- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; New edition edition (9 May 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0575072911
- ISBN-13: 978-0575072916
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 11 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 606,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Frannie McCabe was an obnoxious juvenile delinquent in his teens, but has settled down into comfortable middle age in the small town of Crane's View as its chief of police. Like other Jonathan Carroll protagonists, the hero of The Wooden Sea is about to find himself caught up in uncanny goings-on. First a dog walks into his office and drops dead. More importantly, it will not stay buried, then a quarrelling couple simply disappear and then Frannie finds himself haunted by his younger more abrasive self, and by visions of the last day of his life, as an old man about to be knocked down by a motorbike in Vienna.
What all this means, and what lessons Frannie is supposed to take from it all, are where the questions lie. Anyone who has read an earlier Carroll novel will know the sorts of thing that are liable to happen, the sorts of thing that they are likely to mean--but any reader of an earlier Carroll novel will almost certainly be buying any of his books they can get hold of, anyway. This is an inventive and moving fantasy by a writer who more or less defined dark fantasy as a critical term.--Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
What would happen if, in the middle of your life, you were to meet your seventeen-year-old self? And what if he told you had lived all wrong, but, lucky for you, he was here to help you fix it? But what if you had only a week to fix it because it just so happens you also somehow just experienced the last day of your life and the clock is ticking. What if? Frannie McCabe realises something's seriously screwy in his life when the dead dog he buried keeps turning up again. The Sciavos, a couple whose domestic war keeps the police department on their toes, disappear completely. And his teenage self arrives, full of attitude, to help Frannie sort out his mistakes - before it's too late. This is classic Carroll: engrossing, believable, surreal and compulsive: small town America as we know it really is, deep down inside.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I can sum up "The Wooden Sea", by Jonathan Carroll, in one, quick statement: Absolutely the best book that I have ever read. Through all 300 odd pages I was as intrigued, compelled, and astounded as I was when I first began the story at a Borders cafe.
To begin with, I hadn't read a Jon Carroll book in a long time, three years exactly, and upon seeing advertisements for his North American tour--posted on Neil Gaiman's (another favorite author! read him!) online journal--imediately began reminiscing about his older books. Since I am only fifteen years old, and he was not coming to my town, I gave my sister a ring--whose city would house Mr. Carroll for one evening--and politely asked her if she could get me an autograph of his latest book. Of course, being the good sister she is, she complied and on November 14 got my copy of "White Apples" signed.
Knowing I had a book signed by him, my interest in Jonathan Carroll was renewed doubly. And on one of my usual bookstore visits, I came across "The Wooden Sea". I decided to give it a read over a cup of coffee. Though the coffee I had ordered tasted unusualy delicious, it surely was not as delicious as the book I had begun to read. Jonathan draws you so tightly into this story and all the characters that I felt that I was Frannie McCabe--the main character-- and that I was experiencing all the uncanny madness that he was. Jonathan also does such an incredible job of making this fantastical story--which some authors could not--believable.
Reading this book is like staring at a Salvidor Dali painting. The scene is so surreal and flat out strange that you know none of this could ever happen, but Jonathan succeeds enormously in making you, in the far reaches of the back of your mind, ask: What if?
This is my favorite book of all time and I will treasure the magic that Jonathan Carroll has given me til the day they lock shut my coffin. I HIGHLY reccomend "The Wooden Sea"--along with the almost-equally good "White Apples"--to anyone who knows how to read. You won't regret reading this book.
To begin with, I hadn't read a Jon Carroll book in a long time, three years exactly, and upon seeing advertisements for his North American tour--posted on Neil Gaiman's (another favorite author! read him!) online journal--imediately began reminiscing about his older books. Since I am only fifteen years old, and he was not coming to my town, I gave my sister a ring--whose city would house Mr. Carroll for one evening--and politely asked her if she could get me an autograph of his latest book. Of course, being the good sister she is, she complied and on November 14 got my copy of "White Apples" signed.
