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Answered Prayers #4
Outside the Dog Museum
Harry Radcliffe is a brilliant prize-winning architect---witty and remarkable. He's also a self-serving opportunist, ready to take advantage of whatever situations, and women, come his way. But now, newly divorced and having had an inexplicable nervous breakdown, Harry is being wooed by the extremely wealthy Sultan of Saru to design a billion-dollar dog museum. In Saru, he finds himself in a world even madder and more unreal than the one he left behind, and as his obsession grows, the powers of magic weave around him, and the implications of his strange undertaking grow more ominous and astounding....
267 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
About the author
Jonathan Carroll
119 books1,139 followersJonathan Carroll (b. 1949) is an award-winning American author of modern fantasy and slipstream novels. His debut book, The Land of Laughs (1980), tells the story of a children’s author whose imagination has left the printed page and begun to influence reality. The book introduced several hallmarks of Carroll’s writing, including talking animals and worlds that straddle the thin line between reality and the surreal, a technique that has seen him compared to South American magical realists.
Outside the Dog Museum (1991) was named the best novel of the year by the British Fantasy Society, and has proven to be one of Carroll’s most popular works. Since then he has written the Crane’s View trilogy, Glass Soup (2005) and, most recently, The Ghost in Love (2008). His short stories have been collected in The Panic Hand (1995) and The Woman Who Married a Cloud (2012). He continues to live and write in Vienna.
Outside the Dog Museum (1991) was named the best novel of the year by the British Fantasy Society, and has proven to be one of Carroll’s most popular works. Since then he has written the Crane’s View trilogy, Glass Soup (2005) and, most recently, The Ghost in Love (2008). His short stories have been collected in The Panic Hand (1995) and The Woman Who Married a Cloud (2012). He continues to live and write in Vienna.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews
September 9, 2021
while i wait, seemingly endlessly, for subterranean press to send me my damn copy of The Woman Who Married a Cloud: Collected Stories, i will sit here and reflect on older jonathan carroll books and try to get him a few more fans. periodically, i will plop one of these reviews out for my unsung heroes: jonathan carroll and donald harington, in hopes that someone will take the bait.
frequently it works.
this particular book is a good starting point for someone looking to enter the world of jonathan carroll. true - characters from sleeping in flame appear in it, but not in any significant way that will mystify you if you are only going to read this one. also - venasque. venasque is in several of jonathan carroll's books, but every time he is encountered, it may as well be for the first time. he is at once a cipher, and just what he appears.
if that makes no sense to you, you probably have never read jonathan carroll before. those kinds of paradoxes are just par for the course in carrolltown.
his work is woven out of dreams, visions, coincidences and contradictions, parallelisms, mysticism, world mythology and folktales...jonathan carroll does what he does, over and over, but it never really feels redundant. his female characters are always enigmatic and fantastically desirable, there's always going to be a bull terrier, there is usually going to be some sort of porousness between the boundaries of life and death. and he will usually not stick the landing. it's true. he is not great at endings. but because he is uncommonly good with the actual journey part, it doesn't really bother me. his books always feel like he is working through a thought-cycle for his own amusement. they are fiction, but there is an intensely personal tone to his books that is very inviting, and they read like he is having just as much fun with his characters and his socio-philosophical puzzles as the reader.
me, i don't always need a strict writing workshop 101 exposition/action/denouement (yeah, i collapsed it a little - bite me) as long as what i am reading is giving me consistent brainpunches of "oh, that is it exactly" and "ohhhhh - what a wonderful turn of phrase." he has a very fresh take on all the old themes that reads like the final word on the matter. why would anyone reading jonathan carroll ever need to read anyone else trying to make sense of relationships, or grief, or purpose?
and the conversations...his characters frequently have conversations that i imagine leonard cohen would initiate. (and, yes, j.c. loves l.c. - their shared erotic mysticism is no accident) (not that they have ever shared anything erotic. to my knowledge.) their clarity, their insights, their paring down love and death and being to its essentials. even carroll's douchey characters, like harry radcliffe in this one, are startlingly lucid and will frequently have insights that have been silently thrumming along under your skin, and when you read them, they are at once familiar and a revelation.and he is great at just tossing off one-liners, like
- Buying a pair of shoes is one of the most optimistic acts i know, next to falling in love
- Everything you want in life has teeth
- For lunch that day I ate fried mice
and then longer ones:
yeah, i know - a little treacly, but i'm a romantic, what can i say?
and then he will just toss off little stories as asides that illuminate everything he is examining in such a perfect way, that they could stand alone and you would be perfectly content to ruminate on them for hours.
this one is his most overtly biblical - focusing on the tower of babel story, but with his own spin, and a little nod to borges. but it broadens the story into a more universal mythology that is very satisfying and unexpected.
i have no idea if this is a review, but it is an endorsement for jonathan carroll, at the very least. i will go back to waiting by the mailbox.
come to my blog!
frequently it works.
this particular book is a good starting point for someone looking to enter the world of jonathan carroll. true - characters from sleeping in flame appear in it, but not in any significant way that will mystify you if you are only going to read this one. also - venasque. venasque is in several of jonathan carroll's books, but every time he is encountered, it may as well be for the first time. he is at once a cipher, and just what he appears.
if that makes no sense to you, you probably have never read jonathan carroll before. those kinds of paradoxes are just par for the course in carrolltown.
his work is woven out of dreams, visions, coincidences and contradictions, parallelisms, mysticism, world mythology and folktales...jonathan carroll does what he does, over and over, but it never really feels redundant. his female characters are always enigmatic and fantastically desirable, there's always going to be a bull terrier, there is usually going to be some sort of porousness between the boundaries of life and death. and he will usually not stick the landing. it's true. he is not great at endings. but because he is uncommonly good with the actual journey part, it doesn't really bother me. his books always feel like he is working through a thought-cycle for his own amusement. they are fiction, but there is an intensely personal tone to his books that is very inviting, and they read like he is having just as much fun with his characters and his socio-philosophical puzzles as the reader.
me, i don't always need a strict writing workshop 101 exposition/action/denouement (yeah, i collapsed it a little - bite me) as long as what i am reading is giving me consistent brainpunches of "oh, that is it exactly" and "ohhhhh - what a wonderful turn of phrase." he has a very fresh take on all the old themes that reads like the final word on the matter. why would anyone reading jonathan carroll ever need to read anyone else trying to make sense of relationships, or grief, or purpose?
and the conversations...his characters frequently have conversations that i imagine leonard cohen would initiate. (and, yes, j.c. loves l.c. - their shared erotic mysticism is no accident) (not that they have ever shared anything erotic. to my knowledge.) their clarity, their insights, their paring down love and death and being to its essentials. even carroll's douchey characters, like harry radcliffe in this one, are startlingly lucid and will frequently have insights that have been silently thrumming along under your skin, and when you read them, they are at once familiar and a revelation.and he is great at just tossing off one-liners, like
- Buying a pair of shoes is one of the most optimistic acts i know, next to falling in love
- Everything you want in life has teeth
- For lunch that day I ate fried mice
and then longer ones:
When you love someone deeply, you know secrets they haven't told you yet. or secrets they aren't even aware of themselves...she was also the person I wanted to share the trivia of my life with, because that too is part of the magic of concern: whatever you live is important to them and they will help you through it.
yeah, i know - a little treacly, but i'm a romantic, what can i say?
and then he will just toss off little stories as asides that illuminate everything he is examining in such a perfect way, that they could stand alone and you would be perfectly content to ruminate on them for hours.
this one is his most overtly biblical - focusing on the tower of babel story, but with his own spin, and a little nod to borges. but it broadens the story into a more universal mythology that is very satisfying and unexpected.
i have no idea if this is a review, but it is an endorsement for jonathan carroll, at the very least. i will go back to waiting by the mailbox.
come to my blog!
