Books by author: Jonathan Carroll

I hadn't heard of Jonathan Carroll before this week, but after reading about him on Glen Engel-Cox's Blog and then doing some searching online, it was clear to me that Carroll is an author I would like. I ran out to the nearest bookstore and picked up Bones of the Moon. I'm glad that I did so. Carroll is an extremely engaging writer. His prose style is deceptively spare, and I very much enjoy the way he progressively blurs the lines between reality and fantasy. I'm now in the enviable position of having a half-dozen novels to read by a writer I know I'll enjoy.

This is another very good novel by Jonathan Carroll, who is becoming a favorite author of mine. It's more of the usual magical fantasy blended with compelling characters. Good stuff.

Sam Bayer is a bestselling author of thrillers. Frustrated with writer's block, he returns to his childhood home of Crane's View, New York, to write the story of a decades-old unsolved murder from his childhood.

It starts out like any other Jonathan Carroll novel, with artfully drawn, deeply involving characters. Any reader accustomed to Carroll's writing would expect that after fifty or so pages, some strange — possibly supernatural — events would occur, but in this case the magic realist twist never arrives. Kissing the Beehive turns out to be a straight murder-mystery-slash-character-study, focused on Sam Bayer and his outlandish lover, improbably named Veronica Lake. The whole affair holds together terrifically, twisting until the final page.

It's one of Carroll's better novels, which is saying a lot.

The Land of Laughs is one of the best Jonathan Carroll books I've read so far. Only Sleeping In Flame and The Marriage of Sticks come really close. Here, the love story isn't painted as beautifully, but the fantasy backstory more than makes up for it. The ending is a one-two punch of plot twists that I found to be very satisfying. Highly recommended.

I'm rapidly becoming a fan of Carroll's writing. The Marriage of Sticks begins like the two other novels of his that I've read, with a beautifully evoked love story involving engaging characters. After 100 pages or so, strange elements enter, and the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred. This novel in particular is very similar in structure to Sleeping in Flame; the two stories share several important plot elements, and though I liked the twist end of The Marriage of Sticks somewhat better, I think that the mythology of Sleeping in Flame hangs together more coherently. Now I have to decide whether to dive into another Carroll novel or to save them for later.

This is another solid entry in Carroll's canon. Following his usual formula, he begins with a seemingly ordinary love story (this time a triangle) that becomes complicated by a few supernatural elements. The "magic" forms a colorful tapestry against which Carroll plays out the transformation of the protagonist.

It's great that Orb is bringing some of Carroll's earlier novels back into print. Collect them all!

I am greatly enjoying Carroll's work. Sleeping in Flame is even better than Bones of the Moon. In this outing, Carroll goes sixty pages before weaving in any fantastic elements, giving the reader time to soak up the setting and characters. I think that the ending is a bit short and sudden (I won't ruin it by saying more), but I enjoyed the novel from start to finish. Recommended.

White Apples is another strong outing from Jonathan Carroll. Although I prefer his novels when they explore the relationships between the characters more deeply, this novel flows well from beginning to end (it is better constructed than The Wooden Sea). Although the ending feels tacked-on to some degree, it is satisfying enough.

At this point, now that I've read all of Carroll's books that are in print in the United States, I don't think I'll go out of my way to get copies of his other books. The six that I've read so far have given me a pretty firm picture of his writing, and although I'm sure that I'd enjoy reading his other books, I don't think they would offer me anything new.

The Wooden Sea is quite a departure from Carroll's other work. The fantastic elements begin right at the start of the book, and like in his other novels, Carroll builds the suspense about what's really going on. Unlike his other books, however, he never ties things together with any conviction. Sure, things are "explained away", but not convincingly, and there seems to be little purpose behind the story. The writing is good at the micro level, but the overall structure is lousy. Disappointing.