Lot of wild, zany colorful action. However, the characters (including the narrator) are flat and act with no emotional consistency. Despite the many "profound" realizations, insights, magical occurences, etc., none of the characters really change or develop.

Harry, a famous architect recently recovered from a bout of insanity, has been asked by the Sultan of Saru to build a Dog Museum. The rest of the book is centered around Harry's responses to this request-- refusing, agreeing, making plans, changing plans, understanding and failing to understand. There's lots of Carroll's famous magic realism sprinkled along the way, and at least a little bit of emotional exploration carried out via Harry's relationships with his two very different mistresses.

Unfortunately, this book is cursed with too much glibness-- the achilles heel that sometimes makes Carroll feel dangerously like a more esoteric Tom Robbins. Still, a clever, well-written, and generally entertaining book.

There are books I read again and again. Some of them are old friends who give me a place to come home to, some of them disturb me in ways I need to be disturbed.

Outside the Dog Museum always encourages me in ways I most want to be encouraged. I love this book. More than any other.

I can't tell you much, because I read this book a long time ago, but I do remember that I loved it. I only give it four stars, however, because (and maybe it's just me...I'm not the brightest person in the world) I had no idea what happened at the end. He totally lost me. If someone can enlighten me, would you please e-mail me. I would appreciate it. Aside from that, I feel Carroll is one of the best four or five authors working today. All of his books are amazing. He writes with such grace and force, that I am often amazed. Read him!

It's not Carroll's best book, but saying that is like saying the 9th wasn't Beethoven's best symphony. A wonderful book with such effective characterization (Carroll's forte) that the characters haunt you long after you finish. Perhaps my best recommendation is that I read the whole thing in one day. I began at 10pm one night, and finished at 4:30 the next morning. I tried to stop reading about 3am, and got as far as turning the light off, but in the end I got back up and read the rest of it

After Silence is one of Carroll's most addictive novels. I got sucked into the story and had a hard time putting it down. Like all of his novels, the sudden ending may put some readers off but I felt it summed up the novel perfectly. Definately a good place to start for those new to Carroll.

I've previously read a number of Carroll's books and enjoyed them all. Perhaps I've finally read too many. The story felt throw away. Carroll knows he's a good writer. You can feel it in the way he writes. You can see it in the smug mugshot of him on the back cover. The book feels more like a vehicle to express his smug opinions on everything from drinking espresso to disliking exercise. The main character loves himself, or perhaps I should say "selves."

The story's formula: At regular intervals throw in random events of a divine/supernatural nature. Fill the time between these interesting bits with fairly dull, smug internal dialog of his personal likes, dislikes and thoughts on growing older. Wrap it up with divine intervention mixed with self-sacrifice but leave in a loophole to prevent the reader from walking away hurt. This divine intervention thing also gets him off the hook from explaining away incidents/things that would normally be considered big loose-ends. "Huh-ho! I don't have to explain the feather or the bone. It's 'supernatural!'"

slight spoiler: I also have to wonder about the internal inconsistencies. Astopel sends younger versions of himself into his present as separate individuals that he bumps into and interacts with and yet when he's flung into the future, he ages. Why didn't he run into his older self? Instead he finds himself trapped in an old man's body. And yet, when he goes back in time, he doesn't enter his younger teenage body. Oh right, it was a divine act that can't be explained.

I also felt the character of Floon was woefully underdeveloped. Why? Because the main character is completely self-absorbed with himself!

The ending didn't give a sufficient feeling of wonder to overlook the sloppiness of the wrap up. He has definitely written better books.

I bought this book after hearing a reference to it on an NPR show about "Summer Reading" lists. The person recommending it read a passage from early on -- I think it was a description of the dog Old Vertue -- which struck a chord with me. I thought anything that starts out this odd must get odder and be quite fun in the process. I was right.

But I didn't expect to be as sucked in as I was to the story and its various turns and bizarre events. I could not put this book down.. and as soon as I finished reading it I started it again. After the first read I was left with questions -- I think I took some of the more fantastic elements of the plot a bit literally -- the answers to which become more apparent on the second read -- which I approached in terms of looking at the life of Frannie McCabe, much as the first reviewer suggested. But dont see this as a reason NOT to dive into The Wooden Sea. It was well worth the journey!

The writing style is a joy: very conversational with a pearl that made me smile every few pages and at least one stunner per chapter. Carroll made me care about these people and I plan to buy his others books as soon as I finish writing this review!

