Bull Terrier

[threemonkeys]

Knowing that i read quite a bit, people tend to recommend books and authors to me. I usually find this pretty easy to ignore as I already have more books and target authors than I can handle. It is even easier when I know that most of the recommendations are for bland pulp. But I do listen. Some time ago, somebody enthused about the work of Jonathan Carroll to me. I forget now who did the enthusing and I forget what they said but something must have sunk in. I suspect the words contemporary fantasy and surreal or their equivalents were in the mix because that would have done it for me. The impact came home when I was browsing one of the used bookshops and saw a 'Fantasy Masterworks" edition of The Land of laughs and which I read yesterday.

The first thing I noticed was that the book was written in a style I associate with "literary" fiction. This isn't a bad thing at all - much of my favourite writing sits around the fuzzy borders between "literary" and the broad sf genre. What it does mean is that like most literary fiction the emphasis is on the mental landscape of the protagonist and the surrounding characters (including bull terriers). The fantasy storyline is dropped in little by little with hints and deliberate inconsistencies. Only in the last quarter of the book do things become more overt leading up to a self referential and surreal ending.

It was an engrossing and fun read and my thanks go to whoever did the recommending. I may never look at bull terriers the same again although it won't make me like them any more than I don't already

Comments

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

You were at the top of my suspect list if for no other reason than we talk about books fairly often, but I really cannot say for sure. If it was you, thank you again.