Customer Reviews

Wooden Sea, The

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this book after hearing a reference to it on an NPR show about "Summer Reading" lists. The person recommending it read a passage from early on -- I think it was a description of the dog Old Vertue -- which struck a chord with me. I thought anything that starts out this odd must get odder and be quite fun in the process. I was right.

But I didn't expect to be as sucked in as I was to the story and its various turns and bizarre events. I could not put this book down.. and as soon as I finished reading it I started it again. After the first read I was left with questions -- I think I took some of the more fantastic elements of the plot a bit literally -- the answers to which become more apparent on the second read -- which I approached in terms of looking at the life of Frannie McCabe, much as the first reviewer suggested. But dont see this as a reason NOT to dive into The Wooden Sea. It was well worth the journey!

The writing style is a joy: very conversational with a pearl that made me smile every few pages and at least one stunner per chapter. Carroll made me care about these people and I plan to buy his others books as soon as I finish writing this review!

And I liked the idea that seemingly odd things would occur that I did not expect -- life throws us wingers every day, okay maybe not as strange as those in the book, but I appreciate the wonder he presents the reader. Its a small book that tells a fun story and packs a lot in besides that if you care to investigate. The notion of our various "selves" at different ages being present to help us out of jams and to consult with about life's problems is a provacative one. Carroll is an author to keep an eye on, no doubt. Read this, again and again.

If you have never picked up a Carroll book because the terms "fantasy" or "science fiction" scare you, or because you are convinced that "that kind of writing" isn't for you, I urge you to move past the stereotype and give THE WOODEN SEA a chance. Carroll is an amazing novelist, severly underappreciated in this country. Since his first novel, THE LAND OF LAUGHS, he has been introducing his readers to characters who have heart, soul, a sense of wonder, and a sense of humor. His latest work is no exception. Frannie McCabe, Police Chief of Crane's View, is content and happy... until such time as he buries a dead dog only to find that it continues to come back to life. While trying to understand why, McCabe meets past and future versions of himself, is forced to make decisions that will affect those people he cares the deepest about, and searches for answers to questions that we all ask at some point in our lives: "What is life really all about? Are we alone here, or is there some higher power influencing who we are? What is death? And does any of it matter in the end? Carroll leads his readers down a mystical and imaginative path that could only be better if it never had to end. He continues to be one of my favorite authors and his latest work does not disappoint. It is no wonder that authors like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and Stanislaw Lem continue to sing the praises of Jonathan Carroll.

I rarely have time for fiction anymore, but I heard an excerpt from The Wooden Sea read aloud on NPR. Naturally, I couldn't remember the name of the book, or the author for that matter, but the wrting was so powerful and zesty--so much like the best of Dashell Hammett--that I tracked it down on the NPR web site. It turned out that the excerpt was the first page, and if the rest of the book is not quite as good, it is ALMOST as good. That's why the four stars instead of the five.

Carroll's talent for conveying a setting is so strong it's almost unnerving. The story is set in what I take to be a small town along the Hudson, north of New York City. I know what those towns are like (Irvington, Croton, Hastings, Dobbs Ferry et al.), know what they were like in the time he is describing. Carroll absolutely nails it. There was also a tiny detail about an old fart with a Jaguar. I recognized him immediately. It was my father (or someone ... like him), and believe me, this little detail gave me the shakes.

The central character, Frannie McCabe, is police chief in this small town, no small thing given his teen years as a total screw-up. Yet its really not a contradiction: Frannie young and Frannie mature is simply a guy who doesn't take any crap, and he has worked his way into a job where he doesn't have to. Hard bitten and a tad cynical he may be, but he is also caring, even loving, and thus is someone you don't mind spending some time with.

Frannie has a serious need to know what's going on. He's supposed to know what's going on. He's the top cop. But what starts going on gets weirder and weirder. Time seems to have slipped its moorings, and reality keeps replaying itself, like a film moving back and forth through an editing machine. And that's the thing: reality really is being edited in subtle and not so subtle ways.

When Frannie finds the editors, he wonders (naturally enough) whether they are messengers from God. No, they're not. I won't spoil it for people who haven't read this, but suffice to say here that the time benders are only slightly less clueless than we are.

I found the fantasy/supernatural aspect quite plausible. Some people like this stuff, some people don't. I didn't think I'd like it, but I did. It had a certain spiritual resonance without being the slightest bit preachy, and some of the concluding imagery was so emotionally engaging it put tears in my eyes.

Funnily enough, what I didn't find quite plausble was Franny being the chief of police. He's just too much of a rule breaker, too insubordinate. To me, he would have been better placed as a detective, but this is a quibble. Immediately after reading The Wooden Sea I picked up Land of Laughs, which was also excellent. As I say, I rarely have time for fiction anymore, so that should give you a clue about how much I enjoyed this.

