Houdini makes for a slippery biography subject because he was self mythologizing. Although the book strays from the subject at times, there was a lot of interesting information. However, I found myself annoyed a number of times (the Google listing of the ways in which Houdini is still famous, the cringy "epic rap battles of history," and Posnanski writing that he is "bored" with stories about seances). All of those examples could have been edited out.

An intriguing biography on the worlds greatest magician well written and full of information on this fascinating person

Posnanski has a love for his subject study and is able to bring this to the fore with his biography on the great and flawed Harry Houdini.

This is not a straight forward biography on Houdini but then again considering the hoops the author has to jump through and the misinformation about the man, Posnanski has done this with his winning formula. Using exhaustive methods to draw out the story behind the myth and legend and moving things back to the reality, the book is a testament to bring a faithful truths to its narrative.

The book relies heavily on the influence of Houdini and does through various people who have admired him, some who are not as great as an admirer and those who absolutely worshipped the ground he walks on. This gives an interesting view to the narrative and works very well. We have conflicting reports which help round out the egotist, the showman and the truth behind the myth and legend. Posnanski does a very good job to lift the curtain up and give us just enough information about the magic and escape art without giving anything away which is quite admirable. He also tries to figure out the birth date, birth place and actual childhood years which seem to be in a muddle and giving this some clarification probably took a lot of research.

His relationship with Bess is still in the shadows and though we learn a little about her and their relationship, the book doesn’t really delve into this too much. We do get some look in on her following Houdini’s death but as she is an enigma herself, she is probably her own stand-alone book. We also have some of the background history of his relationship with his brothers and family. This seems to be not so cut and dry and not quite sure if their feuds were real or for the publicity. This alone is worth its own narrative.

Houdini is a complex man who knew the importance of publicity and using the newspapers for his own usages even if it meant to sling mud at someone else. He was definitely in a camp that to lift yourself higher you have to push someone else down. Houdini’s publicity machine is probably the template for the Kadashian’s and other social media darlings that seem to crawl out of the crevices of media. This is an excellent look at how he accomplished this, not sure if morally it is something someone should use as a guidebook to get ahead but interesting all the same.

Overall, this is an incredible book and no mean feat for the author who has put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears to accomplish such a feat. Keeping it interesting to the very end with given the reader plenty to digest but without including a sensationalised bore which could have been done very easy. What we have instead is a well-rounded biography to serves the fans, the myth, the legend and the truth in equal measures and kept me totally invested. I, for one, know of the man and I learned all the misinformation about the man that I knew was false so it was great to find some home truths and put the legends to bed. Excellent and well worth the read; highly recommended.

Harry Houdini has long been known has a great magician who pushed the boundaries of our imagination as his feats grew larger and more dangerous. His name not only serves as a description of magicians and their feats of illusion, his life serves as an example of what can happen when man meets nature and her forces.
Joe Posnanski has dedicated a large amount of his life to researching Houdini and written an excellent story of his journey. As he digs into Houdini's history, he shares with the readers an in depth look at how the magician took today's magic from party tricks to acts of illusion no one has been able to duplicate. The interviews with today's magicians and visits to museums dedicate to Houdini give us an in depth look at how, even long after his death, Harry Houdini has had a profound influence on our lives. A very good book written by an author who is very obviously part of Houdini's fan club.

At various points Harry Houdini lied about where he was born, when he was born, how he met his wife, and he routinely got fictional accounts of his escapes in newspapers. Hell, Harry Houdini wasn’t even his real name. So how do you write a biography about a man whose entire life was built around tricking people and sensationalizing himself?

What the writer has done here is to focus less on the details of Houdini’s life. Sure, we get the basic facts and educated guesses when necessary, and there’s a lot about various Houdini legends while comparing them to reality. However, that’s not the main point of this book. Instead of trying to figure out who Houdini was and how he accomplished what he did, the book is more interested in examining how Houdini continues to fascinate and inspire people to this day. Considering that this was a man who whose very name became synonymous with amazing escapes of any kind, that’s an interesting topic.

