- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Orb Books; Reprint edition (3 May 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312873123
- ISBN-13: 978-0312873127
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14.1 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 433,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is the first of the six volume series that John Clute has called the "Answered Prayers" sequence. None of the six require the reading of any others but reading them all in sequence does give rise to understanding of some subtleties and can assist your own postulation of what might be going on underneath the higher levels of story. Bones of the Moon was written before Carroll himself had realised he would link it with further books and in my view had a slightly different feel to most of the other novels or indeed Carroll's post "Answered Prayers" works.
Our protagonist is Cullen James, a lady with a wonderful marriage, husband, child and life who has strange dreams of a country called Rondua, a past trauma and who has two "admirers" in the shape of a boy downstairs and a famous movie director. The dreams become something more when the movie director, Weber Gregston (the character that ultimately links all of Answered Prayers together) starts to also dream of Rondua. Only by working through the dreams and their interrelationship to her waking life can Cullen make herself whole again.
Bones of the Moon uses many of the trademarks of a great Carroll novel, sucking us in with believable characters and great storytelling. With subtle shifts of scene and story we gradually move from the world we know into one decidedly disturbing and different but because of the starting position it remains very believable. There are elements of out and out fantasy in the dream life of Cullen. At times this is overbearing but Carroll understands both that anything can happen in dreams and that dreams do not recognise a master and take you where they want to go. There will be some sequence here that will ring true to you to remind you just how illogical dreams can be, such as when the animal "guides" in the dreams tell the stories "...how the mountains had learned to run, why only rabbits were allowed pencils and when the birds had decided to become all be one colour...".
Bones Of the Moon is not Carroll's best work. As with many male authors, the female lead is not quite authentic. In places it is a little too fantastical and stretched but I am being picky and judging it by the very high standards of the later "Answered Prayers" novels. It is a fascinating tale in its own right and provides interesting background to the later novels. If however, you are a first time Carroll reader I would start with The Land Of Laughs (not part of "Answered Prayers") or Sleeping In Flame (the second "Answered Prayers" book which is where the idea of turning it into a sequence arose and which loses nothing by being read first).
Our protagonist is Cullen James, a lady with a wonderful marriage, husband, child and life who has strange dreams of a country called Rondua, a past trauma and who has two "admirers" in the shape of a boy downstairs and a famous movie director. The dreams become something more when the movie director, Weber Gregston (the character that ultimately links all of Answered Prayers together) starts to also dream of Rondua. Only by working through the dreams and their interrelationship to her waking life can Cullen make herself whole again.
Bones of the Moon uses many of the trademarks of a great Carroll novel, sucking us in with believable characters and great storytelling. With subtle shifts of scene and story we gradually move from the world we know into one decidedly disturbing and different but because of the starting position it remains very believable. There are elements of out and out fantasy in the dream life of Cullen. At times this is overbearing but Carroll understands both that anything can happen in dreams and that dreams do not recognise a master and take you where they want to go. There will be some sequence here that will ring true to you to remind you just how illogical dreams can be, such as when the animal "guides" in the dreams tell the stories "...how the mountains had learned to run, why only rabbits were allowed pencils and when the birds had decided to become all be one colour...".
Bones Of the Moon is not Carroll's best work. As with many male authors, the female lead is not quite authentic. In places it is a little too fantastical and stretched but I am being picky and judging it by the very high standards of the later "Answered Prayers" novels. It is a fascinating tale in its own right and provides interesting background to the later novels. If however, you are a first time Carroll reader I would start with The Land Of Laughs (not part of "Answered Prayers") or Sleeping In Flame (the second "Answered Prayers" book which is where the idea of turning it into a sequence arose and which loses nothing by being read first).
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
30 reviews
19 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Source Material for "Sandman"
25 April 2001
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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
A thrilling dissolution of the line between fantasy/reality.
8 April 1997
Format:Hardcover
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".
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Early masterpiece by a fantastic author
29 Nov 1999
Format:Paperback
Jonathan Carroll is one of my favorite authors, and I spent years trying to track this down. I finally got a copy and it was worth all of the time and energy and waiting.
This book is one of Carroll's earliest, and introduces a number of memorable characters: Cullen James, the main character, and Weber Gregston, who appears in some of Carroll's later books.
This book tells the story of Cullen's vivid dream life, but more importantly it makes some keen observations on courage, love, and friendship. The real pleasure of reading Jonathan Carroll is in finding all of the little nuggets he includes--a vivid description of a street scene, or a sensation, or a new way of looking at something.
Take the plunge & give this book a shot. You won't be sorry.
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