January 24, 2024
Jonathan Carroll writes novels as most people live their lives — the journey is a muted wonder, while the destination/end is mostly boring and banal. Few have a chance at a heroic, or even a particularly interesting death, and more of us than not arrive at our end with more regrets than not. Yet, if we are honest and observant, our lives are full of fascinating pleasures and sadness, small wonders, brief epiphanies, and, if we pay close attention, even moments of true magic. Our end is mostly pointless, but the journey there is amazing.
That is why I keep going back to Carroll’s novels. His endings are often disappointing, anticlimactic, or off putting. But the journey there! Ah now, the journey he provides to that end are gloriously twisted and sublime. His unique characters and plots, his odd and fascinating magical realism, are worth the effort even when he fails to stick his landing.
Outside the Dog Museum stands out precisely because Carroll for once matched his ending to the journey. The finish here was perfect, right on pitch, down to the last word. Marcus Aurelius said that the strange thing about living well was that it included learning how to die well, (or something like that). With Outside the Dog Museum, Jonathan Carroll has finally mastered that art in the life that is his writing.
That is why I keep going back to Carroll’s novels. His endings are often disappointing, anticlimactic, or off putting. But the journey there! Ah now, the journey he provides to that end are gloriously twisted and sublime. His unique characters and plots, his odd and fascinating magical realism, are worth the effort even when he fails to stick his landing.
Outside the Dog Museum stands out precisely because Carroll for once matched his ending to the journey. The finish here was perfect, right on pitch, down to the last word. Marcus Aurelius said that the strange thing about living well was that it included learning how to die well, (or something like that). With Outside the Dog Museum, Jonathan Carroll has finally mastered that art in the life that is his writing.
April 29, 2014
I read this on the recommendation of a friend, who told me that this was one of her favorite books but didn't tell me what it was about. In retrospect, I'm glad she didn't try to summarize this story, and that I went into it with only the short synopsis on the back cover to go on.
Even after finishing the book, I'm not sure if I can describe the plot, or if I should even try. On the surface, the story is about an architect being hired by the sultan of a Middle Eastern country to build a museum dedicated to dogs. The reason the sultan wants this museum to be built is because he believes that dogs have saved his life on multiple occasions, and he wants to honor them. Before we can start thinking that the sultan is nuts, we see him and the architect caught in an earthquake, and guided to safety by the architect's dog. The sultan believes that the dog is a verz - a magical guardian. By the time I was halfway through the book, I believed him.
That's the world Jonathan Carroll has constructed here: where magic and religion coexist, where a selfish architect can be chosen to carry out God's work, where spiritual guides are everywhere. I still don't know if I totally understand everything that happened, but I'm okay with that uncertainty. Here's what I know for sure: Carroll is a damn good writer, and he can send chills down your spine with one sentence:
"Look, you read the fairy tales when you were a kid. Rub the lamp and a genie comes out, but so do a lot of other things! The greatest thing that can happened in life is your wish comes true. Or the worst thing that happens is your wish comes true. I'm the other side of the wish, honey. The dark side of the moon. I'm the one who can walk on your voice."
Jesus, that's fucking good. It's unfair how good that is. The whole book is like that, full of philosophy and religion hidden in a surreal story about the construction of a dog museum. I don't understand how Carroll did it, and I don't understand everything about it, but I know that it's incredible.
"'Listen, I want to tell you something last. My speech is coming apart, everything is, but stay with me. I'll try to make it clear enough to understand for you. Mankind's always paid too much attention to the dead. It's been a fundamental part of life itself. Don't you do this, Harry. Forget the dead. Forget the dying. It was never part of God's design. Man invented death, and so long as it continues to fascinate him, God allows it to remain.' The next time the big man tried, he was able to get up again and make it to the door. 'Threaten the dead. Make them afraid with what you create. Any man who loves his work forgets the dead, even his own. Any human work that is finished shows them again how incomplete they are.'"
Even after finishing the book, I'm not sure if I can describe the plot, or if I should even try. On the surface, the story is about an architect being hired by the sultan of a Middle Eastern country to build a museum dedicated to dogs. The reason the sultan wants this museum to be built is because he believes that dogs have saved his life on multiple occasions, and he wants to honor them. Before we can start thinking that the sultan is nuts, we see him and the architect caught in an earthquake, and guided to safety by the architect's dog. The sultan believes that the dog is a verz - a magical guardian. By the time I was halfway through the book, I believed him.
That's the world Jonathan Carroll has constructed here: where magic and religion coexist, where a selfish architect can be chosen to carry out God's work, where spiritual guides are everywhere. I still don't know if I totally understand everything that happened, but I'm okay with that uncertainty. Here's what I know for sure: Carroll is a damn good writer, and he can send chills down your spine with one sentence:
"Look, you read the fairy tales when you were a kid. Rub the lamp and a genie comes out, but so do a lot of other things! The greatest thing that can happened in life is your wish comes true. Or the worst thing that happens is your wish comes true. I'm the other side of the wish, honey. The dark side of the moon. I'm the one who can walk on your voice."
Jesus, that's fucking good. It's unfair how good that is. The whole book is like that, full of philosophy and religion hidden in a surreal story about the construction of a dog museum. I don't understand how Carroll did it, and I don't understand everything about it, but I know that it's incredible.
"'Listen, I want to tell you something last. My speech is coming apart, everything is, but stay with me. I'll try to make it clear enough to understand for you. Mankind's always paid too much attention to the dead. It's been a fundamental part of life itself. Don't you do this, Harry. Forget the dead. Forget the dying. It was never part of God's design. Man invented death, and so long as it continues to fascinate him, God allows it to remain.' The next time the big man tried, he was able to get up again and make it to the door. 'Threaten the dead. Make them afraid with what you create. Any man who loves his work forgets the dead, even his own. Any human work that is finished shows them again how incomplete they are.'"
May 26, 2012
There are times when I'd like to punch that hamster in my head, that one that wakes me up in the middle of the night to start spinning its stupid little wheel or causes every action to be immediately followed by a paralyzing few hours of second-guessing, did I say the right thing or wouldn't it have been better if I had done that instead ohgodletmegobackintimeandredoit! It reminds me a little of that Calvin&Hobbes strip where the dad points out angular velocity to Calvin and the last panel shows Calvin in bed, little hands clutching his pillow with bloodshot eyes and knit brows, hah! Sigh. That hamster has been making a move on my enjoyment of reading, its squeaking and incessant running-in-place preventing the slow fade and melt into a book where I lose track of the time and awareness of my surroundings...I miss that. I'm tired.
This would be an easy one to stutter through, stopping to think overmuch about significance and parallels. I wish I could be as effortless in that as certain others! I am put to shame. But I'm glad Carroll is a skilled enough storyteller that it was possible to read this with the hamster in a chokehold. I admit, I didn't attempt to fold this into my own life though it's always tempting to find ways to put me in the center of the universe. :) There was stuff about communication, meaning of life, selfishness, and a surprising thread of Biblical that appeared towards the end. But, also, magic dogs!
I finished this while shivering outside a cafe, the sun failing to break through to let me look at it. People were walking by with their labs, setters, poodles, but just one, some kind of terrier with a pushed-up nose, sniffed my hem. The lady said he likes you (more likely, I need to do laundry). That warmed me a little bit. Later, as I rounded the corner to leave, I saw this lady with her dog waiting for her companion. She asked about this book and laughed when I told her it involved dogs. She said if it's on the NYT best-seller list she probably wouldn't like it. I gave her the book. It seemed appropriate. I hope she likes it.