Here’s the odd thing for me. I don't really care about magic, and I'm not even that interested in Houdini although he certainly led a memorable life. So why did I read this? Because I am a big fan of Joe Posnanski.

Posnanski is a sportswriter who was an award winning columnist in Kansas City for many years, and if I had a nickel for every story I read that he wrote about a horrible Royals teams during that time I’d be richer than Bill Gates. I met him once, and he signed a copy of his wonderful book about Buck O’Neil, The Soul of Baseball. I’ve listened to the podcast he does with TV producer Michael Schur and I have even ordered the dish named after him, Posnanski Chicken Spiedini, at a restaurant called Governor Stumpy’s on more a few occasions. (Not only is it really good, but you get a huge portion that gives you great take home leftovers for another meal.)

The fascinating thing about Posnanski to me is that he isn’t your typical 21st century hot-take sports guy. By modern standards his sports writing could almost be called gentle, and he always seems to be looking for the bright side without seeming naive. He is almost effortlessly funny, too. The thing that really always stood out was that Joe had a knack for finding awe inspiring moments in places that might be overlooked. I always had the feeling that part of the reason he was a sports fan is that it’s a thing where somebody doing something unbelievable is always just a play away.

However, Joe left Kansas City years ago, and while he’s had several high profile sports writing jobs since, I’ve missed getting a dose of that that kind of optimism a few times a week when I cracked open a open a copy of the Star. Truth be told, I’ve drifted away from watching sports at all in recent years so I don’t seek out Joe’s writing like I used to. I did get a nice reminder of it when a story he wrote about taking his daughter to see Hamilton went viral that made Lin-Manuel Miranda cry.

So even though I’ve got little interest in magicians, I picked this up just to read some Joe Posnanski. And he delivers by giving us a story about wonder. Houdini might have been a bully, a liar, a jerk, and a shameless self-promoter, but as repeatedly gets pointed out, he was the ultimate showman with a relentless drive. The legend of Houdini has inspired countless other magicians and escape artists, and those are the stories that Posnanski is really telling us here. He wants to figure out why a flawed man whose main talent was putting himself in rigged situations to escape from has managed to flourish in the public imagination for decades after his death.

To try and answer that Joe talks to everybody from David Copperfield to a reclusive former actor who wrote an incredibly detailed book about Houdini that is nearly impossible to find. Along the way we hear about magic acts, tricks of the escape artist trade, debates about Houdini’s actual skill, and a variety of other topics that all are oriented around trying to puzzle out the appeal of the man. In the end I did learn a lot about Houdini, and it also gave me a lot to think about in terms of what creates legendary fame and how one person's image can inspire countless people long after they're gone.

If you’re thinking about reading it, and you’re not sure if it’s your cup of tea, here’s a link to the column Posnanski wrote about taking his daughter to see Hamilton . If you enjoy that, there’s a good chance you’ll like this book.

Really excellent book on Harry Houdini, no holds barred. There are many books written about him and I read the first one when I was 11. Now I'm 68. Fascinating man in many ways. One would think there is nothing left to uncover, nothing left to say, but this author found even more. If you appreciate this kind of thing I would recommend it.

I love books about magic and have read many books about Houdini. This book takes a different approach and looks at Houdini through the eyes of current devotees and magicians to try and understand why the Houdini legend and the myths about him persist. In so doing , Posnanski gives us a fascinating welts and all look at Houdini and his times and the nature of his fame. Fascinating.

Damn my short attention span! I typically am not a huge fan of biographies, and I couldn't get into this one. Totally unique style, but I didn't finish it.

This was a wonderful book that describes not only the life of Harry Houdini, but also explores the endurance of his life to our times. If you are a Houdini fan, or even if you are not, you will probably enjoy this book.