HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll
Loading...

The Land of Laughs (original 1980; edition 2001)

by Jonathan Carroll (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,4324712,794 (3.86)102
Have you ever loved a magical book above all others? Have you ever wished the magic were real? Welcome to The Land of Laughs. A novel about how terrifying that would be. Schoolteacher Thomas Abbey, unsure son of a film star, doesn't know who he is or what he wants--in life, in love, or in his relationship with the strange and intense Saxony Gardner. What he knows is that in his whole life nothing has touched him so deeply as the novels of Marshall France, a reclusive author of fabulous children's tales who died at forty-four. Now Thomas and Saxony have come to France's hometown, the dreamy Midwestern town of Galen, Missouri, to write France's biography. Warned in advance that France's family may oppose them, they're surprised to find France's daughter warmly welcoming instead. But slowly they begin to see that something fantastic and horrible is happening. The magic of Marshall France has extended far beyond the printed page...leaving them with a terrifying task to undertake.… (more)
Member:librik
Title:The Land of Laughs
Authors:Jonathan Carroll (Author)
Info:TOR (2001), Edition: 1st, 256 pages
Collections:EBooks
Rating:
Tags:sf/fantasy

Work Information

The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll (1980)

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 102 mentions

English (46)  Spanish (1)  All languages (47)
Showing 1-5 of 46 (next | show all)
I stopped at 170 pages and I think that qualifies as read - boring, dumb, and dated.

Don't understand the reviews on this one.

( )
  rjdycus | Dec 19, 2022 |
I have never hated a book so much. No completist, I have abandoned books I was not enjoying. But this left me feeling betrayed. I felt it was flawed; about two-thirds of the way through it changed pace awkwardly, a rapid escalation of the fantastic in a rushed exposition. But I continued reading: I wanted to spend more time with the characters, whom I liked and cared for, and I wanted the conclusion. I had some ideas, and was willing to be surprised because I thought the author was on the same emotional arc he had induced in me. But he wasn’t. A rapid descent into paranoia and horror. I threw the book in the trash after turning the last page. I’ve never done that before. I found something pleasant to do to distract myself from the hurt and disappointment. Later, on reflection, I thought he might have been telling the story of the protagonist’s descent into madness. But that would have made the book merely banal. I think it was meant to be true fantasy. In which case, it is bad: disappointing and hurtful.

Which is a shame, because White Apples and The Wooden Sea were excellent. Or at least I remember having loved them, tho’ I think they also had dire elements of existential terror. Land of Laughs was his first novel, a novel about a first time writer and perhaps full of the fears of a first time writer perhaps laughing at his own fears.

People who like dark shocks will like it.

Disrecommended. ( )
  nillacat | Nov 11, 2022 |
Thomas Abbey decides to write a biography of his favourite author from his childhood and visits the town where the writer lived, where there are very odd goings-on going on.

I don't remember what led me to put this on my wishlist. The last third was a bit weird in a mildly interesting way, but even so there was nothing that really grabbed my attention. ( )
  Robertgreaves | Oct 5, 2021 |
Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work. - Flaubert
......
The plates hated the silver, who in turn hated the glasses. They sang cruel songs at each other. Ping. Clank. Tink. This kind of meanness three times a day. - Peach Shadows by Marshall France
......
"Reading a book, for me at least, is like traveling in someone else's world. If it's a good book, then you feel comfortable and yet anxious to see what's going to happen to you there, what'll be around the next corner. But if it's a lousy book, then it's like going through Secaucus, New Jersey--it smells and you wish you weren't there, but since you've started the trip, you roll up the windows and breathe through your mouth until you're done."
-Thomas Abbey, The Land of Laughs, Jonathan Carroll


This is a book by a book lover for book lovers. It is a story wrapped in the love of story, winding its way through broken promises real and imagined between fathers and mothers and grown children and lovers and husbands and wives, finally between the creator and creation. The story itself is mostly a hanger for these many explorations, but I didn't mind that. I loved Thomas' constant reminiscing of his parents, his broken, beautiful relationship with his father. I loved, loved, loved Saxony Gardner. (Honestly it hurt some that Thomas did not commit to her as I did, but this is his weakness and cowardice and inability to see what is in front of his face; it is an integral part of his character - I was very much reminded of Updike's hated Rabbit in places, but Thomas is much smarter and more self aware in his loathsome moments.) I loved that Carroll does not spare his characters their own ugliness.

Honestly, my only complaint is the abruptness of the ending. Why do you wait until the final pages to do the most interesting thing you will do in the entire book?!? Otherwise, I honestly loved the ending, and I would happily read a sequel that provides the rest of this book. (But then, that relationship in particular was the one I loved and always wanted more of, so your mileage may vary.)

I enjoyed this and will be continuing on to the rest of Carroll's works; trying to decide now between [b:Voice of Our Shadow|42147|Voice of Our Shadow|Jonathan Carroll|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386925378s/42147.jpg|968926] and [b:Bones of the Moon|42146|Bones of the Moon (Answered Prayers, #1)|Jonathan Carroll|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391047473s/42146.jpg|968918].

**Original review 9/8/15, edited 11/18/15 as I am going to add my favorite foreign cover to all of my Jonathan Carroll reviews from here on out.**
This time it's the Polish cover:

( )
  amyotheramy | May 11, 2021 |
When I start dreading reading a book, it's time to give up on it. Half way through and it was still wandering. And I don't like the main character. He's a jerk. ( )
  KittyCunningham | Apr 26, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 46 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (4 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Jonathan Carrollprimary authorall editionscalculated
Arrasmith,PatrickCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Aula, NikoCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ballerini, EdoardoNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Brehm, Hans-JörgIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Carroll, RyderCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hermstein, RudolfTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lopes, MichelleIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Marsh, JamesCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mattingly, David B.Cover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Paananen, JariCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Preis, ThomasTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.
-Flaubert
Dedication
For June, who is the best of all New Faces, and for Beverly —The Queen of All
First words
"Look, Thomas, I know you've probably been asked this question a million times before, but what was it really like to be Stephen Abbey's -"
Quotations
The Land of Laughs was lit by eyes that saw the lights that no one's seen.
Reading a book, for me at least, is like traveling in someone else’s world. If it’s a good book, then you feel comfortable and yet anxious to see what’s going to happen to you there, what’ll be around the next corner. But if it’s a lousy book, then it’s like going through Secaucus, New Jersey--it smells and you wish you weren’t there, but since you started the trip, you roll up the windows and breathe through your mouth until you’re done.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

Have you ever loved a magical book above all others? Have you ever wished the magic were real? Welcome to The Land of Laughs. A novel about how terrifying that would be. Schoolteacher Thomas Abbey, unsure son of a film star, doesn't know who he is or what he wants--in life, in love, or in his relationship with the strange and intense Saxony Gardner. What he knows is that in his whole life nothing has touched him so deeply as the novels of Marshall France, a reclusive author of fabulous children's tales who died at forty-four. Now Thomas and Saxony have come to France's hometown, the dreamy Midwestern town of Galen, Missouri, to write France's biography. Warned in advance that France's family may oppose them, they're surprised to find France's daughter warmly welcoming instead. But slowly they begin to see that something fantastic and horrible is happening. The magic of Marshall France has extended far beyond the printed page...leaving them with a terrifying task to undertake.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.86)
0.5 1
1 10
1.5 4
2 19
2.5 1
3 61
3.5 29
4 135
4.5 22
5 95

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,207,862 books! | Top bar: Always visible