Knowing I had a book signed by him, my interest in Jonathan Carroll was renewed doubly. And on one of my usual bookstore visits, I came across "The Wooden Sea". I decided to give it a read over a cup of coffee. Though the coffee I had ordered tasted unusualy delicious, it surely was not as delicious as the book I had begun to read. Jonathan draws you so tightly into this story and all the characters that I felt that I was Frannie McCabe--the main character-- and that I was experiencing all the uncanny madness that he was. Jonathan also does such an incredible job of making this fantastical story--which some authors could not--believable.
Reading this book is like staring at a Salvidor Dali painting. The scene is so surreal and flat out strange that you know none of this could ever happen, but Jonathan succeeds enormously in making you, in the far reaches of the back of your mind, ask: What if?
This is my favorite book of all time and I will treasure the magic that Jonathan Carroll has given me til the day they lock shut my coffin. I HIGHLY reccomend "The Wooden Sea"--along with the almost-equally good "White Apples"--to anyone who knows how to read. You won't regret reading this book.
Format:Hardcover
Some time ago, browsing through the pages of Locus Magazine I found a pair of articles from Gary K.Wolfe, one of the most respected critics of the field, reviewing "The Wooden Sea" and "White Apples". I got more than a favourable impression from them so just after completing their reading I went to the author's site and grabbed a chapter called "Chocolate covered god" from "White Apples". My first impressions where soon reinforced so I bought both books from amazon.co.uk.
Now, I've recently finished "The Wooden Sea" and I must confess I feel really disappointed. Although Carroll writes with great style and technique, as I advanced through the pages I got progressively the impression he had no previous argument in mind. Being as it was well written I went on with it trusting all the incoherent threads would get some sense at the end in an amazing display of genius. Unfortunately the miracle was never done. Now I think Carroll's book compares well to one of those impressionist paintings which are inspired more by the artist mood than by a concrete idea.
Now, I've recently finished "The Wooden Sea" and I must confess I feel really disappointed. Although Carroll writes with great style and technique, as I advanced through the pages I got progressively the impression he had no previous argument in mind. Being as it was well written I went on with it trusting all the incoherent threads would get some sense at the end in an amazing display of genius. Unfortunately the miracle was never done. Now I think Carroll's book compares well to one of those impressionist paintings which are inspired more by the artist mood than by a concrete idea.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Jonathan Carroll should be declared a national treasure. The breadth and scope of his imagination is staggering.The fact he has turned out novel after novel of the highest quality over the past two decades only adds to his stature. A good writer does it once in a while. A great one does it again and again and that is Carroll. I'm embarrassed to say I was so eager to read this book that I bought a bound galley of it for a ridiculous price at eBay. But now that I've read it, I'm glad I did. If you've read the other two books in this "Crane's View Trilogy" you'll be delighted to know the protagonist is Frannie McCabe,the sexy chief of police. And boy, does he have a story to tell. Jonathan Lethem, who won last years' National Book Award in the US said this: "The Wooden Sea is one of his funniest, strangest, and most melancholy offerings." It is also one of his very best.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Perfect Start Just Slipped Away With The Tide
Oh dear, dear, dear, dear, dear! There I was about 100 pages into Jonathan Carroll's magical box of unbelievable tricks - I'd never read anything so incredible, and so excitingly... Read more
Published on 16 Mar 2007 by Mr. John Frank Herbert
Interzone Magazine
"If anyone else had written it, THE WOODEN SEA might be merely a wearisome farrago of impossibilities. Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2006 by concerned reader
Great characters killed by a surfeit of strangeness
Jonathan Carroll seems to be one of those authors people rave about, but I found this novel (the first of his I've read) disappointing, largely because of the way it developed. Read more
Published on 6 Aug 2002
Back at his best
I am a big fan of Carroll's work,and here he has succeded in writing another work of art.this is the story of police lieutenant Frannie McCabe,who in this book must search to find... Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2001 by paulcs583@thefreeinternet.co.uk
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