Jonathan Carroll (1) (1949–)

This rated only 2.5 stars really, rounded up to 3 in view of the unlikeable protagonist whose eventual realisation of how horridly he has treated his two girlfriends is rather too little and too late. This is the story of Harry Radcliffe who was mentioned in 'Sleeping in Flame', an arrogant and conceited architect who has a mental breakdown then recovers and is engaged to build a museum to honour dogs by the progressive sultan of a fictional Middle Eastern country.

The story is a mishmash of various characters from other Carroll novels, odd stories the character overhears such as the story of the retreating German soldiers in WWII which has absolutely no bearing on the book's narrative, and weird magic things which don't really amount to anything. The inclusion of the subplot about the sultan's murderous brother and resulting civil war which prevents the museum being built in the Middle East adds some action, but some is pointless such as the protagonist having to go to the place where the museum would have been built only to be told he has to build it in Austria. There's a lot of stuff that is just plain daft even for a Carroll story such as the incredible shrinking car, and dog lovers may find one scene upsetting. Then certain characters turn out to be aspects of the protagonist and he is rebuilding the Tower of Babel. The book is well written as a work of literature but without being able to identify with or have sympathy for the characters, it comes across as quite a cold academic exercise.

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Rather a mixed bag, and featuring a lot of the usual Carroll tropes such as dogs, gods, and story endings that plummet off a cliff or just run out of steam.

Some were stronger than others and had less of a 'oh, is that it?' effect. Some are very short but quite disturbing, such as the title story about the man on a train who meets a woman and her daughter. I'd read it previously, probably in a collection of dark fantasy/horror stories by assorted authors, and also had a deja vu feeling about 'Friend's Best Man', where a man saves his dog.

Two stories are reprints of stories told in the 'A Child Across the Sky' novel, or else Carroll wrote them first and subsequently decided to include them in that novel: 'Mr Fiddlehead' and 'A Quarter Past You'. Some of the stories go nowhere - the longer 'Uh-Oh City' builds up to something then fizzles out - and this is not dissimilar to the endings of some of Carroll's novels.… (more)

The fourth of Carroll's novels and the fourth I've read, but not the best. As with all of them it suffers from a rushed off-the-wall ending, probably more than most, but that's not my main problem with it. I found the story very uneven with lots of 'kitchen sink' things thrown in that didn't really gell with the story.

The protagonist, as in most of those I've read, is a man telling the story in first person. Walker is a small time film actor who has moved into screen writing with the help of his director friend, Nicholas. Nicholas introduces him to Maris, with whom Walker instantly falls in love, and she falls for him.

Certain things are set up in the book, for example, an expectation that Maris' abusive and violent boyfriend will cause big problems, but in fact he is dealt with and disappears early on. Similarly, certain key characters are set up to appear important but fizzle out by being killed off before their plotlines deliver. There are talking animals as in other Carroll novels, but they don't contribute much to the story.

The main story concerns Walker's real father, as he is adopted, and deals with the nature of reincarnation, but there are elements that don't make sense, for example if his father is only giving him one more chance to be the perfect son, why does he give him away as a baby instead of bringing him up, and why doesn't he stop him growing up to prevent him developing the interest in women that is the father's big objection?As in The Land of Laughs, characters can be brought to life by people who write - or in this case, tell oral stories - but with no real explanation of why this works for those particular people.

One feature of this novel not encountered before is that a minor character from the previous novel appears, and the protagonist of the same novel (Bones of the Moon) is referenced a couple of times, but there is no other obvious connection between the two, so it seems a bit pointless.

I was struck particularly in this novel, perhaps because the action in the real world moves between countries so much, that there is no real evocation/atmosphere of any of the places involved - somehow, none of the reality of life in Vienna or New York or California is brought to life. Thinking about it, this was a problem in the previous novel, Bones of the Moon, which featured Greece, Italy and New York as settings. They seem fairly nondescript backdrops despite the frequent mentions of street names and all the occasions when people sit in restaurants and coffee shops. I found it quite a struggle to finish this book, and I'm afraid to say was getting bored before things started happening in the last third or so. I have four other novels by Carroll and I'm not sure on this showing whether I won't just pass them on to the charity shop. I wouldn't normally give a book only 2 stars but there were just too many issues with this one for me.… (more)

An easy read and a rather deceptive book. It starts off a bit like a Stephen King novel, with the well realised horrible and sadistic elder brother Ross tormenting the younger one Joseph/Joe who is the novel's protagonist and first person narrator, and the tragic accident which inevitably results. Joe then suffers years of guilt though this doesn't stop him using the character of his brother and his brother's wrong-side-of-the-tracks friend as characters in a short story, which becomes a best selling play, although the play bears little resemblance to his story. So he feels a bit of a fraud/failure. Possibly he isn't meant to be much of a sympathetic character and this plundering of his own background may be a clue to that, but then as he says, writers do that.

The book then changes tack with the introduction of India and Paul Tate, two fellow Americans whom Joseph meets while living in Vienna. It is totally obvious from moment one that he and India will end up having an affair. The strange element of the book starts to creep in when they introduce Joe to Paul's alter ego, Little Boy. In this guise Paul performs magic tricks which appear to have no logical explanation, e.g. mechanical birds that manage to fly. One horrible element for bird lovers is where a flesh and blood bird is seemingly set on fire as part of this magical act.

When Paul goes away on business, he urges Joe to look after India. Although they resist the temptation to jump into bed, both feel a strong attraction, and when Paul returns he accuses them of betraying him, and his Little Boy persona starts to take over. He seems to be having a breakdown. Under the pressure of all this, Joe and India actually do start an affair.

The truly weird part of the story follows when Paul dies and proceeds to haunt his widow and Joe in the form of Little Boy, so that horrible things start happening . When it becomes clear that their relationship can't continue, Joe goes back to New York where he meets a young woman, Karen, and falls for her. His meeting with her is rather peculiar and this may be meant to tip us off that all is not right with her. She proceeds to vacillate between Joe whom she claims to love and a former boyfriend, Miles, who we never see in person, but when Joe receives a call from India telling him that Paul's hauntings have become unbearable and that she needs him to return, Karen in effect tells Joe that Miles is likely to take his place during his absence. Feeling torn between duty to India, whom he realises he didn't actually love, and his love for Karen, Joe returns to Vienna.

In the final act, Paul seems to call off his dogs (after they have become literal), but it seems this was just a ploy. India turns on Joe who has told her about Karen, and rips his character to shreds, accusing him of being a parasite who lives off the life energy of others. Joe is deeply hurt but still rushes to her apartment later only to discover in what I found a totally unbelievable ending that his dead brother Ross is actually behind it all and is using the Tates as puppets in effect. Then Karen appears, and she turns out to be a thing his brother has created also. It's not clear if any of them were ever real in any sense, or whether Ross animated them in reality.

So this book, although a good page turning read, turns out to be rather unsatisfactory. I really couldn't relate to the ending which overturns everything that has gone before in a few short pages: is it all in Joe's mind and is his final retreat to a quiet Greek island just a breakdown in effect, or was there substance in the events? And was the final scene in Vienna the truth, and if so, why did the perpetrator wait so long for his revenge?… (more)