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Twelve Fingers: Biography of an Anarchist

Average customer rating:

Twelve fingers, all good
The best Biography of an Anarchist
This book is great!
Not as good as Sherlock
Amusing

Twelve Fingers: Biography of an Anarchist
Jose Eugenio Soares
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0375708197
Release Date: 2002-07-09

Book Description

A burlesque smorgasbord of international high jinks—the “biography” of a hapless, twelve-fingered, would-be assassin who lurches from Sarajevo to Paris to Hollywood to Chicago to Rio, leaving high-stakes chaos in his wake.
Our hero, Dimitri Borja Korozec, is born in the late 1800s to a Brazilian contortionist mother and a fanatically nationalist Serbian linotypist father.

Dimitri enrolls in a training school for assassins, where he excels—except for his troubling propensity for fouling things up at the last moment. Part Carlos the Jackal, part Woody Allen’s Zelig, part Inspector Clouseau, and part Forrest Gump, Dimitri is a schlemiel of an assassin and anarchist who can’t seem to kill anyone. He does, however, cause enough mayhem to help start World War I, spread Spanish influenza to the American continent, and unintentionally trigger various other significant events of the twentieth century by slipping and falling, misreading signs, and misunderstanding instructions.
Along the way Dimitri runs into—and, sometimes, nearly over—a diverse cast of bit players: Mata Hari, Al Capone, Carmen Miranda, Marie Curie, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Irving Thalberg, George Raft, and even Aleister Crowley make their appearances.

Jô Soares weaves the lives of his characters in and out of modern history, creating odd synchronicities, uncanny coincidences, and the impression that this “biography” might almost be true. True or not, it’s a laugh-out-loud romp that provides an intriguing new perspective on the history and major figures of our time, blurring the line between fact and fiction—a line which, had he encountered it on his way to an assassination, Dimitri would most certainly have tripped over.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Twelve fingers, all good.......2005-04-04

Jose Eugenio Soares hit the jackpot with "Twelve Fingers," the most off-the-wall historical novel in recent memory. The novel follows the bumbling anarchist around the world, as he accidently spreads mayhem and bumps into many historic figures, and causes quite a few disasters.

Dmitri Borja Korozec was born to a Brazilian contortionist and a Bosnian anarchist, and was perfectly normal except for the extra index finger on each hand. He is hailed as a sort of anarchic messiah to the Black Hand society... except that he's such a klutz that he fails every time. During an important assassination, his two trigger fingers get stuck in the gun, and he fails to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand.

Dmitri leaves (with the gun still stuck), determined to continue the cause, and nearly gets seduced by the legendary Mata Hari. He goes through multiple countries and continents, getting involved with sultry women, trying to kill oppressers and always failing in spectacular ways. To top it off, he is being pursued both by a determined French policeman and a homicidal Indian dwarf.

In outline, "Twelve Fingers" sounds like a perfectly ordinary historical novel -- wars, historical figures, world travel, et cetera. But the humor is in the details. Soares winks at anything that can't wink back, such as having the French cop being the grandson of Victor Hugo's Inspector Javert, or the repeated near-fatal escapes of Motilah the Thug dwarf, who keeps falling off trains.

Soares doesn't let the book descend to basic comedy, however -- no icky jokes, no dumbing down. He includes cameo appearances by Mata Hari, Madame Curie, Picasso, and countless others, with blurry photographs accompanying the text. At the same time, he can deadpan lines that talk about the Italian Kama Sutra's chapter on men with two forefingers (nickname: Il Manusturbatore), and one of the most funniest love scenes I have ever read, complete with corny dialogue and too much alcohol.

Dmitri is a basic Forrest Gump character -- he drifts through life, although the middle of the book could use a bit of a lift. His bumbling can only keep things going so long, but the ending takes a sharp upturn when Dmitri tries to track down his long-lost relative, with shocking (yet somehow unsurprising) results. Supporting characters never get much in the way of personality, but then again, it is a book about the inept anarchist.

If Dmitri weren't such a goofball, it would be easy to imagine him bumbling through World War I-era Europe, leaving a train of mayhem behind him. As it is, Jose Soares' second novel is a rare comic treat.

The best Biography of an Anarchist.......2003-09-23

This book refer to a young boy that was born on Banja Luka, Bósnia, he is different from other children because, he has twelve fingers in his hands, he believes this attribute is a god sign. When he was teen, he went to anarchist school where he learned about making bombs, and to operate guns.
When he was a young man, became odder murderer and accidentally participates of biggest crimes and tragic events of the history between Ferdinando Marcos's murder, the arrest of spy Mata Hari, murder of socialist deputy Jean Jaurés in Paris, in 1914. Picasso draw Dimitri in a napkin, in Brasserie Lipp, in 1917 and Fernando Pessoa participates of an esoteric session in the anarchist's company. He "Helps" the actor George Raft in the filming of Ben-Hur (1925), and Al Capone in the gangsters's world of Chicago. Has participated of the attack, unsuccessful, to the president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in Miami.
The book is a travel on the world modern history, the author with his singular culture make the reader enjoy a lot while reading. The book is a great classic of Brazilian literature; and the author is considered one of the smarter man in Brazil.

This book is great!.......2003-02-19

I read both of Soare's books and it was surprised to see that 'A Samba For Sherlock' actually got higher remarks. I love this book and while I agree with some of the comments that the story is not much original (Forrest Gump) it's nevertheless a very good plot and some interesting historical facts. Read it, you'll like it!

Not as good as Sherlock.......2002-08-18

The first 100 pages of this picaresque are hilarious, then it begins to run out of steam. The running joke, that the protagonist is too incompatent to carry off any assasination, is not funny enough to carry an entire book. After Dimitri bungled his second assasination attempt I became bored sensing that there were no more surprises in store, and there weren't. Some of the historical references are interesting and others are flat. People who have never seen Zelig or Forrest Gump might find this story original, but it isn't. There is a theory among Brazilian television comedians like Jo Soares that there are only a limited number of jokes in the world and that they can be repeated over and over again with slight variations and people will still laugh. 12 Fingers suggests otherwise.

Amusing.......2002-02-07

The second novel by Brazillian Jo Soares, author of the international bestseller A Samba for Sherlock, Twelve Fingers is an infectious, highly clever, an thoroughly amusing look at one (fictional) man's stumble of a life through some of history's better known events. Dmitri Borja Korozec is our Zelig-like, bumbling, oft-disoriented guide, born in the Balkans at the end of the 19th century to a Brazillian contortionist mother and fanatically nationalist Serbian father, who also happens to be a linotypist. Perhaps too much having been read into Dmitri's being born with 12 fingers (one additional index finger on each hand), he is consequently groomed to be a top-flight anarchist/assassin. Soon we follow the hapless Dimitri from Sarajevo to Paris to Hollywood, unintentionally triggering (or more often, just failing to trigger) a number of the 20th century's more significant events, including the start of WWI, bringing Spanish influenza to America, and bribing the wrong jury to thus ensure Al Capone's conviction. Along the way he manages to rub shoulders, if not bump into, a varied host of real historical figures, from Mata Hari to Marie Curie and Picasso to George Raft. Soares places archival photos throughout, with very amusing captions explaining our (anti-) hero's absence or obscuration in each picture.

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