This would be an easy one to stutter through, stopping to think overmuch about significance and parallels. I wish I could be as effortless in that as certain others! I am put to shame. But I'm glad Carroll is a skilled enough storyteller that it was possible to read this with the hamster in a chokehold. I admit, I didn't attempt to fold this into my own life though it's always tempting to find ways to put me in the center of the universe. :) There was stuff about communication, meaning of life, selfishness, and a surprising thread of Biblical that appeared towards the end. But, also, magic dogs!
I finished this while shivering outside a cafe, the sun failing to break through to let me look at it. People were walking by with their labs, setters, poodles, but just one, some kind of terrier with a pushed-up nose, sniffed my hem. The lady said he likes you (more likely, I need to do laundry). That warmed me a little bit. Later, as I rounded the corner to leave, I saw this lady with her dog waiting for her companion. She asked about this book and laughed when I told her it involved dogs. She said if it's on the NYT best-seller list she probably wouldn't like it. I gave her the book. It seemed appropriate. I hope she likes it.
March 5, 2012
how to begin? how to begin again?
the novel begins by introducing us to a world-class architect, named harry radcliffe, who has a nervous breakdown, acquires the services of a shaman, and then tries to put his life back together. he is asked to design a dog museum in a fictional middle eastern country called saru, by the current leader, the sultan. what follows after this is established leaps into a beguiling and peculiar story, where magic and god seem to thread themselves through harry's quest to find what life he will build for himself, and what he will be. the subtitle, "a novel of love, death, and architecture" neatly sums up the subject matter. there is a lot of all three in this novel, and i don't know more of the meat of the story need be revealed in this review than is captured in those words.
this is a wonderfully rendered little alternate earth of carroll's -- he has an extraordinary facility with creating a near reality, filled with vivid characterizations. the protagonist is a charming bastard who interacts with a lot of other characters, in a landscape sometimes beautiful, sometimes hostile and sometime both. some of the characters come into the book and quickly go, there are others who stay even if they are gone, and there are many little moments, as there are in life. then there are harry's satellites in this journey: his companions, bronze, then fanny and claire, the sultan and his son, palm and hassenhuttl, the animals connie and bigtop, and above all, the remarkable venasque who looms large over the book, who really engage with him in a profound way, and in some cases, are cognizant that their exchanges are where their strength lies. we learn a lot when harry is talking to the people in his life, some things i should probably try to apply to my own.
the only reservation i have about this book is that i sometimes didn't appreciate the small disconnects in the narrative. to be omniscient or not to be omniscient -- is that the question? slight unreliability in our narrator? was her hair seal black or blonde? we're told 'they never see each other again' but they do. but this is a small thing in the midst of all the riches here, the many wonderful little stories, analogies, sometimes parables, the little side journeys we take when harry begins to travel. initially i worried that i might be liking the book for the cocteau quotes that litter the first section, but i soon saw them seed the evolution of harry throughout the book, and the book itself, the author unfolding the novel's journey and its philosophical ideas in tandem with harry's immersion in them by velasque. aside from the wisdom of the shaman, which i loved so much that i read the first forty or pages five times before i could go on, and the story the sultan tells of god as a black man who had his lunch stolen is a stand-out for me. i already find myself thinking about it in reflection.
this is really a 4.5. i'm really glad that karen is so vocal in her championing of this writer. i will definitely be reading more.
the novel begins by introducing us to a world-class architect, named harry radcliffe, who has a nervous breakdown, acquires the services of a shaman, and then tries to put his life back together. he is asked to design a dog museum in a fictional middle eastern country called saru, by the current leader, the sultan. what follows after this is established leaps into a beguiling and peculiar story, where magic and god seem to thread themselves through harry's quest to find what life he will build for himself, and what he will be. the subtitle, "a novel of love, death, and architecture" neatly sums up the subject matter. there is a lot of all three in this novel, and i don't know more of the meat of the story need be revealed in this review than is captured in those words.
this is a wonderfully rendered little alternate earth of carroll's -- he has an extraordinary facility with creating a near reality, filled with vivid characterizations. the protagonist is a charming bastard who interacts with a lot of other characters, in a landscape sometimes beautiful, sometimes hostile and sometime both. some of the characters come into the book and quickly go, there are others who stay even if they are gone, and there are many little moments, as there are in life. then there are harry's satellites in this journey: his companions, bronze, then fanny and claire, the sultan and his son, palm and hassenhuttl, the animals connie and bigtop, and above all, the remarkable venasque who looms large over the book, who really engage with him in a profound way, and in some cases, are cognizant that their exchanges are where their strength lies. we learn a lot when harry is talking to the people in his life, some things i should probably try to apply to my own.
the only reservation i have about this book is that i sometimes didn't appreciate the small disconnects in the narrative. to be omniscient or not to be omniscient -- is that the question? slight unreliability in our narrator? was her hair seal black or blonde? we're told 'they never see each other again' but they do. but this is a small thing in the midst of all the riches here, the many wonderful little stories, analogies, sometimes parables, the little side journeys we take when harry begins to travel. initially i worried that i might be liking the book for the cocteau quotes that litter the first section, but i soon saw them seed the evolution of harry throughout the book, and the book itself, the author unfolding the novel's journey and its philosophical ideas in tandem with harry's immersion in them by velasque. aside from the wisdom of the shaman, which i loved so much that i read the first forty or pages five times before i could go on, and the story the sultan tells of god as a black man who had his lunch stolen is a stand-out for me. i already find myself thinking about it in reflection.
this is really a 4.5. i'm really glad that karen is so vocal in her championing of this writer. i will definitely be reading more.
July 10, 2009
Even though I haven't quite finished reading this yet, the ending won't change the way I already feel. I will love this book no matter what the final unfolding reveals. Jonathan Carroll's writing has invoked in me a similar feeling as to when I first encountered Haruki Murakami and Tom Robbins in my younger years. A feeling that I must consume everything he has ever written as soon as my slow eyes can carry me across that finish line. But I'm older now and realize I must resist this urge. Resist the blurring of borders between books. I must instead consciously savor every book, sentence, and word with care. Draw out our encounter as long as possible. However unfortunately, managing compulsive tendencies has never been my forte.
September 2, 2013
it's so goofy and cute and unpredictable but sometimes I have a real hard time enjoying goofy and cute and unpredictable.
April 7, 2015
I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible for Jonathan Carroll to write something that I won't enjoy.
I came upon The Ghost in Love like a starving person, devouring every word and finding myself ultimately unsatisfied by the end of the book. The dissatisfaction did not come from disappointment in the story, the characters, or the writing - it was instead a devastating realization that the book was done. From that moment on I've been looking for these books madly, reading them all as they cross my path and anticipating more with an eagerness that borders on madness.
So, having a few Carroll books that I've yet to read in my possession I asked the equally insane Outside the Dog Museum has all of the hallmarks of a Jonathan Carroll book. There's a bull terrier, magic in the most understated a bizarre fashion you've ever read, Vienna, a distinct love and fascination with the world, and strange statements that make you think. "God is language." Well, is He?
I found Outside the Dog Museum to be a more straightforward Carroll book than I'm used to. It followed a more linear path than many of his other works, and in the end, made a bit more sense than I was expecting. As karen has stated before, Carroll's books tend to have somewhat weak endings. I thought that Outside the Dog Museum bucked that trend rather nicely, wrapping things up in a way that was appropriate for the story and not altogether unexpected.
