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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"I can't remember when I've last been so blown away by a fantasy novel," says the Stephen King blurb on the front cover - which I didn't actually notice until I'd nearly finished the book, and which is ironic, given I spent most of this book thinking it felt like an early 1980s King novel if King had only had quarter of the talent. The Land of Laughs captures that same King-esque feeling of the homely nostalgic creepiness of early 1980s America - when the 1950s were closer to them than the the 1980s are to us, as strange as that sounds. But it doesn't quite hit the mark. It actually felt a bit like a book written by an outsider trying to describe what America's like - probably not fair, because although Carroll moved to Austria before ever writing this, he is actually a born and bred New Yorker.
There are other problems. The main character is an unlikeable wanker; I'm usually the first to scoff at people who complain about unlikeable main characters, and in fact I think it's a sign of intellectual weakness, but the protagonist in The Land of Laughs is specifically a wisecracking cynic, and here's the thing - if your asshole main character is in that vein, he also need to be self-deprecating. He needs to dish it out to himself as much as he does to others. But Thomas Abbey is a glass-jawed manchild. You can still get away with this if you're writing a character like, say, David Lurie in Disgrace; but Carroll, like most of us, is no Coetzee, and unless you're writing a Nobel-worthy work, then yes, your characters do at least have to be somewhat sympathetic. Thomas Abbey is nowhere near as charming or funny as Carroll thinks he is, and after fifty pages I was sick of him.
Which is the third problem: this book is glacially slow. It's a fantasy - magical realism or urban fantasy or whatever you want to call it - in which Abbey travels to the hometown of his favourite author to write his biography, and slowly realises not everything is quite right. Again, though, there's a difference between teasing things out slowly (good!) and writing a book which is 80% straight generic fiction but then all the semi-interesting stuff kicks off in the final 70 pages. (Bad!)
I would go on to say that the central conceit is much less interesting than it's built up to be. No spoilers, but... this magical and talented writer used his mysterious talents to create this when he could have created literally anything? Yawn.
I was often irked while reading The Land of Laughs but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a bad book - probably because I may have been irked but, while never engaged, was never too bored either. (And I will grant that the brilliant last few paragraphs very nearly redeemed the whole thing - and displayed a level of restraint I'm surprised Carroll was capable of after taking us through Abbey's entitled whingeing for 200+ pages.) I don't recommend it, I was disappointed by it given the recommendations it has, and I'm not going to seek out any more of Carroll's work, but... I don't know, give it a chance if you think it sounds interesting. Clearly a lot of people liked it much more than I did.
There are other problems. The main character is an unlikeable wanker; I'm usually the first to scoff at people who complain about unlikeable main characters, and in fact I think it's a sign of intellectual weakness, but the protagonist in The Land of Laughs is specifically a wisecracking cynic, and here's the thing - if your asshole main character is in that vein, he also need to be self-deprecating. He needs to dish it out to himself as much as he does to others. But Thomas Abbey is a glass-jawed manchild. You can still get away with this if you're writing a character like, say, David Lurie in Disgrace; but Carroll, like most of us, is no Coetzee, and unless you're writing a Nobel-worthy work, then yes, your characters do at least have to be somewhat sympathetic. Thomas Abbey is nowhere near as charming or funny as Carroll thinks he is, and after fifty pages I was sick of him.
Which is the third problem: this book is glacially slow. It's a fantasy - magical realism or urban fantasy or whatever you want to call it - in which Abbey travels to the hometown of his favourite author to write his biography, and slowly realises not everything is quite right. Again, though, there's a difference between teasing things out slowly (good!) and writing a book which is 80% straight generic fiction but then all the semi-interesting stuff kicks off in the final 70 pages. (Bad!)
I would go on to say that the central conceit is much less interesting than it's built up to be. No spoilers, but... this magical and talented writer used his mysterious talents to create this when he could have created literally anything? Yawn.
I was often irked while reading The Land of Laughs but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a bad book - probably because I may have been irked but, while never engaged, was never too bored either. (And I will grant that the brilliant last few paragraphs very nearly redeemed the whole thing - and displayed a level of restraint I'm surprised Carroll was capable of after taking us through Abbey's entitled whingeing for 200+ pages.) I don't recommend it, I was disappointed by it given the recommendations it has, and I'm not going to seek out any more of Carroll's work, but... I don't know, give it a chance if you think it sounds interesting. Clearly a lot of people liked it much more than I did.
Subtle and addictive. Baffling and darkly hilarious. I handed it to my sweetie when I was done and he had a similar experience. Now I'm working my way through the rest of Carroll's weird worlds.
“Reading a book, for me at least, is like traveling in someone else’s world. If it’s a good book, then you feel comfortable and yet anxious to see what’s going to happen to you there, what’ll be around the next corner. But if it’s a lousy book, then it’s like going through Secaucus, New Jersey—it smells and you wish you weren’t there, but since you’ve started the trip, you roll up the windows and breathe through your mouth until you’re done.”
I begin this review with that passage from an early part of The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll. For the readers who have read my reviews over the past year and a half should know Jonathan Carroll has become one of my favorite novelists. This is the fourth Carroll novel I have reviewed in the same time frame and the first sentence in the aforementioned passage sums up how I feel each time I have read one of his novels.
