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by Jonathan Carroll

ISBN: 071263441X
Author: Jonathan Carroll
Language: English
Publisher: Time Warner Books UK (September 21, 1989)
Pages: 268
Category: Genre Fiction
Subcategory: Literature
Rating: 4.9
Votes: 609
Size Fb2: 1859 kb
Size ePub: 1669 kb
Size Djvu: 1449 kb
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Jonathan Carroll Genre Fiction English

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For Beverly – My life across the sky. "They are coming to teach us good manners. But they won't succeed because we are gods.

A Child across the Sky. All of the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. For Beverly – My life across the sky. Giuseppe Lampedusa, The Leopard. one. The people one loves. should take all their things.

I love Jonathan Carroll and his books. and I look forward to my next trip to his world. So many threads are woven into the tapestry of "A Child Across the Sky" that midway through, the color, life and texture of the story hold you captive; you fly through the chapters needing to know more. 4 people found this helpful. But more is never what Carroll provides - he drops those threads and you're left hanging. As someone who typically enjoys ambiguity in literature, I embrace most tales that do this successfully; but Carroll so consistently withholds from the reader any sense of resolution or answers that it feels almost punitive at times.

Jonathan Carroll A Child across the Sky All of the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. For Beverly – My life across the sky "They are coming to teach us good manners.

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A Child Across The Sky book.

Jonathan Carroll (b. 1949) is an award-winning American author of modern fantasy and slipstream novels. His debut book, The Land of Laughs (1980), tells the story of a children’s author whose imagination has left the printed page and begun to influence reality. The book introduced several hallmarks of Carroll’s writing, including talking animals and worlds that straddle the thin line between reality and the surreal, a technique that has seen him compared to South American magical realists

A Child across the Sky. Annotation. Author: Jonathan Carroll. Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, In. New York, 1990. Publishers Weekly: Just as the the word weird has many implications and shades of meaning, so too does the latest–weird–work by this gifted and perplexing writer. As Carroll ( Bones of the Moon ; Sleeping in Flame ) himself says, Life has a habit of turning dark corners

A Child Across the Sky - Jonathan Carroll

A Child Across the Sky - Jonathan Carroll. Introduction to A Child Across the Sky. When I was a teacher, I always made sure to have students read Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and Goethe’s Faust back to back. It was a selfish thing to do but I couldn’t resist.

Comments:

Arcanescar

Very interesting story referencing Dr Faustus and looking at the nature of good and evil. Interesting sub plots including the notion of our selves at different ages existing simultaneously over time. Very interesting and thought provoking.

The only negative I care to mention is that at times the transition between scenes is abrupt and challenging. Perhaps this isn’t a negative but simply made reading the book a little bit choppy.

Gosar

For some reason I wasn't able to sink fully into the world of Jonathan Carroll like I usually can...but here were a few lovely quotes:

"Whatever, it took an hour of hard walking in the blue lead cold of a New York December for me to really hold in the palm of my mind the fact my best and oldest friend was dead."

And speaking of being dead...

"There is a life review, of course, but it was so much more interesting than I had ever imagined. For one thing, they show you how and where your life really happened. Things you didn't experience or weren't ever aware of, but which dyed the fabric of your life its final color."

And as always, his take on life speaks right to mine: "What more American tradition is there than the turnpike rest stop? I don't mean those Mom and Pop pretty-good-food one-shot places somewhere off the interstate that sell homemade pralines. I'm talking about a quarter-mile lean on the steering wheel that curves you into the parking lot the size of a parade ground, fourteen gas tanks, toilets galore and Muzak. The food can be pretty good or pretty bad, but it's the high torque ambiance of the places that make them so interesting, the fact that no one is really there - only appetites or bladders, while eyes stare longingly out the window at the traffic."

Only appetites or bladders, indeed.

And I think I will end with this, because Carroll has a way, in nearly every book, at getting the reader to examine his or her own life as the characters do...looking back over the small pieces and huge events that shape who we are. The huge events are easy to remember, but sometimes it's the small pieces that give life its flavor.

"No matter how old or jaded you are there will always be something exciting and cool about cruising around at three in the morning with a bunch of good friends. All the old duds are asleep but you're still awake, the windows are down, the radio's glowing green and playing great music. Life's given you a few extra hours to horse around. If you don't grab them, they aren't usually offered again for a while."

See? So I honestly don't know why I couldn't sink into his words, his world. He creates characters that life the truest of lives in the most fantastical of circumstances. I can't point to anything in particular that caused my interest to wander.

I love Jonathan Carroll and his books...and I look forward to my next trip to his world.

Llathidan

This is the first novel of Jonathan Carroll that I read, and I enjoyed it. He is a wonderful writer. I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, but I find that with many novels.

elegant stranger

perfect

Xinetan

The first time I read Jonathan Carroll, I wondered, "Why isn't he more famous in the U.S.?" Others who mine the sparkling literary vein of magic realism (such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the more commercially viable Alice Hoffman) are far better known. There's plenty of magic in Carroll's work, in both his lyrical use of language and his seemingly-impossible scenarios, but it's a magic that's fleeting, or abandoned, or intermittent at best.

Carroll sets up wonderful scenes, characters, ideas, concepts, and philosophical arguments, then he seems to grow bored and walk away. So many threads are woven into the tapestry of "A Child Across the Sky" that midway through, the color, life and texture of the story hold you captive; you fly through the chapters needing to know more. But more is never what Carroll provides -- he drops those threads and you're left hanging.

As someone who typically enjoys ambiguity in literature, I embrace most tales that do this successfully; but Carroll so consistently withholds from the reader any sense of resolution or answers that it feels almost punitive at times. My first Carroll novel was "The Wooden Sea" and as much as I loved that book, when I came to the end I felt let down. I felt similarly at the end of this novel.

So many brilliant ideas are introduced but never reach fruition. So many interesting characters enter the novel but have little to do and then are shunted aside. Often, Carroll will stick in a random moment to make a point or get some vital information across; in the hands of less talented writers, this would be regarded as an info dump, but Carroll makes it work -- yet it only works so far.

When I invest my time in a book and the ending is more of a collapse than a culmination, I feel shortchanged. That's how I felt at the end of this novel. Carroll has talent, but either lacks the discipline to follow through in a way that would produce a truly great work of writing, or believes that many fine small moments will make up for the absence of a cohesive plot.

The premise is engaging and the book jacket blurb draws you in, but it's telling that in that blurb on the first edition hardcover even the publisher can't get the main character's name right (it appears as Weber Greston instead of Weber Gregston). This lack of care is frankly appalling, but it's not surprising. There's a hole in this book that leaves me wanting more, but not in a good, satisfying way.

LivingCross

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.

Zyniam

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.