This book was ultimately quite a beautiful experience, and I already know someone I'm eager to get to read it. Not necessarily lend the book to, as I'm rather proud of the first US edition that Jonas got me...
Also, how inappropriate is this cover? It looks a bit like Atlas Shrugged in one edition or another. It doesn't even have a bull terrier on it. Did someone read this and thing a bull terrier was a bulldog somehow?
I came upon The Ghost in Love like a starving person, devouring every word and finding myself ultimately unsatisfied by the end of the book. The dissatisfaction did not come from disappointment in the story, the characters, or the writing - it was instead a devastating realization that the book was done. From that moment on I've been looking for these books madly, reading them all as they cross my path and anticipating more with an eagerness that borders on madness.
So, having a few Carroll books that I've yet to read in my possession I asked the equally insane Outside the Dog Museum has all of the hallmarks of a Jonathan Carroll book. There's a bull terrier, magic in the most understated a bizarre fashion you've ever read, Vienna, a distinct love and fascination with the world, and strange statements that make you think. "God is language." Well, is He?
I found Outside the Dog Museum to be a more straightforward Carroll book than I'm used to. It followed a more linear path than many of his other works, and in the end, made a bit more sense than I was expecting. As karen has stated before, Carroll's books tend to have somewhat weak endings. I thought that Outside the Dog Museum bucked that trend rather nicely, wrapping things up in a way that was appropriate for the story and not altogether unexpected.
This book was ultimately quite a beautiful experience, and I already know someone I'm eager to get to read it. Not necessarily lend the book to, as I'm rather proud of the first US edition that Jonas got me...
Also, how inappropriate is this cover? It looks a bit like Atlas Shrugged in one edition or another. It doesn't even have a bull terrier on it. Did someone read this and thing a bull terrier was a bulldog somehow?
January 27, 2011
I usually love Jonathan Carroll but this is a mess which goes nowhere slow. Unlike many of his books which set up believeable characterisation and then insert an element of 'magic' and proceed to completely f*ck up those characters, this feels like the disparate threads of several books have been sewn together badly without any dramatic tension or interest. An architect coming through a mental breakdown is given a commission to build a Dog Museum - but really it's a test of his strength and abilities to build something else (no spoilers here). It feels like a pot boiler of a book - magical, fantastical elements are introduced matter-of-fact, the protagonist never sufficiently questioning what is happening to my personal satisfaction. This is a half-book, an unworked premise, and - like much of Carroll's work - the ending is flat. Despite occasional intriguing moments, this low key work didn't engage. But it's an easy enough read for Carroll completists.
May 28, 2013
Just not enough at stake here, and I think I may just need to stop reading books whose narrators/protagonists are callow contemporary American white guys for a while. Literarily, they form a remarkably narrow type that has been so completely over-explored to so little resulting revelation that I simply don't CARE about what happens to them anymore, whether or not there's magic involved, or biblical fairy tales, or whatever. There, I've said it. I thought of trying another of Carroll's books, but since he apparently recycles a lot of his characters and his tropes, not sure if there's much point.
September 24, 2017
Todo lo que se pueda decir en una sinopsis de este libro es insuficiente. Lo he acabado y todavía no tengo muy claro de qué va.
¿Lo recomiendo? Así en general no.
El inicio es muy bueno. Va saltando entre distintos puntos narrativos en el espacio y tiempo mediante flashbacks e historias que van presentando a los distintos personajes. Muy bien narrado, con mucha ligereza y buen hacer. A esta parte del libro le daría cuatro estrellas.
Una vez que el contexto está medianamente planteado la historia se centra en el protagonista y pierde ritmo e interés. No es que la parte inicial no estuviese enfocada en él. Lo era pero en muchos momentos cuenta historias y en ellas es un sujeto pasivo. Las cosas le pasan como si fuese una bola de pinball y va de una a otra y es muy entretenido. A esta parte central que lleva hasta casi las últimas páginas le daría dos estrellas.
Cerca del final empieza a remontar un poco y se acaba.
Hay un comentario que se repite en las reseñas y es que el libro podría haber durado cincuenta o cien páginas más y sería igual. Es cierto pero al final sería estar dando vueltas en torno a los mismos temas y no creo que el abrupto final estuviese más pulido.
Para mí ha merecido la pena y es probable que pruebe con otro del autor pero tampoco es algo especial. Y tengo curiosidad por saber cómo se desarrollará y de que irá otro libro suyo.
¿Lo recomiendo? Así en general no.
El inicio es muy bueno. Va saltando entre distintos puntos narrativos en el espacio y tiempo mediante flashbacks e historias que van presentando a los distintos personajes. Muy bien narrado, con mucha ligereza y buen hacer. A esta parte del libro le daría cuatro estrellas.
Una vez que el contexto está medianamente planteado la historia se centra en el protagonista y pierde ritmo e interés. No es que la parte inicial no estuviese enfocada en él. Lo era pero en muchos momentos cuenta historias y en ellas es un sujeto pasivo. Las cosas le pasan como si fuese una bola de pinball y va de una a otra y es muy entretenido. A esta parte central que lleva hasta casi las últimas páginas le daría dos estrellas.
Cerca del final empieza a remontar un poco y se acaba.
Hay un comentario que se repite en las reseñas y es que el libro podría haber durado cincuenta o cien páginas más y sería igual. Es cierto pero al final sería estar dando vueltas en torno a los mismos temas y no creo que el abrupto final estuviese más pulido.
Para mí ha merecido la pena y es probable que pruebe con otro del autor pero tampoco es algo especial. Y tengo curiosidad por saber cómo se desarrollará y de que irá otro libro suyo.
January 18, 2016
„Czasami droga jest jedynym ciałem stałym pod stopami człowieka, a zatrzymał się on, ponieważ musi spojrzeć na nią, właśnie teraz, by się upewnić, że tam jest. Bo nie ma niczego innego.”
Jonathan Carroll, „Muzeum Psów”
"If you're going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill
„Muzeum Psów” to pierwsze moje spotkanie z Carrollem. Wcześniej „znaliśmy się tylko z widzenia”. Znajomości nie pogłębiła nawet zakupiona przeze mnie „Szklana zupa”, która do tej pory łypie na mnie złowrogo z półki, czując się całkiem zapomniana. Długo dojrzewałam do decyzji, żeby wrócić do fantastyki, z którą przecież niekoniecznie się lubię. Realizm magiczny? Miałam spore wątpliwości. W końcu przełamałam się i zaryzykowałam. Po lekturze mogę uderzyć się w pierś. „Muzeum Psów” należy do czołówki przeczytanych przeze mnie ostatnio książek.
Bohaterem powieści jest Harry, sławny architekt. Świat okrzyknął go geniuszem, a główny zainteresowany chełpi się tym na każdym kroku. Uważa się niemal za boga – szuka miejsc „niedokończonych” – takich, w których mógłby się zabawić w Wielkiego Kreatora. Nie interesują go kompletne przestrzenie. Tylko to, co może zostać wypełnione przez realizację jego projektu, zasługuje na uwagę. Ten swoisty pociąg do niekompletności odbija się na innych sferach życia Harry’ego. Choć kobiety do niego lgną, nie potrafi podjąć decyzji, która jest tą jedyną. Związek małżeński jest relacją, w której szybko zaczyna się dusić. Znacznie bardziej interesują go relacje niesformalizowane. Jak można się łatwo domyślić, jego partnerki pragną jednak poczucia stabilizacji. Tymczasem Harry do tego stopnia nie potrafi (i nie chce) składać kolejnej przysięgi małżeńskiej, że… decyduje się na dwa nieformalne związki jednocześnie. Obie kobiety o sobie wiedzą. Akceptują ten stan, choć się nienawidzą. Harry siedzi na tykającej bombie. Jakby tego było mało, kontaktuje się z nim sułtan Saru. W pełni świadomy, że jego życiu zagraża niebezpieczeństwo, uznaje, że to ostatni moment, żeby zapisać się w pamięci potomnych. Prosi Harry’ego o to, żeby zaprojektował tytułowe Muzeum Psów. Wkrótce okazuje się, że budynek znaczy dużo więcej, niż można by się było tego spodziewać.
