Bones of the Moon (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The Axe Boy lived downstairs..." (more)
Key Phrases: Jack Chili, Alvin Williams, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Carroll's first novel, The Land of Laughs, is something of a minor classic, but this one, his third, is, ultimately, a failure. A young woman named Cullen, happily married and the mother of an infant daughter, begins having unusually coherent dreams, set in a fabulous land called Rondua. She dreams she is on a quest, accompanied by a young boy whom she comes to realize is the child she aborted several years before. Eventually Cullen and her son are put in confrontation with an evil, protean monster known as Jack Chili. We learn that in some forgotten time Cullen had failed at a previous confrontation, failed morally, abandoning her compatriots to save herself. Shrouded in symbolic imagery, this is a veiled reference to the abortion, as the book increasingly functions, however subtly, as anti-abortion polemic. More of a problem,in the narrative, are sentimentality in lieu of emotion, occasionally cloying preciousness and the general superficiality of characterization.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The comfortable daytime world of Cullen James gives way at night to a fantastic dream landscape in which a talking dog and a child named Pepsi lead her on a search for five magical bones. In spare but striking prose, the author of Voice of Our Shadow constructs a powerful story that traverses the two-way street between dreams and reality. Recommended. JC
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 217 pages
• Publisher: Arbor House Pub Co; Book Club (BCE/BOMC) edition (January 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877959374
• ISBN-13: 978-0877959373
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #404,891 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Source Material for "Sandman", April 25, 2001

By	Rodney Meek (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bones of the Moon (Paperback)

I bought this mainly because I knew that Neil Gaiman of "Sandman" fame had cited Jonathan Carroll as an inspiration. This particular book makes it quite clear the degree to which Mr. Gaiman is indebted to Mr. Carroll.

Major plot points and themes from the "A Game of You" arc of "Sandman" were lifted from "Bones of the Moon". Both feature an adult's return to the dreamworld of their childhood, where they are guided by animal companions on a quest to save the land. And in both, some of these companions will die, and others will turn out to be...not quite what they seem. Oh, yeah, both protagonists have flamboyantly gay best friends, but that's pretty common these days in books, TV, and movies. It's a weird kind of marginalization, in which authors can feel they've shown solidarity with the homosexual community, while not actually elevating any gay or lesbian character to a lead role. But I digress.

In any case, the "real world" settings of this book are largely a European's idea of life in urban America. There are scenes in Italy, where all of the Europeans are cool and interesting and unique. But once in NY, the only characters to drift into play are ethnic street scum and a famous movie director, who talks as if he is not quite of this earth, or perhaps as if he's French and takes himself and his art far too seriously.

The entire book is--perhaps deliberately--permeated with a dream-like look and feel. People talk in odd ways, as if they've had days to think of their lines yet cannot understand their emotional essence. Characters accept improbable revelations all too readily, as if hungering for a connection with something magical. Yet the dreamworld of Rondua is presented in a rather pedestrian fashion, and seems to be a place that's a lot like our world, except with sillier names. This may be by design, as if Carroll is letting the reader fill in the dream reality by his or her self. He's largely content to simply mention things such as the Wooden Mice or the Perfumed Hammer and let the reader decide what these are.

Be that as it may, the book will likely be of interest to any hardcore "Sandman" fans to show how Gaiman has transformed the material for his own purposes.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thrilling dissolution of the line between fantasy/reality., April 8, 1997

By A Customer

This is truly an incredible book. Have you ever wondered if what you dreamed was real in some other world? Can you imagine the thrilling possibilities -- and the danger? If you are fascinated by the dissolution of the line between fantasy and reality, this book is a must-read.

Cullen James' wonderful-yet-ordinary life takes a turn for the strange when she starts having dreams about a fantastic land called Rondua and a young boy named Pepsi. As the dreams become more vivid and commanding, Cullen learns that Pepsi is the child she aborted years ago. From that point on, the dreams weave themselves tighter and tighter into Cullen's waking life, until the two cannot be separated and survival in "reality" absolutely depends on success in Rondua.

Jonathan Carroll takes your weirdest mental flights of fancy and makes them real. Anything can happen, and nowhere is "safe".

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some hasty pacing, but overall great, May 18, 2006

By	Kit M (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bones of the Moon (Paperback)

My college girlfriend passed this book along to me as one of the best examples of a man's reasonable and nuanced perspective on the issues of abortion and motherhood. Bones of the Moon does demonstrate this (it comes as no surprise to me that the author lives in Austria) as well as a fanciful story with great sensory details, sweet oddball characters and a surprising ending. The heroine, Cullen, begins the story with, "The axe boy lived downstairs." If that isn't a compelling introduction, then I haven't found a better one. Cullen is an attractive, young New Yorker. She recently married to a nice guy and gave birth to their daughter. Cullen leads a fulfilling, if somewhat ordinary life, up until she begins to have very vivid dreams of a fantasy world called Rondua. In Rondua, Cullen possesses an uncanny amount of authority over the sentient creatures who live there, mainly due to her connection to a little boy named Pepsi. The dreams somehow inform Cullen that Pepsi is the child she aborted when she was a lonely young woman. Pepsi's destiny points to a significant role in vanquishing an enemy of Rondua, with Cullen aiding him along the way. While the pacing of the story sort of stagnates after the birth of Cullen's child and her settling into life as a mother and wife in Manhattan, it's when Cullen's dream activities and waking life begin to intersect that the story escalates and hurtles us (a little too abruptly) to a shocker of a conclusion.

I really enjoyed all the characters, especially Danny, Cullen's husband, and Pepsi, Cullen's guide in Rondua and supposed lost first kid. I appreciated the transition from Cullen as a confused girl in a crappy relationship who needs to terminate a pregnancy to a competent and happy mom in a committed marriage. Trouble is, we barely get to see any of it. Most of the anxiety-riddled thoughts of Cullen's youth feel rushed over only to bring us to the pat, present-day setting where Cullen and Danny have an excellent thing going on. But once we get to this point, Carroll's storytelling keeps us in the moment and curious about the importance of the Rondua dreams, the crossing over of the dreams into real life and the safety of Cullen and her family.