FROM THE TEETH OF ANGELS [Hardcover]

Jonathan Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1994

Offers a convergence of three characters and three fates: Ian McGann, whose life depends on Death's answers to his questions; Arlen Ford, who flees Hollywood into the arms of a war correspondent; and Wyatt Leonard, terminally ill in Vienna but able to raise the dead.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Long popular in Germany and other parts of Europe, Carroll is acquiring a larger audience here, but his latest effort, though as provocative and as cleverly written as his previous books ( Outside the Dog Museum ; After Silence ), does not quite come together. Understanding the nature and logistics of dying becomes a perilous enterprise in this quirky tale of four people's supernatural confrontation with the malevolent angel of death. Wyatt Leonard, formerly "Finky Linky," a famous children's TV star, is dying of leukemia when his best friend Sophie pleads with him to accompany her to Vienna and find out what's wrong with her brother Jesse. Both Jesse and Englishman Ian McGann, who met while vacationing in Sardinia, are suffering from weird dreams in which they meet with Death and ask various questions. When Jesse and McGann fail to comprehend Death's cryptic answers to these queries, they awaken with serious injuries and ailments. Also in Vienna is Arlen Ford, a former movie star who has fled Hollywood and is living as a spartan recluse. Arlen falls in love with an HIV-positive photographer named Leland Zivic and ultimately must share the odd predicament of Wyatt, Jesse and McGann. Carroll develops his plot largely through the spoken anecdotes and exchanged letters of principal characters and their loved ones. Each of these accounts draws the reader in further with incremental revelations and skillfully crafted, suspenseful narrative. Unfortunately, these individually intriguing parts never cohere to form a greater whole. Despite the Faustian pretensions, obvious metaphysical questions are never probed and only murkily formulated, making the invocation of Death less meaningful than Carroll probably intended. Literary Guild selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Death comes in a variety of guises in this somberly beautiful novel. To Englishman Ian McGann, death comes in a dream, offering to answer all his questions on existence but exacting a high price if he fails to understand. To Wyatt Leonard, a one-time children's TV host dying of leukemia, death appears in a surreal vision of a Los Angeles police officer, then as a friend who has previously passed on. For Arlen Ford, an actress burned out on the Hollywood fast life, death comes as the man of her dreams, a war correspondent just returned from a besieged Sarajevo. Action centers on the intersection of these three as they struggle toward an understanding of final things. The lean prose and formal Viennese settings add to the autumnal atmosphere of this stylish, haunting novel. Recommended for literary fiction collections.
- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 212 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (April 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385468415
• ISBN-13: 978-0385468411
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,807,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Biography,free downloadable stories, screenplays, daily blog and other relevant information available at

www.jonathancarroll.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transcendant!, August 27, 2004

By 

Clare Howell "Clare Howell" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FROM THE TEETH OF ANGELS (Hardcover)

Occasionally a novel speaks to fundamental issues that transcend insight and enjoyment. This one did it for me. I don't like Sci-Fi or fantasy, but Carroll's work tears the fabric of reality and goes to one's unexpressible fear and longing to address primal concerns, not unlike the effect fairy tales have on children. Yet he does it in a world where the natural laws as I understand them apply.

Death is a character here and becomes frighteningly real but, miraculously, we're offered a way to triumph over him, if only for a time. And the way is as simple as child's play... literally.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars another wild ride, June 7, 2000

By 

M. H. Bayliss "book queen" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FROM THE TEETH OF ANGELS (Hardcover)

I'm on a quest to find all of Carroll's books -- he's the most amazing writer I know. I had never read this one and was lucky enough to find a copy. Like he does in all his books, he does a great job creating funky characters, wild plots and exotic settings (or at least Vienna and Venice). I like the premise of the book: that death can take the form of anyone you know and if he likes you, you die well, but if he doesn't, you suffer. As usual, Carroll makes you really think about your own life and consider deeper issues. There are some bone chilling scenes when one of the characters realizes that the love of her life is just death playing a role to lure her in. It creeped me out for hours. As I'd say with any Carroll book, find it and read it. This book was a bit rougher than some of his novels -- he tries to hold together 3 strands of plot that sometimes seem like they will fall apart, but ultimately, he does manage to tie them all together. A minor complaint though. It's not his very best, but it's still damn good.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From the Teeth of Angles, November 5, 2000

By 

Wildness (Colorado Plateau) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: From the Teeth of Angels (Paperback)

Does Death have more power over us than we have have over Death? This is the question Carroll tries to answer in this great book.

When we near the ends of our lives, sometimes Death allows us to ask questions of him, but beware what you ask because if you don't understand the answer it will cost you... And possibly the people around you. This is the story of Ian McGann, a travel agent from London; Wyatt, aka Finky Linky the TV clown of children's hearts; Sophie, the widow and best friend of Wyatt who drags him to Europe as he is dying of leukemia; Arlen Ford, the retired actress who left her career at it's peak to live in Vienna; Rose, her best friend; Sophie's brother and sister-in-law. Death enters their lives in different ways and it comes around full circle as their stories intertwine when a photojournalist takes a break from Yugoslavia and visits Vienna and leads to the understanding of who we really are.

Carroll's prose brings these peoples' lives into your life and as is usually the case with his books, we leave with a new insight to ourselves.

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A Guide to my Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.