„Muzeum Psów” jest książką trudną. Nawet teraz, kilka godzin po lekturze, mam wrażenie, że wielu aspektów nie zrozumiałam, nie wychwyciłam. Czytanie książki Carrolla przypomina trochę jedzenie pomarańczy. Kiedy już wydaje ci się, że obrałeś cały owoc i rzucasz się do jedzenia, zaczynasz mieć wrażenie, że coś jest nie tak, choć pyszny sok atakuje twoje kubki smakowe. Cholera, musiałeś nie zerwać białej części skórki. Tak samo jest w przypadku „Muzeum Psów”. Dosłownie zachłysnęłam się tym, co próbował mi powiedzieć autor, choć mam świadomość tego, jak wiele prawdziwej treści zdołało się przede mną ukryć. A przyznać trzeba, że pisarz ma wiele do powiedzenia.
Carroll wykorzystuje postać Harry’ego, żeby uświadomić czytelnikowi coś bardzo ważnego. Nie warto być pokornym, jeśli chce się zostać uznanym za geniusza. Jednak z pokorą znacznie łatwiej jest odnaleźć szczęście, które nie zawsze wiąże się z sukcesem zawodowym. Każdy z nas musi zadecydować, czego pragnie bardziej. Czy można połączyć obie te płaszczyzny? Pewnie tak. Ale musimy się tego podjąć sami, choć nikt nie jest w stanie nam obiecać, że nasze starania zakończą się powodzeniem.
Autor „Muzeum Psów” igra sobie nieco z klasyką. Tworzy motyw przeciwny do „Exegi monumentum”. Sugeruje, że niebezpiecznie jest skupiać się na efekcie dzieła. Efekt jest nietrwały. To, co zostaje wzniesione przez człowieka, przez człowieka może też zostać zniszczone. Jednak starania wkładane przez nas w pracę żyją tak długo, jak żyjemy my. Tworzą nas, kiedy my tworzymy nasze mniejsze lub większe dzieła. To, czy uda nam się stworzyć wymarzony efekt końcowy, zależy nie tylko od nas. Może się okazać, że będziemy często upadać. Może się okazać, że wielokrotnie będziemy musieli zaczynać od nowa. Pytanie brzmi: czy znajdziemy w sobie dość siły, żeby spróbować raz jeszcze? Jeśli tak, wygraliśmy sami ze sobą. Liczy się bowiem pokonywana przez nas droga.
Piękne w „Muzeum Psów” jest to, że powieść nie ma jedynej słusznej interpretacji. Książka zmienia się w zależności od tego, kto ją czyta. I choć równie dobrze stwierdzenie to można odnieść niemal do każdego utworu, to w przypadku Carrolla jest ono szczególnie trafne. Autor otwiera przed czytelnikami furtki. To, czy ujrzymy za nimi ukojenie, rozdrażnienie, smutek, ból, poczucie sensu czy niepewność, zależy tylko do nas samych.
Dawno nie namieszała mi tak w głowie żadna książka fantastyczna. Twórczość Carrolla, jeszcze kilka dni temu kompletnie mi obca, okazała się być silnym narkotykiem. I choć na co dzień jestem dość asertywna, z tym dilerem ciężko będzie mi zerwać kontakt…
Jonathan Carroll, „Muzeum Psów”
"If you're going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill
„Muzeum Psów” to pierwsze moje spotkanie z Carrollem. Wcześniej „znaliśmy się tylko z widzenia”. Znajomości nie pogłębiła nawet zakupiona przeze mnie „Szklana zupa”, która do tej pory łypie na mnie złowrogo z półki, czując się całkiem zapomniana. Długo dojrzewałam do decyzji, żeby wrócić do fantastyki, z którą przecież niekoniecznie się lubię. Realizm magiczny? Miałam spore wątpliwości. W końcu przełamałam się i zaryzykowałam. Po lekturze mogę uderzyć się w pierś. „Muzeum Psów” należy do czołówki przeczytanych przeze mnie ostatnio książek.
Bohaterem powieści jest Harry, sławny architekt. Świat okrzyknął go geniuszem, a główny zainteresowany chełpi się tym na każdym kroku. Uważa się niemal za boga – szuka miejsc „niedokończonych” – takich, w których mógłby się zabawić w Wielkiego Kreatora. Nie interesują go kompletne przestrzenie. Tylko to, co może zostać wypełnione przez realizację jego projektu, zasługuje na uwagę. Ten swoisty pociąg do niekompletności odbija się na innych sferach życia Harry’ego. Choć kobiety do niego lgną, nie potrafi podjąć decyzji, która jest tą jedyną. Związek małżeński jest relacją, w której szybko zaczyna się dusić. Znacznie bardziej interesują go relacje niesformalizowane. Jak można się łatwo domyślić, jego partnerki pragną jednak poczucia stabilizacji. Tymczasem Harry do tego stopnia nie potrafi (i nie chce) składać kolejnej przysięgi małżeńskiej, że… decyduje się na dwa nieformalne związki jednocześnie. Obie kobiety o sobie wiedzą. Akceptują ten stan, choć się nienawidzą. Harry siedzi na tykającej bombie. Jakby tego było mało, kontaktuje się z nim sułtan Saru. W pełni świadomy, że jego życiu zagraża niebezpieczeństwo, uznaje, że to ostatni moment, żeby zapisać się w pamięci potomnych. Prosi Harry’ego o to, żeby zaprojektował tytułowe Muzeum Psów. Wkrótce okazuje się, że budynek znaczy dużo więcej, niż można by się było tego spodziewać.
„Muzeum Psów” jest książką trudną. Nawet teraz, kilka godzin po lekturze, mam wrażenie, że wielu aspektów nie zrozumiałam, nie wychwyciłam. Czytanie książki Carrolla przypomina trochę jedzenie pomarańczy. Kiedy już wydaje ci się, że obrałeś cały owoc i rzucasz się do jedzenia, zaczynasz mieć wrażenie, że coś jest nie tak, choć pyszny sok atakuje twoje kubki smakowe. Cholera, musiałeś nie zerwać białej części skórki. Tak samo jest w przypadku „Muzeum Psów”. Dosłownie zachłysnęłam się tym, co próbował mi powiedzieć autor, choć mam świadomość tego, jak wiele prawdziwej treści zdołało się przede mną ukryć. A przyznać trzeba, że pisarz ma wiele do powiedzenia.
Carroll wykorzystuje postać Harry’ego, żeby uświadomić czytelnikowi coś bardzo ważnego. Nie warto być pokornym, jeśli chce się zostać uznanym za geniusza. Jednak z pokorą znacznie łatwiej jest odnaleźć szczęście, które nie zawsze wiąże się z sukcesem zawodowym. Każdy z nas musi zadecydować, czego pragnie bardziej. Czy można połączyć obie te płaszczyzny? Pewnie tak. Ale musimy się tego podjąć sami, choć nikt nie jest w stanie nam obiecać, że nasze starania zakończą się powodzeniem.
