White Apples

Carroll's books always start very pedestrian -- man walking down the street tries to pick up a woman in a lingerie shop. By the end of the first chapter things start to get truly strange (did Coco just eat the cigarette lighter in her car?). Giant rats wearing lipstick and an angel (of sorts) demonstrating the nature of god using legos. Chaos hangs out in a cheap barbershop and destroys people by shifting their memories just enough to make the world seem useless and grim. A pampered, cowardly woman journeys into death to bring back her lover, the father of her unborn child.You either love Carroll's work or hate it. There doesn't seem to be a midway point. It can be funny, but is not humor; it is fantastic, but not really fantasy as such. To me, this book is a strange and smart contemplation on love and death and what it means to be human.

I just finished this book this morning. I only had 6 pages to go. Can you imagine putting a book down with just 6 pages left? Neither could I-- until I read White Apples. It just didn't really matter to me what happened at the end.I like quirky books, especially authors like Tom Robbins and Vonnegut, so I thought this would be a good choice. With those authors, you get great story telling combined with imaginative ideas. Their writing is effortlessly funny and you have something to think about when you finish one of their novels.With White Apples, you get sloppy story telling with ideas that seem to be weird just for the sake of being weird. At one point there is a giant lipstick-wearing rat. He comes out of nowhere and is gone, never to be heard from again. I suppose it was an attempt at humor; but if you're not sure if something is suppose to be funny, then it isn't.If that wasn't bad enough, the poor ideas are executed in a sloppy manner. I really don't like to have to go back and reread sentences just to figure out where the comma should go in order to understand what is being said, or what is going on. It seems that the author confuses breaking the rules for creativity.It's possible that there is a good book in there somewhere, Carroll just doesn't have the talent,or maybe he was just too lazy to do the extensive rewrites that were required to make this book worth reading.If you like unusual writing, do yourself a favor and read any of Robbin's books--especially Jitterbug Perfume.

I think most people either love Jonathan Carroll or hate him, not much in between. I loved White Apples. Unless you're used to Jonathan Carroll's style, you might, indeed, find this book terrible as some have said. If you are a fan, this is great. It actually is less confusing, less disjointed than other books of Carroll's. You just need to learn to go with the flow. Don't resist or protest because things are too weird and confusing. Just let it happen and in the end you'll be given understanding. When I read one of Jonathan Carroll's books that are "more normal", I keep waiting for things to get weird. I'm almost disappointed when they don't. If you want "normal" try Kissing The Beehive. It is an excellent read and you won't believe it's the same author. It reveals the incredible flexibility of a genius mind.

Carroll creatively appropriates the Orpheus/Eurydice myth with a twist in this new novel -- a woman returns to the land of the dead to retrieve her husband and the father of her child. Carroll's descriptions of living death -- of the experience of death itself -- is as haunting as the story itself is touchingly humane. It's ultimately a love story, a love story that makes a very real, human, even flawed love shared by real, human, flawed characters a love that's stronger than death or the impulse to control. In this novel, like others, Carroll stretches our conceptions of reality so that we can properly see the mundane.

The imgages that this book creates is magical...I was dissapointed with the ending though; there was so much happening in such a short space.

I am biased. Jonathan Caroll is one of my favorite writers. It doesn't matter if I'm reading one of his best or least novels. His exploration of the metaphysical within a physical world that is easily recognizable consistently captivates me. In the interface we inhabit, between fundamental spiritual visions suited to a global village, Carroll's bit of adult magic is welcome. I've read all his novels, even Child Across The Sky, which I had to order from England. I cannot find a reasonably priced used copy of his short story collection Painted Hand, or his novella, Black Cocktail, or an odd piece called The Heidelberg Cylinder. Nonetheless, I toast what I can get my hands on.

The most unique love story I have ever had the pleasure to read. Mr. Carroll's writing is beautiful. The imagery he created left me breathless. Magic!

One of my favorite J Carroll novels if not favorite.Glass Soup is a must after you finish this one.

Books like "Bones of the Moon" and "A Child Across The Sky" had seductive prose, exciting momentum and moral unease. But Carroll's last few books have been increasingly indulgent. This one is a tumble of half-baked ideas that are abandoned as soon as they are introduced, having achieved nothing but the filling of pages.Example: one incomprehensible character is terrified to learn that he must go visit the King of the Park. Then this turns out to be a bunch of barbers. Only, no, in fact what they do is remake HIM as the King, which means a remould on his face and a bunch of never-specified powers. We never see him use any of these powers, and by the end of the book he's back to normal. So why did Carroll feel it worthwhile to shove 20 pages of useless drivel in the middle of the book?Each novel seems to turn God into a different diagram, and the gimmick has become threadbare. There is no emotional or thematic punch to this book, and what it really needed was an editor capable of saying No! I've given up on him.

surprising

まず冒頭のシークエンスが、絶妙。Carroll作品の多くはかなり洒落た恋愛小説風に始まるが、本作品はそのディテールとモダンなセンスで秀逸。生と死、というよりもCarrollのテーマは天使・神サイドと悪魔サイドの闘いとでもいうものに変化して、より軽やかにダイナミックになった。ちょっとヴァイオレンス描写がグロテスクな感じがあって（Clive Barkerっぽい）、より映画的な印象が出てきたけど個人的にはちょっと好きではない。この後の展開に期待。