Review: The Wooden Sea by Jonathan Carroll
About the Book
What would happen if, in the middle of your life, you were to meet your seventeen-year-old self? And what if he told you had lived all wrong, but, lucky for you, he was here to help you fix it? But what if you had only a week to fix it because it just so happens you also somehow just experienced the last day of your life and the clock is ticking.
What if? Frannie McCabe realises something’s seriously screwy in his life when the dead dog he buried keeps turning up again.
The Sciavos, a couple whose domestic war keeps the police department on their toes, disappear completely. And his teenage self arrives, full of attitude, to help Frannie sort out his mistakes – before it’s too late.
My Thoughts
I should point out that this is third book in a series (The Crane’s View Trilogy), a point I was not aware of until I had finished it. The fact that I was not aware of previous books says much about the books’ stand-alone qualities, from what I can tell it’s only the town of Crane’s View and it’s inhabitants that feature in the first two books rather than any series spanning story-arc.
As I was reading book, I came to like the characters, was pleasantly befuddled by some of the surreal aspects and was pretty much enjoying the book, but then the end came, and even having thought about since, I’m still not sure what the story was, Carroll was attempting to tell.
It never quite seemed to tie up it’s loose ends and come together as a coherent whole. Was this because I’ve not read the first two books? Maybe, but as I said at the start, the book has a self contained-plot and didn’t feel part of an arc.
So, to sum up, I think I preferred the parts to the whole with this one.
Any Carroll fans out there? Can you recommend one of his I might enjoy more?
[rating:3/5]
About the Author
Born January 26,1949, in New York, USA. Jonathan Carroll is the acclaimed author of The Wooden Sea, The Land of Laughs, and any other singularly unique novels. He now lives in Vienna, Austria.
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This sounds good! But I think I’ll start with the first book in the series :p You’ll just get points for all three! I haven’t read any Carroll yet, but Voice of our Shadow sounds absolutely amazing. I own that one after Nymeth’s review a while back.
Chris´s last blog ..The Sunday Salon – Where Chris Rejoins The World Already In Progress
Same happened to me, but I read half of Sleeping in Flame before finding out it was #2. So I read Glass Soup instead – and found out that apparently characters from other books make appearances there too… so now I plan to read by publication date!
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Don’t you just hate it when that happens?!
I have to admit I haven’t gone back to any of the Crane’s View trilogy. You’re absolutely right about the loose ends, it felt as though I was either being asked to make too much of a leap, or that the editing process had accidentally removed the key paragraph somewhere along the lines.
I remain though a diehard JC fan, and must recommend The Land of Laughs as pure awesome, Sleeping in Flame is my favourite and stands alone quite elegantly (will lend you a copy if you can’t find it anywhere! Drop me an email) and Bones of the Moon is lovely. If you can find a copy of the Panic Hand, you’ll find some of the most fantastically disturbing short stories available to mankind and also some of the most wonderful, in the most literal sense of the word.
I’ve read two or three of Jonathan Carroll’s books, and I’ve always felt they were less than the sum of their parts, as you say. There’s some lovely imagery, and sometimes pieces of the plot can be fascinating, but overall I find them unsatisfying.
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I can’t imagine you actually putting this on your blog, but I did want to nominate you for an award. Just my way of letting you know I think you are doing a great job, and hopefully of introducing more people to your blog.
http://nevernotreading.blogspot.com/2009/07/blushing-and-busy-weekend.html
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I have never read him before, but I have a book by him on my TBR pile that is apparently part of a series! (Thanks Joanne…)
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