Autor „Muzeum Psów” igra sobie nieco z klasyką. Tworzy motyw przeciwny do „Exegi monumentum”. Sugeruje, że niebezpiecznie jest skupiać się na efekcie dzieła. Efekt jest nietrwały. To, co zostaje wzniesione przez człowieka, przez człowieka może też zostać zniszczone. Jednak starania wkładane przez nas w pracę żyją tak długo, jak żyjemy my. Tworzą nas, kiedy my tworzymy nasze mniejsze lub większe dzieła. To, czy uda nam się stworzyć wymarzony efekt końcowy, zależy nie tylko od nas. Może się okazać, że będziemy często upadać. Może się okazać, że wielokrotnie będziemy musieli zaczynać od nowa. Pytanie brzmi: czy znajdziemy w sobie dość siły, żeby spróbować raz jeszcze? Jeśli tak, wygraliśmy sami ze sobą. Liczy się bowiem pokonywana przez nas droga.
Piękne w „Muzeum Psów” jest to, że powieść nie ma jedynej słusznej interpretacji. Książka zmienia się w zależności od tego, kto ją czyta. I choć równie dobrze stwierdzenie to można odnieść niemal do każdego utworu, to w przypadku Carrolla jest ono szczególnie trafne. Autor otwiera przed czytelnikami furtki. To, czy ujrzymy za nimi ukojenie, rozdrażnienie, smutek, ból, poczucie sensu czy niepewność, zależy tylko do nas samych.
Dawno nie namieszała mi tak w głowie żadna książka fantastyczna. Twórczość Carrolla, jeszcze kilka dni temu kompletnie mi obca, okazała się być silnym narkotykiem. I choć na co dzień jestem dość asertywna, z tym dilerem ciężko będzie mi zerwać kontakt…
August 28, 2023
2 of the 3 main characters are unlikable for much of the novel, including the main one.
Still a worthy read.
3.5 stars
Still a worthy read.
3.5 stars
May 1, 2022
So confession time: this is the second book of this author I've read and the Land of Laughs remains one of my favourite books. This... not so much. I think I just didn't get it.
It doesn't have this atmosphere of mystery and magic, the Land of Laughs had. Characters are... okay, but it is it's only saving grace. It feels as if it was going forever, the events are more absurd than magical and the book has basically no ending.
What is worst of all, reading through it was a slog, despite the book not being that long. Now I want to return to the Land of Laughs and see for myself if my perspective of that book changed or if I still love it.
It doesn't have this atmosphere of mystery and magic, the Land of Laughs had. Characters are... okay, but it is it's only saving grace. It feels as if it was going forever, the events are more absurd than magical and the book has basically no ending.
What is worst of all, reading through it was a slog, despite the book not being that long. Now I want to return to the Land of Laughs and see for myself if my perspective of that book changed or if I still love it.
September 27, 2009
"Outside the Dog Museum" was the first Jonathan Carroll novel I read. And I say "was", because I plan on reading more, even though this is the only one I have read.
Here is a synopsis from Publishers Weekly via Amazon.Com:
I had been wanting for a while to read something of Carroll's work. Though part of me was worried about taking a chance. I always got the feeling that his work was more metaphysical then I would be able to handle. Because of this, he seems to have an odd following. He's an American, now living in Austria, however his book are hard to find here in the States, though since reading this, they seem more readily available. On the other side of that, his books are rather popular in Europe. From what I understand, this book is similar to his others, meaning they are a bit fantastical, but not really. There are elements of magic, but you can't compare his work to Neil Gaiman's or others that write urban fantasy. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was very easy to slip into reading.
The characters aren't too terribly deep. In many respects it works for this story. Some of the uniqueness of the story would have been hidden under more character development. Also, given the nature of Harry's personality, and with the story being his first person narrative, it was another plus.
To be honest, if there were many messages in the story, I may have missed some, if not most, of them. But overall, the story was interesting enough to keep me tagging along. Some of the magic, or reasons things were happening, were not explained. Also, at times, I got the feeling that the characters just accepted the fact that there was magic at times, and unless it was very distressing, didn't question it. I missed having some explanation, but without much at all, and the characters reactions, it worked out to be another plus for the story.
The only thing that had me scratching me head was the ending. There some explanation was needed. Unless it was hidden under what I read and didn't get it. It wasn't bad. I sometimes like books that still leave questions unanswered. But the abrupt ending seemed to leave too much of a void, given one of the main reasons stated for the building of this Dog Museum.
The book hasn't put me off of Carroll's writing. It was more accessible then I expected, and I like the odd thing or two happening from time to time. This may have been a good book to start with, and I am interested in seeing what his other books will bring me.
Here is a synopsis from Publishers Weekly via Amazon.Com:
Here his narrator is a curmudgeonly genius, the aphorizing architect Harry Radcliffe, who, with the aid of a maverick therapist, has recently recovered from a mental collapse and is ready to reexamine his constructs of reality. He's also rebounding from an amicable divorce and conducts affairs with two fabulous females. Various developments - including an earthquake from which Radcliffe's party is miraculously rescued by a Middle Eastern sultan and the therapist's dog - oblige Radcliffe to accept the sultan's commission to build a vast dog museum. When war breaks out in the sultan's realm and he is killed, his son - a romantic rival for one of Radcliffe's lady loves - presses Radcliffe to build the museum on his property in Austria and promises to pay in magic. After further astonishing feats (leaping into other identities, the momentary reincarnation of the dead, etc.) the picaresque tone, surprisingly, yields at the end to a reprise of a biblical theme, turning this spirited novel into something like a moral tale.
I had been wanting for a while to read something of Carroll's work. Though part of me was worried about taking a chance. I always got the feeling that his work was more metaphysical then I would be able to handle. Because of this, he seems to have an odd following. He's an American, now living in Austria, however his book are hard to find here in the States, though since reading this, they seem more readily available. On the other side of that, his books are rather popular in Europe. From what I understand, this book is similar to his others, meaning they are a bit fantastical, but not really. There are elements of magic, but you can't compare his work to Neil Gaiman's or others that write urban fantasy. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was very easy to slip into reading.
The characters aren't too terribly deep. In many respects it works for this story. Some of the uniqueness of the story would have been hidden under more character development. Also, given the nature of Harry's personality, and with the story being his first person narrative, it was another plus.
To be honest, if there were many messages in the story, I may have missed some, if not most, of them. But overall, the story was interesting enough to keep me tagging along. Some of the magic, or reasons things were happening, were not explained. Also, at times, I got the feeling that the characters just accepted the fact that there was magic at times, and unless it was very distressing, didn't question it. I missed having some explanation, but without much at all, and the characters reactions, it worked out to be another plus for the story.
The only thing that had me scratching me head was the ending. There some explanation was needed. Unless it was hidden under what I read and didn't get it. It wasn't bad. I sometimes like books that still leave questions unanswered. But the abrupt ending seemed to leave too much of a void, given one of the main reasons stated for the building of this Dog Museum.
The book hasn't put me off of Carroll's writing. It was more accessible then I expected, and I like the odd thing or two happening from time to time. This may have been a good book to start with, and I am interested in seeing what his other books will bring me.
February 8, 2021
Holy shit. Wow. And many other exclamations. Seriously, I had no idea what I was in for when I got this book. I bought it a few years ago in a used book store primarily because Neil Gaiman is quoted on the back as saying that this author is magic and, in general, if the king of magic tells you that someone "has the magic", you listen. Well Neil, all I can say is: thank you!
