Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Just finished reading White Apples by Jonathan Carroll. I don't know if when a book is released in paperback that's the literary equivelent of straight-to-video but if it is that's grossly unfair to the writer and probably is more of an reflection on the UK publishers putting this out nearly a year after it was available everywhere else.
To be filed under 'magical realism', divorced businessman Vincent Ettrich finds out one day that he died several weeks previously, but has been brought back to life. Reunited with his ex-girlfriend who is pregnant with their child he must be ready to teach it the lessons he learned while dead, lessons that, like the time he spent dead, he no longer remembers. And when you're faced by events and beings outside the realm of human experience, who do you trust?
This book zips along at a fair speed, never getting too wrapped up in events. Carroll has largely dropped the need to pepper each page with witty aphorisms and instead concentrates on the characters. It's less dark than most of his previous novels, not much that's going to chill you but some delightful moments, such as when he travels in time and sees his parents together on the night he was conceived. And the ending, traditionally a difficulty in past Carroll novels is handled well here, though it did seem to me as though he wasn't sure himself how to end it so enginered a device scant pages beforehand, but it doesn't stick out that badly. If you want something light to read between two heavy books give this a go, very enjoyable.
To be filed under 'magical realism', divorced businessman Vincent Ettrich finds out one day that he died several weeks previously, but has been brought back to life. Reunited with his ex-girlfriend who is pregnant with their child he must be ready to teach it the lessons he learned while dead, lessons that, like the time he spent dead, he no longer remembers. And when you're faced by events and beings outside the realm of human experience, who do you trust?
This book zips along at a fair speed, never getting too wrapped up in events. Carroll has largely dropped the need to pepper each page with witty aphorisms and instead concentrates on the characters. It's less dark than most of his previous novels, not much that's going to chill you but some delightful moments, such as when he travels in time and sees his parents together on the night he was conceived. And the ending, traditionally a difficulty in past Carroll novels is handled well here, though it did seem to me as though he wasn't sure himself how to end it so enginered a device scant pages beforehand, but it doesn't stick out that badly. If you want something light to read between two heavy books give this a go, very enjoyable.