And I liked the idea that seemingly odd things would occur that I did not expect -- life throws us wingers every day, okay maybe not as strange as those in the book, but I appreciate the wonder he presents the reader. Its a small book that tells a fun story and packs a lot in besides that if you care to investigate. The notion of our various "selves" at different ages being present to help us out of jams and to consult with about life's problems is a provacative one. Carroll is an author to keep an eye on, no doubt. Read this, again and again.

The Wooden Sea, by Jonathan Carroll (Tor). Carroll's latest book, The Wooden Sea, is a truncated Remembrance Of Things Past meets Dr. Who. Frannie McCabe is a middle-aged, small-town cop in Crane's View, New York, an ordinary guy with an ordinary life who dries his face on pink towels. But Frannie is having an odd week. A three legged, one-eyed pit bull dies in his office; he buries it, then later finds the canine corpse in the trunk of his car. Read more in The Spook where we review The Wooden Sea and interview Jonathan ... .

Carroll is one of my favorite authors and he doesn't dissapoint with "Kissing The Beehive." However, this novel is much more a straight mystery story than Carroll's other efforts that always seem to have several fantastical elements to them. I gave the book only four stars because it was missing that bizarre twist that seems to surface halfway through other Carroll novels (e.g., the dog talking in Land of Laughs). Regardless, I do recommend this book. As with all of Carroll's work, it keeps you totally engrossed in the story till the very end.

I believe that this is one of Jonathan Carroll's best works to date. (Yes, I've read them all.) While I adored "Bones of the Moon", "Kissing the Beehive" is only the second of his works that I've finished completely satisfied. I can live without the usual magical plot devices if I get the plot and character quality of this book in its place.

Kissing the Beehive Carroll's latest foray into sinister stealth

By Bram Eisenthal

It was 1985 when I first discovered one of the horror field's greatest latter-day writers. I asked a clerk at Ottawa's House of Speculative Fiction if he could recommend someone really unusual - I had my fill of early Stephen King at the time - and he immediately whipped out a book and thrust it at me. "Land of Laughs," he said. "It's unbelievable... really different."

I had never even heard of Jonathan Carroll before and I generally knew my horror authors, so I was perturbed. How good could he be? Published in 1980 and the New York-born resident of Vienna's first novel, The Land of Laughs lived up to the clerk's billing. Highly imaginative and very frightening, it showcased the talents of a writer who excels at setting a macabre stage by allowing the horror to creep up on you v-e-r-r-r-y slowly. His tales are happy, funny and whimsical to start with, but chapter by chapter, Carroll adds sinister elements. Before you realize it, you're staring death squarely in the face. His second, Voice of Our Shadow, is even more shocking for its sinister stealth.

Kissing the Beehive is Carroll's tenth novel; one of the more recent ones, The Panic Hand, is a Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology that I highly recommend. As with the others, Beehive begins innocently enough, with a few stragglers rather than the swarm yet to come. Author Sam Bayer is in a slump, meeting with his agent in an attempt to untangle the cobwebs responsible for his terrible writer's block. His pending divorce is really creating havoc. Later, at a book signing, he meets an incredibly gorgeous fan, a California blonde named Veronica Lake. She really knows her Bayer, down to her business card, which contains an image from his novel The Tatooed City.

Bayer jogs his sluggish memory in an attempt to birth ideas. He drives to his hometown of Crane's View, visits old haunts, looks through high-school yearbooks and greets former acquaintances. The trip is the perfect panacea for his blues, as Bayer delves into an unsolved boyhood murder mystery, that of a free-spirited young woman named Pauline Ostrova. Her nude body, which had spawned so many adolescent fantasies, had been found by the young Bayer. Over the years, he had shunted the awful memory aside, but now he seizes the opportunity to gather important facts and unburden his soul.

During the excitement, unable to get her out of his thoughts, Bayer contacts Veronica Lake, they meet again and make love. He tells her about the burgeoning plot for his new novel and she is thrilled about her confidante status. Remember, she is his number one fan, like the character in Stephen King's Misery... only much more dangerous.

Bayer heads back to Crane's View, his teenaged daughter Cassandra in tow. He meets up with Frannie McCabe, childhood bad-boy turned chief of police, and brings up the Ostrova mystery. The police chief has his own take on the dossier and suspects that the town's crime boss, Gordon Cadmus, since murdered, had something to do with her demise. She had been seeing his son David, now a Hollywood film producer... and the old man as well.