I'm only slightly acquainted with the work of Jonathan Carroll: I've read one early novel (Bones of the Moon) and several short stories. Still, I had an idea what to expect: a contemporary setting, veering off into very strange territory at some time; an ordinary person, deeply in love, faced with an unexpected and unexplainable threat to those he loves; and fine writing with a mixture of almost goofy humourand wrenching tragedy. And that's what we get here. (Writers who come to mind as comparison points are William Browning Spencer, Jonathan Lethem, and Bradley Denton.)

The Wooden Sea is narrated by Frannie McCabe, the 47-year old police chief of a small town, Crane's View, New York. Frannie is on his second marriage, and he has a teenage stepdaughter. He is sometimes plagued by the town's collective memory: he was rather a juvenile delinquent as a youth, and, in high school, he dated the girl who is now the mayor; but by and large he seems respected and happy. One day he adopts, almost perforce, a sickly three-legged dog named Old Vertue -- within a few days the dog is dead, and Frannie's attempts to bury the dog seem to set in motion a series of increasingly surrealistic events.

The strangeness starts out small, as it were: the buried dog disappears, and needs to be reburied. The dog turns up again, sort of, in an Old Master painting. And a high school girl dies of an overdose, leaving behind a notebook with tantalizing hints that she too was involved in these strange events.

From this point things become very odd indeed. The novel involves trips both forward and backward in time. Frannie's 17-year old self becomes a major character, as does a sinister businessman from decades in the future. Frannie finds himself presented with an ultimatum -- figure out what he needs to do in a week, or else -- with almost no idea of what he is to figure out, or what the "else" is. And this is to say nothing of the gods and/or aliens.

In a way, this book might be called "Science Fiction Magical Realism": it uses Science Fictional imagery in ways reminiscent of how more usual "Magical Realism" uses Fantastical imagery. On first reading, I had some difficulty with this: there's a temptation to make the book be about the Science Fictional events, and it really doesn't work that way. They don't end up making outward sense, and they aren't really properly resolved. As one fellow reader told me "It's Carroll's usual 'One darn thing after another'." But reading the book more as a mainstream (or, dare I say, slipstream) novel -- that is, as a story about the life of Francis McCabe -- works much better. We get a portrait of a believable man, a good man, and a happy man, facing a crisis from out of nowhere. The characters are very nicely done: Frannie, his younger self, his wife Magda and stepdaughter Pauline, his strange neighbour George Dalemwood. The action, for all its weirdness, is always interesting, though at times I felt a bit disconnected from things: at times things simply got too weird. The resolution is moving and bittersweet.

The Wooden Sea is a fine new novel from a very interesting writer.

Like The Marriage of Sticks, The Wooden Sea takes place in the fictional town of Crane's View (which sounds suspiciously like a Western Westchester town like Hastings on Hudson or Ossining). This tale is told through the eyes of the chief of police who during his morning routine suddenly finds strange things happening to him in the town: childhood smells pop up from nowhere, a 3 legged pit bull, a beautiful feather and a bone to name a few. As it turns out, our chief was a hell-raiser as a child, a detail that becomes important as we start to meet different version of his character at different ages. I like the almost Platonic philosophical bent of the latter half of the book - as usual in Carroll's books, we rove through time zones, other realities, and a plot that resists summary. I find this one of his "deeper" books - a kind of Unified Particle Theory view of the world. Now that I found the reissue of his first book, the Land of Laughs, I can say that I've finished all of Carroll's books. The Wooden Sea is definitely one of his better books, although fans should read them all. And buy yourself a hardcover copy because they go out of print fast! Carroll remains one of my all time favorite authors and if you haven't had a chance to try him, don't wait any longer.

I really enjoyed The Wooden Sea. Without repeating the plot or giving away any spoilers, I loved the reason behind all of the odd happenings in Crane's View. The author does not wrap up the story in a bow. There are questions posed that remain unanswered - as well they should. That is the magic of the story. While there is no real sex in the book, the story has a sexuality to it - we can identify with Frannie McCabe because he thinks as everyman and lives as everyman. We should all get the opportunities that he has been given. I read the book in 2 days - I just couldn't put it down.

This is the third Carroll book I've read in as many weeks and I have to say so far this was the best. He really lays it on thick and heavy from the very beginning with ever turn of the page being another mystery. It was almost frustrating, but always surprising. It doesn't let up for at least a hundred pages when some things start falling into place. I found the pace of the book good for people who would maybe normally have a hard time keeping interest in things too long. You keep reading just to find out how this whole mesh of bizarre happenings turns out. The answer is ok, not nearly as imaginative as the mysteries themselves, but adequate. The end was very touching as well, in keeping with the spirit of the book. A very pleasant and unique reading experience. I hope this was helpful.