The Land of Laughs tells of Thomas Abbey, a teacher and son of a famous film star, who gets the chance to write the biography of his favorite children’s book author, Marshall France. Abbey is a zealous fan of the author and jumps at the opportunity to write a biography about him.
Abbey travels to France’s hometown in Galen, Missouri, a small Midwestern town where the author is still the most famous person even years after his death. Everybody in town has a Marshall France story and want to help Abbey with his biography.
So it seems.
Abbey meets Marshall France’s daughter, Anna, who is highly protective of her father’s works and legacy and is unsure about the schoolteacher’s intent with the biography. Also, Thomas has a companion, Saxony Gardner, who travels with him to Galen and has her own role with the schoolteacher and biography.
This volatile mix as well as Abbey dealing with issues surrounding his father come together in a fascinating and surrealist picture about the power of creativity and imagination. Can the imagination recreate life? Can a writer (or any creative person) become a God to the world they have created in their stories?
Those questions kept coming to mind as I read The Land of Laughs. Carroll gives an interesting perspective in relation those questions and something to ponder on for a while. However, I will admit that the ending of the novel was a let down. The ending pulls the story together, but it felt abrupt and somewhat out-of-the blue for the story he was telling.
The Land of Laughs is Jonathan Carroll’s most well-known novel and I can see why for a lot of reasons. I’m glad I read it and continues to add to my growing appreciation of this unique and interesting author. But, I will rank it below my favorite Carroll novel, The Wooden Sea, and White Apples.
I begin this review with that passage from an early part of The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll. For the readers who have read my reviews over the past year and a half should know Jonathan Carroll has become one of my favorite novelists. This is the fourth Carroll novel I have reviewed in the same time frame and the first sentence in the aforementioned passage sums up how I feel each time I have read one of his novels.
The Land of Laughs tells of Thomas Abbey, a teacher and son of a famous film star, who gets the chance to write the biography of his favorite children’s book author, Marshall France. Abbey is a zealous fan of the author and jumps at the opportunity to write a biography about him.
Abbey travels to France’s hometown in Galen, Missouri, a small Midwestern town where the author is still the most famous person even years after his death. Everybody in town has a Marshall France story and want to help Abbey with his biography.
So it seems.
Abbey meets Marshall France’s daughter, Anna, who is highly protective of her father’s works and legacy and is unsure about the schoolteacher’s intent with the biography. Also, Thomas has a companion, Saxony Gardner, who travels with him to Galen and has her own role with the schoolteacher and biography.
This volatile mix as well as Abbey dealing with issues surrounding his father come together in a fascinating and surrealist picture about the power of creativity and imagination. Can the imagination recreate life? Can a writer (or any creative person) become a God to the world they have created in their stories?
Those questions kept coming to mind as I read The Land of Laughs. Carroll gives an interesting perspective in relation those questions and something to ponder on for a while. However, I will admit that the ending of the novel was a let down. The ending pulls the story together, but it felt abrupt and somewhat out-of-the blue for the story he was telling.
The Land of Laughs is Jonathan Carroll’s most well-known novel and I can see why for a lot of reasons. I’m glad I read it and continues to add to my growing appreciation of this unique and interesting author. But, I will rank it below my favorite Carroll novel, The Wooden Sea, and White Apples.
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
When I picked up this book I had high expectations. It was on a trusted GR's friend's "favorites" shelf and she had attested to Carroll's talent and skill. So. My feelings after I finished, which was just this very instant... I'm not so sure. I guess this book is sometimes categorized as horror, which doesn't quite make sense to me but there was a undercurrent of creepiness that was clearly evident.
To sum it all up it's about a guy who is borderline obsessed with an author and who wishes to write that author's authorized biography. In order to do so, he and a companion slash girlfriend slash research assistant he picks up along the way travel to said author's hometown in order to speak with his daughter and other friends and acquaintances. Shit starts to get weird as he starts writing; there is a sexy, mysterious, kinda scary daughter, some crazy neighbors spouting gibberish, talking dogs and a whole bunch of hush hush secret keeping.
I liked the way Carroll wrote most of his story. Skillfully and well, without being extensively wordy. I've often found that the less wordy kind of authors lose a little of something along the way but Carroll does it well. I also liked the way he unveiled his whole world. a little at a time.. piece by piece. But as I neared the end and noticed that I only had like 30 pages left I wondered how Carroll was going to manage wrapping up his whole big mysterious story in such a short amount of time and once I got to the end I realized how: poorly. The thing that happens so often in stories happened here, it was a great story with a sort of dud of an ending. When this happens I always wonder at the author's novel writing strategy. Like, with these kind of bummer bust endings it feels as if the author sat down and wrote from beginning to end, without planning it all out before starting, and he wove together an awesome story but didn't quite know how to top it all off when he got to the end. So he just wraps it all up as neatly as possible but it turns out being messy and uncoordinated. This is just my guess obviously, I have no idea if there's any truth to that theory but it's just what it feels like when such a great, thoughtful, smart story ends in the abrupt and so much less interesting than first 3 quarters of the book way.