In typical Carroll fashion, the story begins its slow spiral into madness just as Bayer and McCabe initiate their joint sleuthing. Also, something is terribly wrong with Veronica Lake. Bayer uncovers unsettling facts about her, most notably the fact she was two-time porn movie headliner Marzi Pan and a member of an infamous suicide cult. He decides not to see her any more, which first saddens and then infuriates her. Meanwhile, someone with knowledge of their unofficial Ostrova investigation is following Bayer and McCabe around, as well as videotaping unspeakable things, like the murder of David Cadmus on an L.A. street.

Lake, whom Bayer is trying to ignore, is in-his-face throughout. She slyly interacts with all his witnesses, subtly threatens his daughter and her boyfriend and, after McCabe barely survives an attempt on his life, befriends the cop. We also learn that she is a deft film technician and has been taping lots of footage, including shots of Bayer taken in a suit he had discarded years before and explicit images of them having sex.

The horror escalates when Cassandra goes missing, every father's nightmare but nothing compared to Bayer's ultimate scenario. His novel has taken the most sinister twist possible.

Jonathan Carroll is still unknown to many fans of mainstream horror literature, rather surprising in light of the stellar quality of every single one of his works. The author humbly pays homage to "Pat Conroy, Stephen King, Michael Moorcock, Paul West - Friends, Mentors, Wizards" - in the dedication, but I dare say that he has earned the right to appear right up there with them on that marquee.

In Doubleday's press release on Kissing the Beehive, King is equally complimentary, one master of the macabre to another. "A stunning novel of obsession and memory by the always amazing Jonathan Carroll. A brilliant writer - Jonathan Carroll is as scary as Hitchcock, when he isn't being as funny as Jim Carrey."

-30-

Kissing the Beehive Nan A. Talese, an imprint of Doubleday HC, 232 pgs., $31.95

I hate to harp on it, but Jonathan Carroll has problems ending stories. I would like to say I don't care because even a partial story by Carroll is enough, but the truth is that I'm always left with a craving that you get when you read a story and you're wrapped up into it and you require completion. Supposedly American audiences require a "happy" completion, but I hope I'm beyond that. "Uh-oh City" has all the things that are quintessential Carroll: characters who are intrinsically interesting, a doozy of a "weirdness," and the, unfortunately, open ending. The premise is that there are 36 people who are God, but not individually, but collectively. One-thirty-sixth of God is still pretty much amazing, though, and when God(sub36) tells you that they are dying and you are next in line to become part of the 36thhood, what can you say? Complications ensue, as they usually do, and things are never as they seem in a Carroll story, but after the final twisty turn we reach the last sentence and we are still on the precipice of understanding, and need a final push to put us over...and it never comes.

The other stories here are more of the same wild, wonderful fare. The Panic Hand was originally published in Germany with a slightly different table of contents. I own a copy of that book, but being unable to read German was slightly hampered in trying to understand the stories. Carroll's better at the long form--his favorite literary device is the untrustworthy narrator, and it takes at least 50 pages to set up a story with one of those that won't annoy the reader. Even still, his tendency for the twist and his incredible way of creating characters that you would like to know in a few sentences is enjoyable even in the short form.

(This "review" originally appeared in First Impressions Installment Twenty-One [http://www.owt.com/users/gcox/fi.contents.html]. For more information about Jonathan Carroll, see http://www.owt.com/users/gcox/carroll.html)

I enjoy Jonathan Carroll's novels more than his short stories but this is a good collection. If you haven't read him before this will get you interested in pursuing his other works. The title story is particularly haunting. In his books he writes of death and angels and meeting the devil at a coffee shop in Vienna. His works often start out about ordinary people who slowly find themselves in creepy situations, I usually start getting chills up my spine after 50 pages or so when I realize somthing is going wrong for this poor person. Another interesting thing he does is bring back characters from earlier novels. Panic Hand is highly recommended.

I found "The Panic Hand" to be one of the most original collection of stories I've read in some time. Jonathan Carroll's imagination both stuns and fascinates. At times, I dreaded knowing how a story would end, but I could never put the book down without finishing that story. My senses were chilled and delighted. Mr. Carroll is similar to Stephen King and Rupert Thomson in his use of imagery and horror. I eagerly await more of Mr. Carroll's work

I was enjoying this freaky little tale up until the last twenty pages, when it just flew apart like confetti.