Jonathan Carroll IS magic. His words, his ability to take you inside a character's mind, and most of all the world he puts you in, which is simultaneously new and foreign in its surrealism and extremely familiar in its reality. This version of real life in its many facets is SO familiar- the traffic, the people, the mannerisms, the noise, the news, the wars, the celebrity- this is very much the same earth that we are living on with all the places and things we know (or at least have heard of).
But it is also full of magic- actual, literal magic. Magic that doesn't establish firm rules and then follow them to the letter but rather shows up in strange and unexpected ways where even the people and animals who wield it don't know the rules. And that is, strangely, also very real. It feels like if magic did show up in your life it would be in strange, unexpected ways that you could never fully explain without sounding like a lunatic.
In this case, our lunatic is Harry Radcliffe- brilliant/famous architect, serial two-timer, self-involved asshole turned quietly good guy. He starts out not quite as an anti hero but rather an annoyingly endearing self-proclaimed asshole and turns into a human working hard to be- well, not an asshole. It's not a villain to hero transition because that would feel trite and the world in which his transformation takes place is far too rich and deep for anything trite. But being inside his head is a trip- one I was incredibly happy to take.
The plot, likewise, is unexpected and bizarre- but not off-puttingly weird. This craziness is both alien and accessible all at the same time. Like clearly this is not happening because it's not possible but if you stop questioning it and just accept it for what it is it makes perfect sense. That's one of the things that brings him out of his madness- don't assume you're mad and you won't be, even though what's happening couldn't possibly be happening. Sort-of akin to the distress tolerance I teach my clients- don't fight it and it won't be so painful.
As with so many authors I love, the pages of my copy are now spotted with highlighted sentences, passages, and paragraphs. Descriptions that capture so much so perfectly. Profound truths about us, our lives, our existence. Quiet moments that pack such a huge emotional punch in the memories of your own experience that they evoke... his writing is truly astounding.
I had absolutely no idea when I picked this up that it is apparently the 4th in a series of 6. I have literally no clue what the other books are about but I have a guess as to what they might have in common and now, because of this book, I am determined to read them. Having never heard of this author before this book I now say this to his adoring fans: I get it. I'm totally one of you now.
Jonathan Carroll IS magic. His words, his ability to take you inside a character's mind, and most of all the world he puts you in, which is simultaneously new and foreign in its surrealism and extremely familiar in its reality. This version of real life in its many facets is SO familiar- the traffic, the people, the mannerisms, the noise, the news, the wars, the celebrity- this is very much the same earth that we are living on with all the places and things we know (or at least have heard of).
But it is also full of magic- actual, literal magic. Magic that doesn't establish firm rules and then follow them to the letter but rather shows up in strange and unexpected ways where even the people and animals who wield it don't know the rules. And that is, strangely, also very real. It feels like if magic did show up in your life it would be in strange, unexpected ways that you could never fully explain without sounding like a lunatic.
In this case, our lunatic is Harry Radcliffe- brilliant/famous architect, serial two-timer, self-involved asshole turned quietly good guy. He starts out not quite as an anti hero but rather an annoyingly endearing self-proclaimed asshole and turns into a human working hard to be- well, not an asshole. It's not a villain to hero transition because that would feel trite and the world in which his transformation takes place is far too rich and deep for anything trite. But being inside his head is a trip- one I was incredibly happy to take.
The plot, likewise, is unexpected and bizarre- but not off-puttingly weird. This craziness is both alien and accessible all at the same time. Like clearly this is not happening because it's not possible but if you stop questioning it and just accept it for what it is it makes perfect sense. That's one of the things that brings him out of his madness- don't assume you're mad and you won't be, even though what's happening couldn't possibly be happening. Sort-of akin to the distress tolerance I teach my clients- don't fight it and it won't be so painful.
As with so many authors I love, the pages of my copy are now spotted with highlighted sentences, passages, and paragraphs. Descriptions that capture so much so perfectly. Profound truths about us, our lives, our existence. Quiet moments that pack such a huge emotional punch in the memories of your own experience that they evoke... his writing is truly astounding.
I had absolutely no idea when I picked this up that it is apparently the 4th in a series of 6. I have literally no clue what the other books are about but I have a guess as to what they might have in common and now, because of this book, I am determined to read them. Having never heard of this author before this book I now say this to his adoring fans: I get it. I'm totally one of you now.
November 30, 2014
The only reasons I picked up this book were that it was on the $1 rack at Half Price Books, I'd recently acquired a dog, and I like museums. I had never heard of the author. Oh, the main character was supposed to be an architect, and I like architecture, too. So I decided to give it a shot, and since it is a quirky book that was off my radar, I am reviewing it as well.
Do not read this book if you have no tolerance for mysticism (e.g. if you are my brother-in-law). There are magical realist elements, mixed with Islamic folklore - the protagonist is suspected of being an afrit. Dreams can be difficult to distinguish from reality. God is invoked. The eventual significance of the dog museum is perfectly preposterous. Also do not bother if you are completely over the privileged middle-aged white male genius in crisis as narrator.
Having got past those caveats, however, I found myself enjoying the book a lot. The main character's initial crisis is not just ennui but full blown mania, which is a lot more interesting. Some of the minor characters were well drawn, including a charismatic sultan and a terminally ill photographer. I had imagined conversations in my head with an architect friend over some of the juicy, opinionated passages related to architecture. And besides a good story, there is a great deal of philosophical interest here. Not a great book by any means, but certainly an intriguing one.
Do not read this book if you have no tolerance for mysticism (e.g. if you are my brother-in-law). There are magical realist elements, mixed with Islamic folklore - the protagonist is suspected of being an afrit. Dreams can be difficult to distinguish from reality. God is invoked. The eventual significance of the dog museum is perfectly preposterous. Also do not bother if you are completely over the privileged middle-aged white male genius in crisis as narrator.
Having got past those caveats, however, I found myself enjoying the book a lot. The main character's initial crisis is not just ennui but full blown mania, which is a lot more interesting. Some of the minor characters were well drawn, including a charismatic sultan and a terminally ill photographer. I had imagined conversations in my head with an architect friend over some of the juicy, opinionated passages related to architecture. And besides a good story, there is a great deal of philosophical interest here. Not a great book by any means, but certainly an intriguing one.
March 19, 2009
This the second in just as many of Carroll's books that I have read that have made me weep at the end of them. Just flat out weep. Not just because they are ending and because they are utterly poignant but because they express with such power what it means to be worth something and to have a purpose in life. To be a screw-up and to still be important in the story of things. To close your eyes to the possibilities of life until life has to smack you in the face with them. To get everything wrong again and again and to lose things because of that and maybe not get them back because the time has passed.
This book is so hilarious and so thought-provoking and so timeless and so sublimely ridiculous. Please read it immediately.
This book is so hilarious and so thought-provoking and so timeless and so sublimely ridiculous. Please read it immediately.
August 16, 2018
I think I've reached my limit with Carroll. Patterns become apparent: a strong-voiced narrator, engaging and interesting characters, the gradual introduction of the strange and inexplicable and how Carroll squares the circle by explaining them in a late-game revelation of a system or project far larger and stranger than the reader expected. The nature of that revelation is really not important, perhaps even an afterthought, but often relates to how mankind reaches toward God. But the important part is the human element, the characters struggling and reaching and often failing.
You read it for the voice, for the delicate expression of language, and the emotion and character. How the characters are impacted.
But it still feels like I've read this one before.
You read it for the voice, for the delicate expression of language, and the emotion and character. How the characters are impacted.
But it still feels like I've read this one before.
