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xterminal's review
4.0
Jonathan Carroll, Black Cocktail (St. Martin's Press, 2000)
I've spent a good deal of time thinking about how I'm going to review Black Cocktail; a full month, in fact (I finished it on February 1, and I'm writing the review on February 29). That should probably tell me something; this novella-length volume has stuck with me a lot longer than most books of its size would.
To explain this would be to give away a great deal, and I generally don't like to do that; you can read the descriptions found on Amazon, which are more spoiler-laden than the flap copy. I'll just call it a weird little new-agey-feeling story that wanders into the realms of existential horror every now and again. It's very well-written, and very interesting, through the ending could have used a bit (okay, a great deal) of fleshing out. Still, if you're looking for a quick, easy read that has a lot going on under the hood, Black Cocktail is worth your time. Also, Gaiman fans take note: there are a few Dave McKean illustrations scattered throughout. ****
I've spent a good deal of time thinking about how I'm going to review Black Cocktail; a full month, in fact (I finished it on February 1, and I'm writing the review on February 29). That should probably tell me something; this novella-length volume has stuck with me a lot longer than most books of its size would.
To explain this would be to give away a great deal, and I generally don't like to do that; you can read the descriptions found on Amazon, which are more spoiler-laden than the flap copy. I'll just call it a weird little new-agey-feeling story that wanders into the realms of existential horror every now and again. It's very well-written, and very interesting, through the ending could have used a bit (okay, a great deal) of fleshing out. Still, if you're looking for a quick, easy read that has a lot going on under the hood, Black Cocktail is worth your time. Also, Gaiman fans take note: there are a few Dave McKean illustrations scattered throughout. ****
gengelcox's review
4.0
This smallish and flawed novella concerns Michael Billa, whose tales mirror Carroll’s own: funny, interesting, but yet about the mundane. Clinton Deix, a purported school chum of Billa’s, tells the main character, Ingram York, that all of Billa’s stories are lies. Ingram has trouble deciding who to believe: Michael, who’s stories are so fantastic as to be lies, or Deix, who Ingram finds hard to be a schoolmate of Billa, when Billa is in his thirties and Deix is fifteen. Then we ‘learn’ that Billa has the ability to ‘freeze’ people at a certain development/age.
Confusing? Easily, because Carroll is trying to write at a shorter length what he usually spends pages on. Ideas and characters are thrown at the reader willy-nilly, until–BANG! The End. What happens? I can’t tell, but I liked some of the words, even the longer ones. Although not quite as bewildering as “The Panic Hand,” Black Cocktail is a drink best sipped for its style, rather than for any final refreshment.
Confusing? Easily, because Carroll is trying to write at a shorter length what he usually spends pages on. Ideas and characters are thrown at the reader willy-nilly, until–BANG! The End. What happens? I can’t tell, but I liked some of the words, even the longer ones. Although not quite as bewildering as “The Panic Hand,” Black Cocktail is a drink best sipped for its style, rather than for any final refreshment.
nigellicus's review
5.0
I haven't had a Jonathan Carroll in a long time, and this short sharp little novella is a bracing reminder of his lovely prose, his insights and meditations on life and love and art, and how quickly that can swerve into deep strangeness, terror, and even horror. In Black Cocktail, a grieving man is introduced to an affable and generous raconteur, a pleasant and rewarding relationship until somebody from the past intrudes and it becomes apparent something fantastic and surreal and terrible has happened, and it's still happening. Gorgeous, mind-bending, lovely, creepy, rich and deliciously poisonous. That's a Jonathan Carroll book all right.
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