The Wooden Sea

I'm not much into sci-fi, time travel, or any of that genre, but I had this book as part of a bookray from Bookcrossing, so felt obliged to read it and pass it along.

Wow. What a read. Frannie (I suppose Francis) McCabe is the police chief of a small town in the Hudson Valley, and strange things start happening as soon as he takes in a three-legged brindled pit-bull mix who proceeds to die in his office. A dog that won't stay buried. A feather no bird has ever grown. An old bone. And then Fran's an old man in Austria, and then he meets his young, bad-ass 17 year old rebellious self. And - and - and.

Underneath it all is a love of small-town life, the particulars of people in a community, the private workings of a marriage, the secrets of the universe, and a common-sense, self-aware narrator who is never so surprised that he can't include the reader in the scene.

Funny, profane, grave, joyful. How satisfying it all is. ( )

I slipped it under his collar. Like an Egyptian king going to the hereafter surrounded by his worldly possessions, Old Vertue now had a beautiful feather to carry along. It was getting late and I had other things to do. Quickly filling the grave, I tamped it down as best I could, hoping another animal wouldn't catch the scent and dig it up.

Frannie McCabe is chief of police in Crane's View, a small town in New York state. He is generally happy with his lot, having outgrown his wild rebellious teenage years to become a respected member of the community, and is happily married with a teenage stepdaughter.

But then a couple well known for their domestic disturbances disappear in the middle of a screaming row, a stray dog that died in his office won't stay buried, a dead girl talks to him and a mysterious multi-coloured feather keeps appearing in the strangest places. And his seventeen-year-old self pays him a visit to tell him that there is a puzzle that he has to solve.

Confusing : ) ( )

Frannie McCabe is the police chief of a small town in New York state. His weird adventures begin after he takes in a pitiful homeless dog, which soon dies. Frannie ends up travelling in time and tring to figure out why a lot of weird things are happening to him in his normal, down-to-earth home town. A mysterious messenger tells him that he's got a week to figure out what's going on.

I found this book to be quite a bit of fun. Carroll seems to be winking at us, not taking the whole thing too too seriously. I like Frannie as a character, and the insights that he has seem to fit with who he is. Carroll's tone is light and his style very compatible with the story and its inhabitants. I'll look for more by him. ( )

I dig the Carroll weirdness. My 2nd Carroll book. Won't be my last. ( )

I have read better ones in the past by Jonathan Carroll. Maybe life has moved me off in a different direction. The plot never came together, the character never sunk completely in, and the action never captivated me. In the past I always liked the little life observations of the characters and side stories. The ones in this novel never really drew me in. I won't give up on Jonathan Carroll yet, since his early novels wooed me so well. ( )