White Apples [Hardcover]

Jonathan Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 2002

Vincent Ettrich, a genial philanderer, discovers he has died and come back to life, but he has no idea why, or what the experience was like. Pushed and prodded by strange omens and stranger persons, he gradually learns that he was brought back by his one true love, Isabelle, because she is pregnant with their child-a child who, if raised correctly, will play a crucial role in saving the universe.

But to be brought up right, he must be educated in part by his father. Specifically, he must be taught what Vincent learned on the other side-if only Vincent can remember it. On a father's love and struggle may depend the future of everything that is.

By turns quirky, romantic, awesome, and irresistible, White Apples is a tale of love, fatherhood, death, and life that will leave you seeing the world with new eyes.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Vincent Ettrich is in a tight spot. He has died and been brought back to life to help save his unborn son from evil and chaotic forces who want to prevent this son from becoming the savior of the universe. Sound bizarre? Welcome to the surreal and metaphysically massive novel White Apples by Jonathan Carroll.

Following up the equally strange but widely acclaimed The Wooden Sea, Carroll paints on an even wider canvas with White Apples. In Carroll's world, humans are key threads in a giant tapestry that is being woven as life is lived. But there are dark forces at work who don't want the weaving to continue as is and Ettrich, his beloved Isabelle, and their sentient fetus find themselves standing in the way. Their struggles to merely understand what is happening to them and to stand tall in the very face of darkness makes for a humorous, touching, and thrilling tale with, as is expected, a big bang of an ending. But the most marvelous aspect of the novel is not its far-reaching, mind-blowing metaphysics. It's the wonderfully tragic love story of Vincent and Isabelle that keeps this flight of fancy grounded and beautifully human. --Jeremy Pugh

From Publishers Weekly

God is a tile mosaic, chaos is a fat man in a cheap blue suit and death is a learning experience for the deceased in this glib metaphysical fantasy from the author of The Wooden Sea. Vincent Ettrich, a likable rogue and womanizer, is shocked out of his daily routine one day by the memory that he died a short time before. With the help of a guardian angel, Vincent discovers that he has been summoned back to existence by the spirit of his unborn child with lover Isabelle Neukor. Vincent's death has inculcated him with information crucial to the harmonious ordering of life, and he spends most of the novel desperately trying to recall what he learned and avoiding avatars of chaos determined to stop him. The story is a classic Carroll romp in which personified states of mind achieve independent life, characters interact with quirky incarnations of aspects of themselves, and bizarre metaphors ("When you're dead they teach you how to make a water sandwich") are illuminatingly literalized. But Vincent's puzzlement over his quest and the iconic roles others play in it demands talky explanations that interrupt the spontaneous flow of fantasy and suggest the author has overreached in his stabs at inventive symbolism. The novel boasts its share of the fresh perspectives on life and love that Carroll's fans have come to expect, but readers may finish it feeling a bit like Vincent, more instructed than entertained.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (September 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765303884
• ISBN-13: 978-0765303882
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,029,288 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

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not for everyone, but, September 19, 2003

By 

"excession" (Westfield, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Apples (Paperback)

If you're reading this, it's likely that it is for you. Jonathan Carroll is hard to categorize, and this book is relatively typical of his style and theme. The book's protagonist doesn't realize that he's dead (I'm not giving anything away -- it's on the back cover), and White Apples follows the series of revelations and transformations he's about to undergo as a result of the chain of events his growing "enlightenment" provokes.

The main complaint that people have about this novel is that it seems incomplete or fails to give the reader a tidy package at its conclusion: don't be put off by those criticisms, rather embrace them. Carroll doesn't write easy fiction with simple answers. If you like to ruminate about characters and themes after you finish reading, then this novel (and other Carroll novels) is for you.

White Apples comes with a reader's guide at the end that would be especially handy if you're part of a group or if you like to get an idea of what others make of the novel. I've become increasingly disenchanted with mainstream fiction and the predictability of many authors ... if this description fits you as well, it's probably time to start reading the likes of Jonathan Carroll, China Mieville, A.M. Homes, George Saunders, and the other writers who show that fiction can still be surprising.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Annoying, January 9, 2004

By 

Silas Traitor (The South, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Apples (Paperback)

Vincent Ettrich, the suave ladies man, goes on a date one night only to learn that he has died and come back, but can't remember anything about it. His task in a nutshell: remember everything and pass the knowledge of the afterlife to his unborn son. Each chapter of White Apples contains a surprise. Carroll won't let a dozen pages slip past without throwing out a shocker. In the beginning, I was intrigued; as the book wore on, it became grating. I wanted to like this book, but it was just too annoying. The characters were interesting, but unlikable. The bad guys were undefined and incomprehensible, and the same could be said for some of the good guys. New "rules" were constantly popping into existence to justify or limit sudden miracles or newfound powers. The characters did a lot of explaining to each other, because nothing made sense. Through it all, the reader suffers. By the end, I gained the strong impression that Carroll was making it all up as he went along, without ever having a clear idea of where he was going. That's great as a creative exercise, but not as something to sell to others in the guise of a novel. Avoid.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surreal Philanderer Seeks Beautiful Non-Committal Women, November 5, 2002

By 

Eric Franklin (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Apples (Hardcover)

Vincent Ettrich was once dead. Now that he's returned to life, he has discovered that he's soon to be a father to a child the world will desperately need. Isabelle, the mother, is the one that brought him back. Pursued by destructive forces, and helped along by benificent guardians (including the unborn fetus itself), the two attempt to protect their unborn child and themselves from death, chaos, and a sinister henchman known only as "King of the Park". Somehow this all makes much more sense in the book.

Jonathan Carroll is one hell of a good writer and I look forward to reading some of his other work. Not one to be cubby-holed into a genre, this book spans fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and a beautifully portrayed look at metaphysics without so much as batting an eyelash. The dialog is written wonderfully. The scenes between Vincent and his women really sparkle. I tore through this book in a day - which I haven't done for any book in quite some time. While the book is not without a couple of loose ends, the ambience more than makes up for it and makes this one you should place high on your reading list.