Customer Reviews

Kissing the Beehive

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Some who are familiar with Jonathan Carroll's books have, oddly enough,not been quite as satisfied with "Kissing the Beehive" as with his other books. They seem not to have respected or understood Carroll's desire as an artist for a direction change, which to me seems rather intolerant. For once he wanted not "only" "magic realism", but something else in "addition" - and he has the right to! After all HE is the one who writes hours and hours for us, he is the one who nourishes our senses, who creates the worlds we cannot create, the worlds we want to inhabit, the worlds we flee to. He is a artist and draws from his fantasy, HIS own unique imagination which he generously allows us to share. I was fascinated by this very book and feel honored to have been allowed access to yet another part of Carrolls vision - the ability to write a thriller which, until the end, leaves you breathless and in complete oblivion - not your typical thriller - an unearthly thriller which searches unforseeable depths and facets of human nature and human behavior. It is hard to put this book aside. Throughout, one is both intrigued and at the same time repelled by certain characters,another reason why this book is so fascinating. Beehive is a piece of Carroll's repertoire that "slightly falls out of place" (..."aus der Reihe tanzen") - One can say it is different from the others, and that is why it is so interesting. Carroll writes about what his soul longs for. I recommend this book and all of the others he has and will write. Jonathan Carroll is one of the most reliable writers around - he is always fun, smart, witty, insightful. Each of his books is rare.

As a teen-ager in upstate New York, novelist Samuel Bayer discovered the body of a murdered woman. Returning home decades later to write about the death, he finds his rakehell high-school best friend has become police chief; an anonymous killer is delivering bouquets and mocking literary critiques; and his neurotic new girlfriend-a beautiful documentary filmmaker-is secretly interviewing everyone in his unfinished book. These elements (plus kidnapping, a village idiot, Westchester gangsters, and a suicide cult), form a sleightly-joined mystery, neatly corked by a swift conclusion over champagne in a drawing room.

Kissing the Beehive Carroll's latest foray into sinister stealth

By Bram Eisenthal

It was 1985 when I first discovered one of the horror field's greatest latter-day writers. I asked a clerk at Ottawa's House of Speculative Fiction if he could recommend someone really unusual - I had my fill of early Stephen King at the time - and he immediately whipped out a book and thrust it at me. "Land of Laughs," he said. "It's unbelievable... really different."

I had never even heard of Jonathan Carroll before and I generally knew my horror authors, so I was perturbed. How good could he be? Published in 1980 and the New York-born resident of Vienna's first novel, The Land of Laughs lived up to the clerk's billing. Highly imaginative and very frightening, it showcased the talents of a writer who excels at setting a macabre stage by allowing the horror to creep up on you v-e-r-r-r-y slowly. His tales are happy, funny and whimsical to start with, but chapter by chapter, Carroll adds sinister elements. Before you realize it, you're staring death squarely in the face. His second, Voice of Our Shadow, is even more shocking for its sinister stealth.

Kissing the Beehive is Carroll's tenth novel; one of the more recent ones, The Panic Hand, is a Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology that I highly recommend. As with the others, Beehive begins innocently enough, with a few stragglers rather than the swarm yet to come. Author Sam Bayer is in a slump, meeting with his agent in an attempt to untangle the cobwebs responsible for his terrible writer's block. His pending divorce is really creating havoc. Later, at a book signing, he meets an incredibly gorgeous fan, a California blonde named Veronica Lake. She really knows her Bayer, down to her business card, which contains an image from his novel The Tatooed City.

Bayer jogs his sluggish memory in an attempt to birth ideas. He drives to his hometown of Crane's View, visits old haunts, looks through high-school yearbooks and greets former acquaintances. The trip is the perfect panacea for his blues, as Bayer delves into an unsolved boyhood murder mystery, that of a free-spirited young woman named Pauline Ostrova. Her nude body, which had spawned so many adolescent fantasies, had been found by the young Bayer. Over the years, he had shunted the awful memory aside, but now he seizes the opportunity to gather important facts and unburden his soul.

During the excitement, unable to get her out of his thoughts, Bayer contacts Veronica Lake, they meet again and make love. He tells her about the burgeoning plot for his new novel and she is thrilled about her confidante status. Remember, she is his number one fan, like the character in Stephen King's Misery... only much more dangerous.

Bayer heads back to Crane's View, his teenaged daughter Cassandra in tow. He meets up with Frannie McCabe, childhood bad-boy turned chief of police, and brings up the Ostrova mystery. The police chief has his own take on the dossier and suspects that the town's crime boss, Gordon Cadmus, since murdered, had something to do with her demise. She had been seeing his son David, now a Hollywood film producer... and the old man as well.

In typical Carroll fashion, the story begins its slow spiral into madness just as Bayer and McCabe initiate their joint sleuthing. Also, something is terribly wrong with Veronica Lake. Bayer uncovers unsettling facts about her, most notably the fact she was two-time porn movie headliner Marzi Pan and a member of an infamous suicide cult. He decides not to see her any more, which first saddens and then infuriates her. Meanwhile, someone with knowledge of their unofficial Ostrova investigation is following Bayer and McCabe around, as well as videotaping unspeakable things, like the murder of David Cadmus on an L.A. street.