The story is about Ingram, who is being manipulated by two former school-chums turned enemies, Michael and Clinton. These two both enter Ingram's life at about the same time--a vulnerable time for Ingram who has just lost his lover to a terrible accident--and they both introduce Ingram to a shocking world of strange fantasy. But what is strange, and what is strange-but-true!--is Clinton really stuck at the age of fifteen because of one mistake he made at that age, which he wouldn't have made if he weren't looking out for Michael? Is Michael the one vandalizing Ingram's home in vile ways, and is his mind-boggling tale about Clinton really true?

All fair and compelling conundrums up til the very end, and then in the last twenty pages the book goes berserk. As far as I'm concerned, the author tries to jam an incredibly complex bit of supernatural explanation into far too few pages. The book turns itself upside-down, and goes from zero to two-hundred in a microsecond. I for one did not find it brilliant, so much as too much. Does the bulk of the book prepare the reader for the end? You can decide for yourself. I felt like I fell off a cliff. To put it in more concrete terms: I knew I was being pulled into a story that was slowly becoming more and more bizarre--there festers this seething sense that, yes, the explanations are going to be weird and deliciously otherworldly--but suddenly I felt whapped in the face with a magic sledgehammer. Motoring along nicely, motoring along nicely, powerful narrative that has a sinister aura percolating, motoring along nicely, and--BAM!--digestallthisfreakyweirdstuffreallyreallyfastbecuzzzzzzzzzzzznowit'sover!!

This burst the book for me. Wonderful throughout, amazingly ruined with an ending that just stomps in and tries to be impressive and weirdly philosophical, and I'm still waiting for the big purple literary bruise on my brain to heal.

I'm on a quest now to acquire all of Carroll's books since they tend to go out of print quickly, at least in the United States (he lives in Vienna and his books are big sellers in Europe). I just got a copy of Black Cocktail which I had never read and was again blown away by his imagination and story-telling ability. He gets this idea from Plato -- that all humans originally were joined to another being and spend the rest of their lives looking for their other half (also Plato's explanation for sexual preference as those that started as two men obviously look for the male half). Only Carroll makes it the perfect 5 (i.e. everyone used to be 5 people connected) and has his usual interesting and quirky characters trying to reunite. This is only a 75 page novella, but it has all the classic Carroll elements. Read it!

Sleek and absorbing, this is a book that draws you in with the embrace of a close relative.
The plot dissects the occurences in the life of Ingram York, an L.A. disc-jockey with a difference. As always, the major character here is a minor character elsewhere in Carroll's work, forming piece of what would almost seem to be an intricate collage of people and their interactions.
Moreover, this is a book that probes the age old question "Who am I?", and actually dares to suggest an answer.

A chain of events in York's life leaves him reeling in contemplation, and a chance introduction to a shadowy character named Michael Billa soon has him questioning things he once considered sacred and took for granted.

Written with equal parts fantasy and dark comedy, this tale slowly slices through your heart until you find yourself shivering in the corner of the room.

Here is one cocktail that will defintely leave you feeling intoxicated... Ronan Glynn (glynnr98@yahoo.com), New Jersey.

I agree with the previous review, that this isn't the best book with which to acquaint yourself with Carroll. THE LAND OF LAUGHS might be the best place to start - or try his last book, THE WOODEN SEA. Truth be told, A CHILD ACROSS THE SKY falls far short of his other works. Its highlights are two short stories, both of which can be found in his terrific collection, THE PANIC HAND. The plotting of CHILD feels rushed and forced, and its themes slightly convoluted. Carroll's distinctive voice is very much present - and as always a pleasure to listen to. This just didn't hit the mark like so many of his others.

Okay, maybe I'm being picky because I'm on this Jonathan Carroll streak right now and just finished four of his other books before this one. Like his great books, this one has brilliant scenes, concepts and wild plot devices, but I found that it didn't hold together as well as his others. At times, it seems like even Carroll might have lost one of his own threads. This book made me appreciate how great his new one, Marriage of Sticks, is. If you haven't read anything by Carroll before, I'd stick to his others first. If you're a Carroll freak like I am, you'll want to search this one out. Rondua appears in this one too and you may recognize Finky-Linky and some of the usual suspects.