I believe Jonathan Carroll has a truly great book in him, and this one comes as close as anything I've read by him. It's flawed by an ultimately silly plot line about alien interference in human lives, but the heart of the story is purely human. Frances McCabe has travelled far and hard to find peace of mind before returning to his home town and becoming a police chief. He was a cocky youngster, a troubled juvenile delinquent, a Vietnam veteran - all selves he has absorbed willingly or unwillingly into bemused middle age. He is astonished to find himself where he is: a respected man in the town that expected him to end up in jail, best friend of a man who repeatedly arrested him as a youth, married to a woman he adores, though his adolescent self had thoroughly despised her. His past selves are by no means gone, surfacing in a fondness for losers, "the perfume of grilling T-bone steaks," and a Ducati Monster motorcycle - "the evil `F*** me - I'm a god!' sound of its 900cc engine alone is worth the price of admission."

McCabe's world begins to go awry when a three-legged, mottled, pathetic dog appears on his doorstep, dies, is buried, but somehow refuses to stay in the ground. Its carcass returns with a heartbreakingly lovely smell and a strange feather. McCabe suspects that someone in town is playing with his mind, but the story takes a far stranger turn when a strutting teenager begins to give him advice, and he recognizes the youth as his own adolescent self. McCabe will meet all his loved and unloved past and future selves before the story ends. The device that brings this to pass is so ridiculous that it damages the novel, but the real story remains McCabe's unfaltering affection for his crazy life. His difficult past has made him caring, not cynical, and he is a keen observer of the world around him, seeing people and events with a hard-beaten sense of wonder and humor.

It's rare to find a writer who can match a character sketch like this with the steady detail that makes it real, but Carroll has that ability. McCabe's personality breathes on the first page: "Never buy yellow clothes or cheap leather. That's my credo and there are more. Know what I like to see? People killing themselves. Don't misunderstand; I'm not talking about the poor f***s who jump out windows or stick their sorry heads into plastic bags forever. No `Ultimate Fighting Championship' either, which is only a bunch of rabid crewcuts biting each other. I'm talking about the guy on the street, face the color of wet lead, lighting up a Camel and coughing up his soul the moment he inhales. Good for you, Sport! Long live nicotine, stubbornness, and self indulgence."

Carroll's scenario in The Wooden Sea is the hero whose strength is put to the test, and the author has placed the Trials of Job in front of McCabe. Halfway through, a plague of locusts would be a welcome relief. Ultimately, though, it's an uneven contest, for McCabe has been through fire before, and is as solid as they come. Unlike Job, he perseveres for his love of people, not his fear of the gods, and he will sacrifice no one but himself to their whims. His success comes at a huge price, but he pays it without question. He has been played with by the gods, even agreed to play their games, but the gods are certainly the worse by comparison.

This is the best JC novel yet for me. Bones of the Moon had been my former favorite(and first by JC for me). I have always found his prose entertaining and fast. Dean Koontz's writing has a similar comfortable voice that moves along. His books are shorter and more terse than most writers. His prose isn't flowery. I find his romantic inclusions in his stories to be entertaining, real, not gushy.

Top of my list in this book is that Frannie McCabe is a great character. He is memorable, very real, distinct, likable. His talk and attitude actually made me laugh out loud at some quips--something books never manage to do for me--despite loving comedy in movies and tv.

I have read about 5 of JC's books and with this book I realized that he is not merely reusing people or place names from book to book but that there is some story building...a pantheon of characters and places. There is a larger story being told through many novels.

Despite playing with a concept (I will not reveal) that I feel has been used to death, especially in SciFi, I still enjoyed the treatment. I was worried at one point that it would just be another of those stories. I was only disappointed the that book ended... I wanted more.

"How do you row a boat on a wooden sea?"

Well, for anyone who has ever meditated on koan, this book comes very close to mirroring what happens to the ego as it wrestles with such a question. The book starts innocently enough but then begins its descent into a weird universe as the main character flips back and forth through time trying to answer a question.

The characters are certainly not 'normal' in any sense of the word - think PK Dick or perhaps J Lethem - and the situations are certainly run-of-the-mill. But the questions Carroll is trying to wrestle with are not easily asked, let alone trying to come up with answers. Starting from a quite mundane state the main character, McCabe, begins his descent into weirdness that culminates with time-traveling aliens.

Carroll always treads a razor-like line between the mundane and the weird, much like Murakami. I still prefer Murakami's stylistic touches, or perhaps I should say, lack of stylistic touches. That is, Carroll appears much less neutral in his role as storyteller than Murakami. Both writers certainly seem to share a fascination with what is always lurking below apparently bland surfaces.

It would appear to me that Carroll is trying to allude to some sort of involvement in an Eastern tradition such as Zen. Certainly his novels have a strong current of mysticism and strong warnings about tempering the ego's drive.