Land of Laughs, by Jonathan Carroll **5/8

Well, I finally read the most recommended of Jonathan Carroll's books, and although it's better than the first one I read (Sleeping in Flame), it's still not a great book. It might be a coincidence, and maybe Carroll's writing isn't always like this, but both of these books had a bit too much focus on fables and fairy tales. With SIF, the issue was with Carroll using pre-existing fable characters in his modern story, while in this one it was with the central character of the novel pursuing information about his favorite children's author. There's just something about this material that isn't too my liking, even if Carroll is accomplished as a writer in terms of pacing, prose, and characters.

In some ways, reading Carroll reminds me of reading Jack O'Connell, even though their content is significantly different; in both cases I was hoping to find a book by someone whose material is filed in the "fiction/literature" section at Borders instead of the genre sections, the hope being that these guys would thus open me up to something different and interesting. Neither of these authors is bad, certainly, but I wasn't suddenly opened to a new, exciting cross-genre style. On the contrary, I'm more excited about Shepard and Ligotti and Aickman than anybody else these days.

Nonetheless, Carroll's tale works, and I like the way it reaches conclusion. Carroll's use of magic is different and interesting, but there's a bit too much of the story that is obvious as it's happening. I'm not someone who likes to guess where stories are heading, and this book has a bit too much in the way of plot development and twists for my liking. I can see how others would like this more than me, and since Carroll has a devoted following, I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't mind fables and fairy tales in their fantasy/horror.
(Winter 2007)

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