So what is The Portable Door? Well, you'll have to read a fair bit of this novel before you discover that, encountering mishaps and madness, madcap mayhem and wonderful weirdness along the way. Expect the unexpected. Expect craziness and confusion. You can't be any more muddled than the hero of this book, Paul Carpenter. A nerdy-sounding name like Paul Carpenter? In a fantasy novel? Well ... yes. This is fantasy, but it is not just comic fantasy; it is also rather oddball. Don't expect Terry Pratchett's variety of humorous fantasy, despite the fact that Tom Holt's name often seems to be coupled with his. Tom Holt's writing has its own separate and unique weirdness. There are no mythic lands peopled with magical creatures here. This novel is firmly rooted in the drudgery of ordinary life on planet Earth. There is magic, yes - and fairies - and goblins - but they are all to be found in a rather boring, mundane office environment, popping up disguised as ... well that would be telling, wouldn't it? Suffice it to say that this is a lively and humorous romp, with mysteries, complexities, love interest, menace, and of course a good dollop of magic and the the supernatural. In creating Paul Carpenter, Tom Holt has invented a hero who might seem strangely familiar; a hero with whom - let's face it - many will identify. Young, shy, gauche, passive, inept, desperate for contact with the opposite sex, but at a complete loss as to how to achieve anything but tongue-tied bumblings ... all in all a bit of a loser. This apology for a smart, ambitious successful young man has only one way to go in a comic novel, and we are rooting for him from the start.We meet Paul at the beginning of the novel, living in a dismal, shabby English bedsit, having dropped out of university and been told in no nonsense terms by his parents to sort himself out. He is thus fairly desperate for a job - any job - and goes to an interview for a position as a filing clerk at the mysterious firm of J.W. Wells & Co. Mysterious? Well, yes. After a disastrous interview, (Paul's response to the question, "What do you most admire about the works of Chekhov?" being "The way he says 'Course laid in, keptin' is pretty cool"), nobody in this or any other world would expect him to be accepted. We enjoy his blunderings; they are fine entertainment, and when Paul is accepted for the position, we realise that it's clearly going to be a very tall tale indeed. Forget the real world here. Mundane and ordinary it may be, but realistic? No way! So Paul finds bemusedly that he has landed a job with J.W. Wells & Co, but is at a loss to know what it is, or what the firm actually does. He forgets names - his colleagues' names, his boss's name and even his own name. Highlights of his day include breaking the photocopier and hiding in the toilet whilst weeping hysterically. Paul becomes increasingly (and hilariously) traumatised, not even completely sure to whom he is responsible, or what his next work will be. He has a colleague, Sophie, who is also new. She is a skinny, morose, prickly girl, who seems completely immune to his "charms". We strongly suspect that she too is lonely and unattractive, like Paul, and through Paul's eyes is described as having the "sexual appeal of a hole-punch". Nevertheless Paul falls instantly in love with her, as he doubtless would have with any young available female within range. Occasionally they seem united in their confusion, and increasingly weird things happen, but basically she is just Not Interested. She has a boyfriend already, thank you very much. A rather self-centred, pseudy type, it has to be said, but she professes to be enamoured of him, He is a heavily politicised conceptual ceramic artist, or "performance potter" as Paul terms him, called Shaz. (We instantly hate this Shaz and are rooting for our hero.) The story becomes odder and odder, with magical devices appearing at unusual times. Expect time travel, the sword in the stone, photocopiers and of the course "The Portable Door" to all play key roles. The office walls have scratch marks in them which keep disappearing, the vault is full of unusual antiquities such as series of incredibly ugly portraits of Hollywood stars, Scarlett O'Hara's birth certificate and a Norwich Union life policy in the name of Vlad Dracul. But do not expect to guess the ending. (Except for one aspect, of course. We'd all feel very cheated if THAT didn't happen.)Bizarre? Yes. Crazy? Yes. Predictable? No. Its similarity to Terry Pratchett could be in its upbeat and lighthearted readability. It sets a fair pace, and the episodes crash one after another without particularly bothering about where they are going. There are quite a lot of hooks to make you curious, but in a way, the story is not what this is novel about. It is just a series of gags. There is one theme, sure, but ... it's not that important really. And we do find out the business of J.W. Wells & Co, which I will not divulge here. Suffice it to say, that this book kickstarted a whole series of books, seven so far, called "The J.W. Wells & Co series". Tom Holt is a prolific author. The Portable Door, published in 2003, was about his 35th novel. By his third novel "Expecting Someone Taller", Tom Holt had already established his trademark style of comic fantasy - juxtaposing the mundane with the fantastic - and his novels became increasingly popular. He has also written a few serious historical novels under the name "Thomas Holt".If you enjoy humour and fantasy, then give this a try. It's quirky, though I wouldn't call it "twisted" as some would have it. Tom Holt's early working background was as a solicitor specialising in death and taxes. Once you know this, it's obvious why the description of mundane office life, the mind-numbing humdrum paper-shuffling, is so well-observed, and his eye for the absurd sends it all up a treat. Sometimes you will smile wryly, sometimes giggle or chuckle, you may even laugh out loud if that is your wont. The Portable Door is fast, well-written, imaginative, colloquial, and absurdly amusing. And needless to say, if you have a sense of fun, it's wickedly funny. Great feel-good, light-hearted entertainment.(I quite liked Mr Tanner's mum, myself ...)"There's this to be said for being hungover; if you've got a job to do that involves substantial levels of ambient weirdness, it helps, because you can't be bothered to notice stuff that under other circumstances would come close to frying your synapses. Treasure maps; Czarist bonds; a case of stuffed dodos; Scarlett O'Hara's birth certificate; two flattened and deformed silver bullet heads in an old matchbox; Baedeker's guide to Atlantis (seventeenth edition, 1902); the autograph score of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony with Das Ende written neatly at the foot of the last page; three boxes of moon rocks ..."