Lake, whom Bayer is trying to ignore, is in-his-face throughout. She slyly interacts with all his witnesses, subtly threatens his daughter and her boyfriend and, after McCabe barely survives an attempt on his life, befriends the cop. We also learn that she is a deft film technician and has been taping lots of footage, including shots of Bayer taken in a suit he had discarded years before and explicit images of them having sex.

The horror escalates when Cassandra goes missing, every father's nightmare but nothing compared to Bayer's ultimate scenario. His novel has taken the most sinister twist possible.

Jonathan Carroll is still unknown to many fans of mainstream horror literature, rather surprising in light of the stellar quality of every single one of his works. The author humbly pays homage to "Pat Conroy, Stephen King, Michael Moorcock, Paul West - Friends, Mentors, Wizards" - in the dedication, but I dare say that he has earned the right to appear right up there with them on that marquee.

In Doubleday's press release on Kissing the Beehive, King is equally complimentary, one master of the macabre to another. "A stunning novel of obsession and memory by the always amazing Jonathan Carroll. A brilliant writer - Jonathan Carroll is as scary as Hitchcock, when he isn't being as funny as Jim Carrey."

-30-

Kissing the Beehive Nan A. Talese, an imprint of Doubleday HC, 232 pgs., $31.95

I believe that this is one of Jonathan Carroll's best works to date. (Yes, I've read them all.) While I adored "Bones of the Moon", "Kissing the Beehive" is only the second of his works that I've finished completely satisfied. I can live without the usual magical plot devices if I get the plot and character quality of this book in its place.

I've long been a fan of Jonathan Carroll's work and only recently picked up _Kissing the Beehive_. It's an excellent tale of a blocked writer (see Donald Westlake's _The Hook_) who goes back to his boyhood hometown to look into the mystery surrounding the death of a girl, whose body he discovered floating in the Hudson River. He intends to write the story of what he discovers and he ultimately discovers the secret. Along the way, we're treated to a slowly unfolding, very gripping story, including the tragic figure of a wild fan who first intrigues, then scares our protagonist. Carroll has a gift for writing some of the most poignant characters and scenes--things that really get under your skin and drag you in feet-first. I'm thinking about one memorable scene in which three of our main characters are sitting on the porch, sharing jokes and stories, and the writer-protagonist says something along the lines of "I'm very glad I have both of you in my life." I'm very glad there's an author like Jonathan Carroll in mine (too cheesy?).

Carroll is one of my favorite authors and he doesn't dissapoint with "Kissing The Beehive." However, this novel is much more a straight mystery story than Carroll's other efforts that always seem to have several fantastical elements to them. I gave the book only four stars because it was missing that bizarre twist that seems to surface halfway through other Carroll novels (e.g., the dog talking in Land of Laughs). Regardless, I do recommend this book. As with all of Carroll's work, it keeps you totally engrossed in the story till the very end.

Jonathan Carroll, a remarkable author, gives us another gift -- a beautifully written novel with an interesting plot and intriguing characters.

Unlike many of Carroll's other works, this is pretty straightforward. Sam is a successful author who's in the middle of a divorce and has writer's block. With his publisher breathing down his neck, Sam decides to revisit his home town where, as a teenager, he discovered the body of a beautiful and mysterious girl from his high school. He wants to investigate the murder for his next book, and when he arrives in Crane's View NY, he finds that one of his less reputable friends, Frannie McCabe, has become the town sheriff! (McCabe later shows up as the main protagonist in a more surreal Carroll outing, The Wooden Sea.) Together they begin an investigation that will take Sam for a wild ride and end, perhaps, in a new tragedy.

If you haven't read anything by Carroll, please take a chance. He is incredibly exciting and a superb writer, with fascinating characters skillfully developed and natural dialogue. Also, check out his web site for screenplays and short stories: jonathancarroll.com

'Kissing the Beehive' is too, too short. At least for this fan. One thing I love about Carroll's work is his ability to create an appealing reality with likable characters and then pull the rug from beneath your feet, leaving you flat on your arse. That this doesn't happen with 'Beehive' is only a minor gripe as the writing is as ever economically beautiful. However I feel that the plot is wrapped up far too quickly, leaving me wanting more reflection from the narrator on the events that have taken place. I love the stuff on the business of writing and fandom and guess that at least some of this is self-conscious, autobiography.(really, Steve?) I'd definitely recommend it to anyone, with a special caution for Carroll devotees-don't expect the unexpected!

This book had me captivated from the first page. Great mystery. Great characters. Good story!

One of the few authors that can leave the genre I discovered him in (fantasy/scifi) and still captivate me. The only other I can think of off the top of my head is Graham Joyce.

Carroll is great at keeping the reader off balance.

I loved this book, as I love all of Carroll's books. He is my favorite author. His imagination, intelligence and wit, not to mention fabulous characters, plots, and dialogue, consistently amaze me. Many of his books are out of print and hard to find, but every second spent searching for his books will be rewarded. Find his books and read them!