I hate poorly written endings. It's such a bummer, and for me always changes my entire outlook on the book. The basis of Land of Laughs was great, especially great for people who love books and authors and can relate to Thomas's obsessiveness and delight over France. (the author) But, I didn't particularly like any of the characters-especially Saxony who bugged-and the ending bummed me out. I laughed out loud a lot as I read, there was a bit of quirkiness to things that I found humorous. Honestly, I am not rushing out the door to buy more books by Carroll, but I am sure I will give him another go around sometime and that speaks for itself.
To sum it all up it's about a guy who is borderline obsessed with an author and who wishes to write that author's authorized biography. In order to do so, he and a companion slash girlfriend slash research assistant he picks up along the way travel to said author's hometown in order to speak with his daughter and other friends and acquaintances. Shit starts to get weird as he starts writing; there is a sexy, mysterious, kinda scary daughter, some crazy neighbors spouting gibberish, talking dogs and a whole bunch of hush hush secret keeping.
I liked the way Carroll wrote most of his story. Skillfully and well, without being extensively wordy. I've often found that the less wordy kind of authors lose a little of something along the way but Carroll does it well. I also liked the way he unveiled his whole world. a little at a time.. piece by piece. But as I neared the end and noticed that I only had like 30 pages left I wondered how Carroll was going to manage wrapping up his whole big mysterious story in such a short amount of time and once I got to the end I realized how: poorly. The thing that happens so often in stories happened here, it was a great story with a sort of dud of an ending. When this happens I always wonder at the author's novel writing strategy. Like, with these kind of bummer bust endings it feels as if the author sat down and wrote from beginning to end, without planning it all out before starting, and he wove together an awesome story but didn't quite know how to top it all off when he got to the end. So he just wraps it all up as neatly as possible but it turns out being messy and uncoordinated. This is just my guess obviously, I have no idea if there's any truth to that theory but it's just what it feels like when such a great, thoughtful, smart story ends in the abrupt and so much less interesting than first 3 quarters of the book way.
I hate poorly written endings. It's such a bummer, and for me always changes my entire outlook on the book. The basis of Land of Laughs was great, especially great for people who love books and authors and can relate to Thomas's obsessiveness and delight over France. (the author) But, I didn't particularly like any of the characters-especially Saxony who bugged-and the ending bummed me out. I laughed out loud a lot as I read, there was a bit of quirkiness to things that I found humorous. Honestly, I am not rushing out the door to buy more books by Carroll, but I am sure I will give him another go around sometime and that speaks for itself.
I’m not sure if The Land of Laughs is Carroll’s best book (it’s certainly not my favourite), but it is absolutely his most controlled. The plotting is clever and careful and beautifully done, so that when things begin to go... significantly off piste there’s a real sense of dread. It replicates the narrator’s predicament really, a sense of a book that you are sure is heading in one way that slowly and significantly wanders off in another direction until it reaches a weirdly inevitable kind of ending that still has the power to shock even when you know it’s coming
Carroll’s greatest skill - and probably the thing that stops him from getting mass appeal - is his genius at leading you astray as a reader and then throwing out something wildly unexpected and troubling once you’re aware how lost you really are. The only weakness in this novel is that the unexpected is at least *slightly* expected, unlike some of his other works. But he resolutely refuses - as ever - to provide tidy or happy endings for his characters. Hell, he even takes us literally up to the moment we have spent the whole novel waiting for and then equally literally flees from it. He would write better and knottier and more striking books, but as debuts go it’s one of the most fully formed examples of the avenues and furrows of weirdness Carroll still continues to lead us down to this day
Carroll’s greatest skill - and probably the thing that stops him from getting mass appeal - is his genius at leading you astray as a reader and then throwing out something wildly unexpected and troubling once you’re aware how lost you really are. The only weakness in this novel is that the unexpected is at least *slightly* expected, unlike some of his other works. But he resolutely refuses - as ever - to provide tidy or happy endings for his characters. Hell, he even takes us literally up to the moment we have spent the whole novel waiting for and then equally literally flees from it. He would write better and knottier and more striking books, but as debuts go it’s one of the most fully formed examples of the avenues and furrows of weirdness Carroll still continues to lead us down to this day
I was recommended this book by a good friend and I will forever be grateful to her for that because I couldn’t have loved this book more. In fact, I’m ready to dive head first into the world of Carroll’s writing! This book is just pure perfection, it has everything you could want as a reader; stunning writing, amazing characters and a truly fascinating storyline. And it’s the most beautiful mix of fantasy, horror and magical realism I’ve ever had the luck to read! Trust me, you need to read this book!
Fans of Magical Realism from South America and elsewhere should definitely check out our very own Carroll. This, his first novel, is a bibliophile's story of an adventure writing the biography of his favorite author.
I wish I would've written a review of the first of Carroll's books I read years ago, but I know that after this, it won't be the last.
I wish I would've written a review of the first of Carroll's books I read years ago, but I know that after this, it won't be the last.
Czytana w kwietniu 2020. Wtedy nie zrobiła na mnie większego wrażenia.