security who loves Nada. I was sad for Nada’s best friend, the prosecutor. Kloska, the veteran Chicago Police Officer, seemed like someone you want to hate but underneath it all there’s something oddly appealing about him. He’s looking for the truth even if it costs him everything.

The one problem I had with the book was that I had a hard time keeping track of the two waring groups, Acusmatici and the Mathematici. I had to keep thinking back to try and remember which group was which. But it didn’t keep me from enjoying this story. In fact it probably helped enhanced the story since I couldn’t quite remember which group was responsible for which activities.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a good thriller. You won’t regret it.

Took a while to get into½

Trying to summarize The Thousand would be only slightly easier than attempting to herd a pack of cats across a rushing river. How can one adequately summarize a book that includes as major plot points Mozart’s infamously unfinished Requiem in D Minor, Greek mathematician / philosopher Pythagoras, experimental brain implants, a ten-year-old murder case, a manufactured blackout of Chicago, and an ancient conspiracy guarded by a secret society known as the Thousand?

Right, you can’t. So let’s just get on to why it all works. Brilliantly. Author Kevin Guilfoile has the amazing ability to create perfect order out of what should rightfully be utter chaos. He takes multiple, complicated plot lines and seamlessly weaves them into an almost suffocatingly intense blanket of action and suspense.

He does this in large part with his absolutely pitch-perfect characterizations, both of the people and locales. The story takes place in Las Vegas and Chicago, both of which are described with such vivid detail the reader feels as if he was actually there. The descent of Chicago into rioting and disorder during a blackout manufactured by the Thousand as cover for their activities is particularly harrowing.

But there is no question that the star of The Thousand is Canada Gold, Nada to her friends. As a young teenager Nada was the recipient of an experimental neurostimulator implanted directly into her brain as a last ditch effort to control her severe attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Not only did it cure her, it left her with some powerful unintended side-effects which the adult Nada learned to use to her benefit, first as a gambler then as a private investigator.

Unfortunately for Nada, because of the unique abilities it has the power to bestow there are members of one faction of the Thousand who want her implant – over her dead body if necessary – so they can give it to someone handpicked by them who will use its enhancing powers to help the Thousand achieve their goals. The resulting race between the two factions to get to Nada first, and her dawning comprehension of the true power of her implant, make for 350 pages of conspiracy-fueled, page-turning plot twists and turns.

Guilfoile has created something truly special in The Thousand. He’s managed to take heavy-hitting concepts like the relationship between math and music (indeed, math and the nature of the universe itself), as well as the moral implications of advanced scientific research and testing and wrap them up in a package as enticing and thrilling as any Hollywood blockbuster; but much more intelligent.

Quite simply, The Thousand is amazing! It’s what The Da Vinci Code wants to be when it grows up… and it still won’t be close.

The Thousand resembles a cross between The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The DaVinci Code. The main character, Canada Gold, is a petite young woman with amazing mental skills. In her case, the skills come in part from a neurostimulator in her brain that was implanted to control ADD so severe she couldn't function. Her father, Solomon Gold, was a genius, but apparently murdered his lover and was in turn murdered the night Canada was had her operation to implant the deep brain stimulator.

Now, several years later, the doctor who performed Canada's surgery is murdered with the same gun that killed Solomon. The police keep hearing that both of the murdered were part of a secret society of followers of Pythagoras, The Thousand, who have known the secrets of the universe since the time of the mathematician. Modern science has been discovering those secrets and the Thousand believe that when the last of those secrets is discovered the world will end.

Your reaction to this book will depend a lot on whether you believe in 2000 year old conspiracies, and in secrets so amazing that one person can destroy the world. I don't, so the whole plot fails to move me. I do like the character of Canada, and even more that of Wayne Jennings, the casino security boss who is in love with her. The book is not to my taste but may be to yours.

Det bedste plot i årevis