The Marriage of Sticks (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jonathan Carroll is a writer other writers envy. He's been described as a "cult favorite" whose works go out of print too quickly in the USA, despite his popularity in Europe and the admiration of reviewers. It may be because Carroll uses fantastic elements, but doesn't write genre fantasy; his books are often haunting, even frightening, but they're not horror novels. He puzzles you, surprises you, and always makes you think about how what he's saying might apply to your life.

In The Marriage of Sticks, Miranda Romanac is a thirtysomething dealer in rarities who loves her work and lifestyle, but feels unfulfilled. As her friend Zoe says,

you don't expect anything better to happen because you've lived too long and seen too much to have any more hope. I'm luckier than you. I don't think life's very friendly either, but I know we can control hope. You can turn it on and off like a spigot. I try to keep mine on full blast.

Miranda struggles to change her life after upsetting revelations at a high school reunion. She has an affair with a married man who leaves his wife and children for her. She lives with ghosts of her past and future, with what might have been and could be. She's forced to face the consequences of her actions and the effect she has on others' lives by being who she is. Finally, she learns "to live without everything" and be content. --Nona Vero

From Publishers Weekly

In the first half of Carroll's new fantasy (after Bones of the Moon), there is little to prepare readers for the surrealism of the second half. Over one hundred pages of aged protagonist Miranda Romanac's memoirs of quotidian high school and yuppie romance drag by. Although there are wonderful insights and poetic phrases, the whole is drowned in eldersprache: actual scenes are far outweighed by a distancing voice heavy with reflection. Then, in the midst of Miranda's passionate adulterous affair with a New York art dealer, very strange things start to happen. Miranda's lover suddenly dies. Apparitions haunt and bloody her in the house given to her by Frances Hatch, a former mistress of Kazantzakis and Giacometti. Alternate worlds open before her, and Frances helps Miranda navigate: they have an ancient connection, it turns out. The writing abruptly shifts in the second half, becoming poetic and magical, dense with a wonderful strangeness reminiscent of Fellini and urgent with inklings of horrors around the corner. Miranda must discover the awful truth of what she is, while weird ancients watch and guide. Carroll often startles with the deftness of his insights, both personal and metaphysical, and there are many lines that, for their poetry, one wants to cut out and frame. But this book is alarmingly full of shoehorns and ad hoc explanations. It feels as if Carroll drafted part one at a gallop, then crafted part two as an improvisation, reincorporating and reinterpreting the opening material as fantastic: too many rabbits from too many hats. But for all the overweening cleverness, beauty and wisdom reside here. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312871937
• ISBN-13: 978-0312871932
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,269,011 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every segment has some little surprise and delight!, September 29, 1999

By A Customer

Im so totally awestruck and in love that I HAD to run right in here and talk to you about it! I have never been so impressed with a writer. He doesn't do any fancy dancing--no literary gimmicks...but man oh man, this Carroll can WRITE!

His newest book Marriage of the Sticks starts off in a very ordinary way--a high school reunion. So ordinary that I thought, uh oh...I'm going to be disappointed. But then he slowly starts introducing characters that I would LOVE to know! I really really want to sit down and talk to them.

Every darn time he taps into something so odd yet familiar, something really appealing. I just don't know how he's doing this, but he writes about such interesting things and thoughts. And I've just read a couple of paragraphs that are worth the price of the book and the shipping from England! (it will be out here in september I think) Where does he GET these ideas???? I'm not saying what it is because it's too savory. You should come across it and discover it for yourself if you read this book. Now of course, one of the notions imbued in the reading of Carroll is a tension-ANYTHING could happen. So every knock on a door makes you wonder who might reappear; every dog that enters a room makes you ask...could this be Vanasque or someone I'll love?

Every segment has some little surprise and delight. The main character in this one is a woman (<G>) and she deals in rare books and other precious objects. The incidental characters (at least I think they are) are intriguing and yet unexplained in full. But they have flesh even though they only pass through a scene or two. The ideas....the things he talks about . . . it's like taking a mental bubble bath; I just want to soak and roll in sheer delight.

Can one fall in love just by reading a man's words, even though they're intended for millions? I feel so foolish, but this guy amazes me! Again!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars another brilliant Carroll novel, May 18, 2000

By	M. H. Bayliss "book queen" - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

For over 10 years I have read and enjoyed Carroll's novels. Every one gives you the same sensation: things start out seemingly normal until little by little odd things start to happen. In this sense, he reminds me of Rachel Ingalls, another one of my favorite but obscure writers. Because the odd things creep up slowly, everything seems plausible until you end up in a mind-blowing fantasy world and wonder how the heck you got there! Elevators open up into other epochs, animals talk and people look strangely familiar even though you have never met them before. I have never read a Carroll novel in more than 1 sitting: once you start, you are completely hooked until the end. I can't understand why he's not one of the most famous writers in the USA -- he's very popular in Europe (lives in Vienna), but here you can barely find his books -- all his classics except a few recent ones are out of print. Do yourself a favor and read his latest one, The Marriage of Sticks, as an introduction -- it's excellent, although others are better. I love Bones of the Moon and Voices of our Shadow the most. He inspires all sorts of subversive thoughts -- in my case, Carroll makes me wish I'd stolen the public library copies I found of all his old books. Seek out all his books and let's bring Carroll back to mainstream America. He'll change how you think.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Carroll writes another beautiful book., October 10, 1999

By	Justin ([e-mail]) (United States) - See all my reviews

Fans of Jonathan Carroll know what it's like to crave for something else by this man to read. So when The Marriage of Sticks came out, a sigh of relief was heard round the world. It's like a drug, and just when our DTs were getting their worst, we get another hit of Carroll. This is a magnificent book and absolutely beautiful in parts, which is hard to come by these days. If anyone cares what I think, I recommend this highly.