Jonathan Carroll is the most consistent writer working today. With each novel he writes, he breaks new ground and always manages to create something compelling and gorgeous. All his books are massively beautiful works of art, each telling a story that screams to be heard. If you enjoy literature that doesn't restrict itself to solely entertainment--though is certainly not lacking in, but that also dares to challenge the mind--then do yourself a favor and read Jonathan Carroll.

Jonathan Carroll is part of a group that is now being called the "New Fabulists". This group consists of writers who are writing fiction of the imagination; not fantasy, not sci-fi, not horror. Just imagination. Caroll has been a leader of this group, with novel after novel that are both touching, profound and, yes, very imaginative.

Unfortunately, every great author meets a speed bump at one point in his carreer. White Apple isn't a bad book; it is full of philosophical ideas and lessons in morality that are all very interesting to read. But in the end, the book falls a little bit short, never achieving the levels of greatness that his other novels have in the past.

Vincent Ettrich has died. But somehow, he is brought back to life. Why? For the sole purpose of love. In his new life, he must come face to face with a lover, Coco, and with the love of his life, Isabella, who is now also pregnant with his child. Unfortunately, some people aren't happy to see Ettrich alive. One of them, Chaos, will do anything to ruin his chance at happiness. Another one is one of Vincent's old co-worker who also died and who is now set on putting a stop to the happy reunions. They will follow Vincent through purgatory and through the maze of memory to try and stop him.

There are long sections about the power of love and its meaning, long sections about the power of life and its meaning. And yet, in the end, you never really end up learning anything except that Carroll has a great vivid imagination.

One thing Carroll knows how to do is to write great vivid characters. And he knows how to decribe scenery with beautiful prose. But overall, there was something lacking in this book, the very punch that made his other novels so memorable. A good effort, just not a great one.

I'm a total Carroll junkie and have read all of his books. This one struck me as quite different -- less dependence on the usual devices of elevators that take you to different places and more emphasis on dealing with the big questions, life and death. Carroll combines several mystic/religious traditions in defining his own cosmology of Chaos versus the Mosaic of life, all while creating his usual memorable characters and compelling love stories. In some ways this book was more satisfying, or perhaps more optimistic -- love conquers for a change. The idea of the unborn son having the power to save the world is a nice tie in -- in short, Carroll journeys farther from the "normal" path (not that anything is ever normal in a Carroll book!) and takes us on a memorable ride. Carroll remains one of the most innovative writers of our time -- don't miss his other books either!

Vincent Ettrich was once dead. Now that he's returned to life, he has discovered that he's soon to be a father to a child the world will desperately need. Isabelle, the mother, is the one that brought him back. Pursued by destructive forces, and helped along by benificent guardians (including the unborn fetus itself), the two attempt to protect their unborn child and themselves from death, chaos, and a sinister henchman known only as "King of the Park". Somehow this all makes much more sense in the book.

Jonathan Carroll is one hell of a good writer and I look forward to reading some of his other work. Not one to be cubby-holed into a genre, this book spans fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and a beautifully portrayed look at metaphysics without so much as batting an eyelash. The dialog is written wonderfully. The scenes between Vincent and his women really sparkle. I tore through this book in a day - which I haven't done for any book in quite some time. While the book is not without a couple of loose ends, the ambience more than makes up for it and makes this one you should place high on your reading list.

I bought this book because I thought it was written by the author of Land of Laughs, White Apples, Voice of Our Shadow, etc. When I searched for Jonathan Carroll by name this book came up with the books I already knew and this children's book in addition to those. There was absolutely no indication on this site that this is an entirely different author. In fact, it looked as if there had been an attempt to make it appear as if it was the same author. I am very aggravated at having spent money on this book.

Julius Carmichael is an eleven-year-old boy who attends a private Quaker school and is about to start the fifth grade. As a new school year approaches, Julius is excited to be going back to school because he has his first male teacher. Upon arriving he also finds that there is another black student in his class, which is a shock because he is often the only black person in his class. Things get off to a rocky start as Julius makes assumptions and judgements about his classmate and discovers that even he was misjudged by others.

Through this book children will learn that it is wrong to have preconceived notions about a person and to judge them without first getting to know them. Another positive aspect about the book is that it contains worksheets that correlate to each chapter. These worksheets are an excellent way to generate conversation regarding the issues in the book and a way for parents or teachers to evaluate reading comprehension.

This is a wonderful debut novel from a very promising author. I highly recommend this book for preteens as a way of teaching them not to be judgmental of others. I hope this is the first in a series of books to star the very likable and engaging character Julius Carmichael.<...