I've come late to the Tom Holt party, but I'm glad I finally made it. This is the first book of his that I have read and I definitely intend to try more.It is the story of Paul Carpenter, and how he takes a mysterious job in a mysterious firm where mysterious goings-on occur. I found it always interesting, a nice quick read and lightly humourous. I wouldn't say there were many laugh out loud moments, but I chuckled more than once or twice!I think one of my favourite passages can best sum up the wit and wryly weird writing that Tom Holt employs: "There's this to be said for being hungover; if you've got a job to do that involves substantial levels of ambient weirdness, it helps, because you can't be bothered to notice stuff that under other circumstances would come close to frying your synapses. Treasure maps; Czarist bonds; a case of stuffed dodos; Scarlett O'Hara's birth certificate; two flattened and deformed silver bullet heads in an old matchbox; Baedeker's guide to Atlantis (seventeenth edition, 1902); the autograph score of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony with Das Ende written neatly at the foot of the last page; three boxes of moon rocks...." and so it continues in this vein.I enjoyed the fact that Tom Holt is clever in his writing and assumes that you, too, must be clever because the vocabulary used is superb and had me scratching my head a few times.The characterisation is brief but effective - through simple repetition we know that Paul is a bit of a loser, but with a good heart, while Sophie is a prickly but ultimately likeable character. The various partners of the firm they join are wildly entertaining.My main criticism is with the pacing of the book. The first half of it went fairly slowly, as befits the unfolding of a mystery, but the last third was breathlessly fast and tied up very neatly.Other than that, this was a fine book and I look forward to more of Holt's work.
What do You think about The Portable Door (2004)?
The writing was funny, the lead character had some really amusing traits including talking to himself, constantly. It reminded me a little of Hugh Grant in his many romantic comedies where he would speak to himself and narrate the story internally. At the same time, the plot had me reminiscing of Some Mothers Do Have Them and National Lampoons Vacation movies which tend to drive me insane with the protagonists stupidity. There were moments when I had to put the book down in frustration, but the good news is I had to finish it (and I have not finished many books in my time). All up, the plot didn't disappoint, however the ending was a little too tidy.
—Fiona Tarr
J.W. Wells & Co. Book OneThis is the first book I've read from Tom Holt. His imagination is unlike anyone else.The plot that involves The Portable Door, doesn't come until the second half of the book. It gives time for the main characters to believe that the bizarre events and things around them are now part of their ever day life. Their lives change drastically the moment Paul and Sophie are hired at J.W. Wells & Co. and sign a contract sealing their fate. In fact the only ones who don't seem to know about Paul and Sophie's fate, are Paul and Sophie themselves. Anything and everything can and will happen in this book. It's full of mystery, suspense, and most of all, fantasy. With a wild imagination and the talent to piece it all together in one book, Tom Holt proves he can take you on an adventure like no other. I already added the rest of Tom Holt's books to my giant stack of books to be read. I give The Portable Door a 4/5.
—Elizabeth (Stuffed Shelves)
This is the first in a series of Novels by Tom Holt that deal with the H.W. Wells consultants.Like all books by Tom Holt, it has very strong references to classic literature. This time it "borrows" one of the more important characters from W.S. Gilbert's opera "The Sorcerer". If one makes the connection the book is probably a completly different experience. I did not know the opera when I read the book, but that's one reason I love Tom Holt's novels: they show me some of the gaps in my classical
—Stavros Tsiakalos
