- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown; First Edition edition (11 April 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0356195899
- ISBN-13: 978-0356195896
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.5 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 473,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A prize-winning architect is pursued by the wealthy Sultan of Saru, who wants him to design a billion-dollar dog museum. After a devastating earthquake the Sultan is assassinated, and his son wants the museum built in the Austrian Alps. The author's cult novels include "A Child Across the Sky".
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is the fourth of the six volume series that John Clute has called the "Answered Prayers" sequence. None of the six require the reading of any others (this was the fourth one I read and it worked perfectly on its own) 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.
Our protagonist is Harry Radcliffe a highly successful and acclaimed architect. However, Harry went a little bit off the rails and his cure required the intervention of the apparently ordinary (but definitely not) Venasque. Venasque was a potent shaman who also helped characters in books two and three (Sleeping In Flame and A Child Across The Sky). Venasque has now passed away although he still seems to be able to contact his pupils and Harry has taken charge of Venasque's dog Big Top who has many unique qualities of his own. Now back to considering work Harry is toying with but not seriously considering the commission of the Sultan of Saru to build a Dog Museum (dogs have saved the Sultan's life several times) but at the same time Harry is busy running between two alpha females as he indulges himself. When Harry visits the Sultan to turn down the request an earthquake hits the building and Harry and the Sultan are saved by Big Top leading them out of the building. Now it seems Harry must proceed with the commission and so begins the challenge of doing this set against the backdrop of a revolution in the Sultanate, the murder of the Sultan and ultimately Harry's own belated recognition that he is building something a bit more unique than a museum.
Outside The Dog Museum 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. We are four books into the themes Carroll wants to address and he is fully warmed to his task now. Jonathan Carroll writes about the human condition, its transiency, why we do not always want to have our prayers answered or be a "golden" one and does it with some entrancing prose. Highly recommended.
Our protagonist is Harry Radcliffe a highly successful and acclaimed architect. However, Harry went a little bit off the rails and his cure required the intervention of the apparently ordinary (but definitely not) Venasque. Venasque was a potent shaman who also helped characters in books two and three (Sleeping In Flame and A Child Across The Sky). Venasque has now passed away although he still seems to be able to contact his pupils and Harry has taken charge of Venasque's dog Big Top who has many unique qualities of his own. Now back to considering work Harry is toying with but not seriously considering the commission of the Sultan of Saru to build a Dog Museum (dogs have saved the Sultan's life several times) but at the same time Harry is busy running between two alpha females as he indulges himself. When Harry visits the Sultan to turn down the request an earthquake hits the building and Harry and the Sultan are saved by Big Top leading them out of the building. Now it seems Harry must proceed with the commission and so begins the challenge of doing this set against the backdrop of a revolution in the Sultanate, the murder of the Sultan and ultimately Harry's own belated recognition that he is building something a bit more unique than a museum.
Outside The Dog Museum 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. We are four books into the themes Carroll wants to address and he is fully warmed to his task now. Jonathan Carroll writes about the human condition, its transiency, why we do not always want to have our prayers answered or be a "golden" one and does it with some entrancing prose. Highly recommended.
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"I read the reissue of OUTSIDE THE DOG MUSEUM and was blown away by it. It may very well be his best book. I made the mistake, the first time I read it 14 years ago, of thinking of it as a fantasy novel instead of a mainstream philosophical novel with fantasy tropes. Carroll, like Graham Joyce, uses fantasy tropes but he isn't a fantasy writer. There's an argument that Mahler's 10 symphonies are really only parts of one vast search for the meaning of life. I think of Carroll's novels the same way. They're all a search for transcendence through mystic or surrealist means."
Charles Brown, editor
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
13 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Extraordinary writing
13 July 1999
Format:Hardcover
Amazing how this author handles his story... or stories?... there are so many of them. The main impression this novel left in me is the vivacity of its writing. It gives off tremendous energy and I just wonder how you can achieve that in a WRITTEN medium. It's like looking beyond the pages at the reality of the author's mind. Everything's for real, and funny how such a "real" book can contain so many supernatural elements. All in all, I'm amazed by the abilities of Jonathan Carroll.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A fascinating literary trek into magical realism courtesy of Jonathan Carroll
2 Dec 2006
Format:Paperback
When the likes of fantasy authors as diverse as Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub and Jonathan Lethem are praising Jonathan Carroll's work, offering it the finest compliments that they can muster, then you know that Carroll is an author worthy of your attention (All three provided memorable blurbs in the back cover of this book's paperback edition.). Truly, without question, Carroll is both a memorable writer and a fine literary stylist. However, at least not in "Outside the Dog Museum", should he be regarded as a writer of fantasy. Instead, I concur with another reviewer who noted that this novel is truly a philosophical novel draped in moments of magical realism. Carroll's usage of magical realism may not be as beguiling as those from the likes of Borges and Garcia Marquez for example, but nonetheless, he manages to do a fine job of it in this novel.
Caroll's fine prose is written in a breezy, almost conversational, style, that works well in his depictions of the protagonist, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Harry Radcliffe, and his intense personal and romantic relationship with both of his mistresses, Claire and Fanny, who know each other well. After winning his award - and recovering from a recent divorce through the aid of a bizarre mental therapist - Radcliffe is offered a commission by the Sultan of Saru - a fictitious Gulf State emirate - to be a dog museum in honor of the sultan's late father, the previous ruler of the emirate. What follows is a series of fascinating, and occasionally confusing, adventures and misadventures for Harry Radcliffe set in both the emirate and Vienna, Austria - where the museum is ultimately built. Not only must he contend with his complex personal relationships with both of his mistresses and his therapist, Harry is unexpectedly confronted with a fundamentalist Islamic rebellion against the Sultan of Saru within his emirate. Until the very end Carroll does a fine literary juggling act, but his less than memorable conclusion is the main reason why his fine novel isn't earning my highest praise.
Caroll's fine prose is written in a breezy, almost conversational, style, that works well in his depictions of the protagonist, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Harry Radcliffe, and his intense personal and romantic relationship with both of his mistresses, Claire and Fanny, who know each other well. After winning his award - and recovering from a recent divorce through the aid of a bizarre mental therapist - Radcliffe is offered a commission by the Sultan of Saru - a fictitious Gulf State emirate - to be a dog museum in honor of the sultan's late father, the previous ruler of the emirate. What follows is a series of fascinating, and occasionally confusing, adventures and misadventures for Harry Radcliffe set in both the emirate and Vienna, Austria - where the museum is ultimately built. Not only must he contend with his complex personal relationships with both of his mistresses and his therapist, Harry is unexpectedly confronted with a fundamentalist Islamic rebellion against the Sultan of Saru within his emirate. Until the very end Carroll does a fine literary juggling act, but his less than memorable conclusion is the main reason why his fine novel isn't earning my highest praise.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
from LOCUS MAGAZINE, July 2005
25 July 2005
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
"I read the reissue of OUTSIDE THE DOG MUSEUM and was blown away by it. It may very well be his best book. I made the mistake, the first time I read it 14 years ago, of thinking of it as a fantasy novel instead of a mainstream philosophical novel with fantasy tropes. Carroll, like Graham Joyce, uses fantasy tropes but he isn't a fantasy writer. There's an argument that Mahler's 10 symphonies are really only parts of one vast search for the meaning of life. I think of Carroll's novels the same way. They're all a search for transcendence through mystic or surrealist means."
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
