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There is a certain ambiguity about the title of this novel. A 'grift' is a con, but the word is very close to 'gift'. The central character, Marina Marks, makes her living giving psychic readings which she herself believes are fake. But when Marina Marks was a little girl, her drug addicted mother mistakenly approaches Madame Z, thinking she can score. Instead, the supposed psychic looks at Marina's hands and discovers the child has no lifeline. Then she sees her own death in the child's face and proclaims to both that Marina has 'the gift'. Nearly thirty years later, Marina has herself grown into a pseudo psychic. She is attempting to ply her trade in Florida, most uncomfortably, but allows herself to be intimidated by others of a like profession and seeks refuge in Southern California. San Diego proves a satisfactory haven for her and, thanks to a party, thrown by wealthy Madeline, at which Marina is employed to tell fortunes, she soon amasses a fine collection of marks happy to employ the psychic talents in which Marina does not believe. Soon, however, events force Marina to suspect that Madame Z had been right and she did indeed have the gift. Marina's situation is quite ironic. When she operated by observation alone, she was very successful and her clientele, which included a rather endearing set of weirdos, adored her. As soon as Marina's true gift becomes unlocked and she sees, and tells, rather too much about her clients, she starts losing custom and some of her remaining clients seem actually to hate her. As I said at the beginning, this is a charming novel. Mind, the corpse in Marina's office does tend to leave her less than enthusiastic about her second sight but of course, a price has to be paid for everything. And why are the police hanging around her? The charm of this book lies not only in the exploration of pseudo psychics but in the cast of characters who form Marina's list of clients. There's Cooper, a gay man in love with a psychiatrist who pretends his affair with Cooper is a mere aberration; Eddie, a married philanderer who finds juggling women can overbalance him; the aforesaid Madeline; Cassie, a hair stylist and, briefly, Gideon, the man with whom Marina falls in love. Many of us have mixed feelings about psychic claims. Of course, most of us know that psychics are a dubious lot, but given the opportunity to have a reading done for nothing, how many of us would decline? To be honest, many years ago I was given the opportunity to consult the White Witch of Adelaide and, as a court had decided he was the genuine article, I went to see the gentleman. He told me that I was about to change professions, at which I laughed, since I was quite happy being a pharmacist. His prediction, surprisingly, did come true in that, in order to get my infant son into a Montessori class, I was persuaded to do the course, and thus found myself teaching Montessori. That was in addition to my pharmacy duties, so he wasn't completely accurate. But I was impressed. This is precisely the area that Ginsberg exploits adroitly in her tale of a psychic dismayed to find that indeed she may see more than she really thinks she can and sometimes wishes she couldn't.
Reviewed by Denise Pickles, August 2008
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