August 22, 2007
I don't read much Sci-Fi, but I enjoyed this read quite a bit. I guess I always expect lasers and other stupid crap in this genre, and there was none of that in this. I seem to remember picking up a 'magical realism' vibe in this, and it didn't annoy me that much.
June 3, 2009
Quirky, thoughtful, and funny. Great narrative voice, and a dead-on eyeball for L.A. - even though this is a global story, it's L.A. to the core. Memorable characters, lyrical prose, and an unpredictable story arc. Now I want to read everything else by this guy!
May 12, 2009
First book from this author that I read. Led to a life-long love affair, all his books are amazing!
September 7, 2013
I would like Carroll a lot more if he didn't feel the need to explain everything. I find his mysteries much more interesting than the explanations.
April 27, 2020
Despite being almost 20 years old, Outside the Dog Museum wears well. The settings are largely unchanged – the exclusive Santa Barbara hills where our asshole/genius architect protagonist lives, downtown Vienna, an Austrian mountainside where the Dog Museum is to be sited, and a fictional Middle-Eastern country about to be split by a fundamentalist vs. westernized civil war.
It’s the Sultan of this Middle-Eastern country who, despite religious prohibitions, wishes to honor dogs for intervening in and inspiring his life multiple times. The Sultan is a modern, benevolent daredevil who seems to have magical powers (wait – what?). He has a mid-20’s son who’s sleeping with one of the genius architect’s two simultaneous girlfriends, whom the genius picked up after his divorce, which was after the genius went temporarily mad and his then-wife hired the therapist shaman (wait…) and his spirit-guide dog (come again?), but this review gets ahead of itself, dear reader.
And it’s exactly that kind of non-linear plotting, fourth-wall-breaking, drop the magical world in anywhere stuff which gets really annoying.
The two girlfriends are a petite reporter with a childish temper who’s an amazing screw and, oh yes, intelligent, and a tall and slender shop owner who’s also good in the sack and who – our genius belatedly realizes – has a quirky, angelic manner which makes her better than he deserves. Both of these women, and the ex-wife who preceded them, are static characters. They neither grow nor change throughout the book. Ditto all the magical characters our genius meets along the way (some of whom may be imaginary). And ditto the Sultan who commissioned the museum, if only because he’s done in early on (and off screen).
Thus our story becomes about the change and growth of two characters – our genius as he wrestles with the building and his women, and the new Sultan, the son, who wrestles with civil war and winning over the reporter girlfriend (mostly off screen).
On the plus side, there are beautiful, original descriptions and tons of quotable quotes. The architecture portion deals with the creative process, choosing a site, the “sell,” and the human difficulties of running a large, long project. Aside from some name-dropping, even lay readers can keep up. And the dialogue is snappy, at least until the author wants to make philosophical and religious points near the end, which are delivered in page-long speeches.
Overall, a book which starts at a peak and heads downhill from there.
It’s the Sultan of this Middle-Eastern country who, despite religious prohibitions, wishes to honor dogs for intervening in and inspiring his life multiple times. The Sultan is a modern, benevolent daredevil who seems to have magical powers (wait – what?). He has a mid-20’s son who’s sleeping with one of the genius architect’s two simultaneous girlfriends, whom the genius picked up after his divorce, which was after the genius went temporarily mad and his then-wife hired the therapist shaman (wait…) and his spirit-guide dog (come again?), but this review gets ahead of itself, dear reader.
And it’s exactly that kind of non-linear plotting, fourth-wall-breaking, drop the magical world in anywhere stuff which gets really annoying.
The two girlfriends are a petite reporter with a childish temper who’s an amazing screw and, oh yes, intelligent, and a tall and slender shop owner who’s also good in the sack and who – our genius belatedly realizes – has a quirky, angelic manner which makes her better than he deserves. Both of these women, and the ex-wife who preceded them, are static characters. They neither grow nor change throughout the book. Ditto all the magical characters our genius meets along the way (some of whom may be imaginary). And ditto the Sultan who commissioned the museum, if only because he’s done in early on (and off screen).
Thus our story becomes about the change and growth of two characters – our genius as he wrestles with the building and his women, and the new Sultan, the son, who wrestles with civil war and winning over the reporter girlfriend (mostly off screen).
On the plus side, there are beautiful, original descriptions and tons of quotable quotes. The architecture portion deals with the creative process, choosing a site, the “sell,” and the human difficulties of running a large, long project. Aside from some name-dropping, even lay readers can keep up. And the dialogue is snappy, at least until the author wants to make philosophical and religious points near the end, which are delivered in page-long speeches.
Overall, a book which starts at a peak and heads downhill from there.
December 31, 2017
I don't know why I like this book at all. I guess it's unique enough and has some good lines.
The protagonist was not fun or clever enough to make up for him being a shitty unsympathetic dude who is somehow the focus of a love triangle. I am so tired of shitty dude love stories. The Fountainhead has more grace and architectural genius and human spirit in a less annoying way than this book.
I was hoping it all was setting up for some payoff beyond "shitty dude realizes he's a shitty dude and says he'll try to be less shitty now", even though he continues being shitty and lying to himself about it. I don't know what the author was after, here, unless he was just having fun writing a shitty dude.
I appreciate, though, that the more whimsical elements manage to avoid coming off as silly or random. I like the shaman and photographer and dogs etc.
The protagonist was not fun or clever enough to make up for him being a shitty unsympathetic dude who is somehow the focus of a love triangle. I am so tired of shitty dude love stories. The Fountainhead has more grace and architectural genius and human spirit in a less annoying way than this book.
I was hoping it all was setting up for some payoff beyond "shitty dude realizes he's a shitty dude and says he'll try to be less shitty now", even though he continues being shitty and lying to himself about it. I don't know what the author was after, here, unless he was just having fun writing a shitty dude.
I appreciate, though, that the more whimsical elements manage to avoid coming off as silly or random. I like the shaman and photographer and dogs etc.
May 11, 2019
I would probably rate this 3.5 starts if half-stars were an option, but am choosing to round it down rather than up. Having just finished this book, I'm not immediately sure what to think. On the one hand, it presented unexpected twists and turns around every corner; I could not see the path ahead. This kept me reading, engaged, and at times, pleasantly surprised. On the other hand, I found the religious allegory a bit forced and underwhelming - more like a sudden afterthought than a theme set up from the start, and I had problems identifying with or even liking a single character. It could be worth reading if you're looking for something different.
April 23, 2019
From all the reviews and blurbs and recommendations based on similar authors, it seems like I should love Johnathan Carroll. But I just can’t get into his work, with Outside the Dog Museum being a prime example of what I can’t appreciate. The main character is thoroughly unlikeable; the plot is sketchy and unevenly paces, and fairly tedious sophomoric ramblings on purpose, sanity, meaning and love keep interrupting the text. I made it through the whole book, but I will have forgotten it all by next week.
August 2, 2019
I liked the novel while disliking the protagonist. Moreover, I know the protagonist is someone who would dislike me. The characters and world building were solid, but the plot collapsed at the end. Carroll borrowed heavily from the surrealists without quite creating a surrealist story. It reads to me as if his imagination spun out on him at the conclusion, and that led to failure of both delivery and substance.
April 14, 2019
Nowhere near as good as some of the author's other books, this is in no way a bad book, but the story didn't really do anything for me and isn't something I could relate to on any level. Skip this, and try his excellent The Land of Laughs a try instead.
April 11, 2021
Jonathan Carroll estuvo haládome del pecho hasta casi el final cuando sentí que prácticamente se cansó de escribir, resolviendo el final rápidamente... aunque lo terminé un poco desanimada lo volvería a leer, porque su narrativa es como una pieza musical que estás disfrutando mucho.
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