El mar de madera

Crane's View #3

by Jonathan Carroll, Manuel de los Reyes (Translator), Rafał Olbiński (Cover illustrator)

¿Cómo describir la bomba de relojería argumental que se esconde tras ‘El Mar de Madera’? Tarea imposible. Todo comienza en un pueblo tranquilo del norte de Nueva York, cuando un perro de tres patas muere, el jefe de policía local lo entierra y, a pesar de ello, vuelve de entre los muertos. Una novela surrealista, maravillosa, divertida y tierna, que no pasará desapercibida.

Una pluma multicolor y misteriosos dibujos se aparecen para insinuarle la verdad sobre su pasado, su presente y su futuro: está en el centro de una conspiración y lo que haga en los próximos días puede tener consecuencias para el mundo entero.

“Es un tiovivo argumental, una pieza de orfebrería que ha sido minuciosamente machacada contra una pared de granito. Olvida todo lo que has leído antes, parece ser la máxima de Carroll”. -Manu González, Qué Leer

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Magical Realism, Science Fiction, Literature, Speculative Fiction, Contemporary

318 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Jonathan 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.

Reviews

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's nice to re-read one of your favorite books after few years and find it just as great as first time around.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well dang. After being utterly and completely entranced with The Land of Laughs by Carroll I gave this one a spin, and it fell flat. It was interesting enough to keep reading, but this is one that I won't remember the details to in just a few short months. Nothing really caught my attention, nothing compelled me and dragged me along.

I think the thing that put me off was that there were no rules to the madness he presented here. The Land of Laughs might not have had many rules, but it also might not have had any rules. The ambiguity (though thin) was delightful. This book obviously has a setup that we are supposed to believe is happening / has happened, but every time I turned the page Carroll had stuck another ... I dunno. Not plot point. Not twist. Just ... in clarifying how things were working or what was truly going on, it just got murkier and murkier. I was never personally given a reason to care at all. Aliens? God? Both? Neither? Meh.

I have now read two of his books and somewhere saw a brief synopsis of a third, and all of them involved a male protagonist and multiple love interests. I'm beginning to wonder if he has some John Irving thing going on where he is compelled to work out his therapy sessions in novel form.

If someone recommends another specific Carroll book I'll gladly read it, but after this I'm not going to go seeking out his works.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

i am simultaneously amused and bemused by jonathan carroll's books. they make so much sense and nonsense at the same time.

they also remind me of one of my favourite poems, by stephen crane:

Many red devils ran from my heart
And out upon the page,
They were so tiny
The pen could mash them.
And many struggled in the ink.
It was strange
To write in this red muck
Of things from my heart.

[manuti · Rating 4 out of 5]

A ver, empiezo por el final de la reseña. Le he dado 4 estrellas **** pero podrían ser 3 o 1. La novela es muy loca, empieza bien y la trama engancha, si te gustó la serie de televisión Twin Peaks este es tu libro.
Me ha gustado la historia, la relación del protagonista con sus yo del pasado.
El libro tiene algunas de las metáforas sobre la vida más bonitas e impactantes que he leído en mucho tiempo. La traducción es muy buena en expresiones coloquiales y referencias culturales que lo mismo otro traductor no pillaría.
En la parte mala, la que le quita puntos y estrellas estaría el uso y abuso de un deus ex-machina casi constante aunque al ser deliberado no sé hasta que punto criticarlo.
Sinceramente, me quedo con ganas de más.

[Brian Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story with a "heart-warming" message to tell. I use the air quotes there because the message felt somewhat forced to me, with the author basically spelling it out for the reader at the end of the book. I think if it had been worked into the story more effectively, it would have made for a much more satisfying read. Despite this, I thought the story and characters were interesting and well developed, and the intricacies of the plot and the jumps through time were easy to follow and well written.

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the rare books that causes you to pause and ask yourself "What am I reading?" Not once, not twice, but a minimum of at least three times. The Wooden Sea is not a book for everyone; not even a book for most people.

Carroll's writing is utterly shameless. He writes for himself entirely, and what comes out is a set of characters incredibly well-defined. His setting, his characters, the surrealistic nature of his plot and universe itself all come off as incredibly reasonable. He bumps the cliché and then promptly subverts it - he nears a piece where a lesser writer would falter, and hurdles it with ease.

Jonathan Carroll, while not for everyone, seems to be for some people perfectly. I feel quite lucky to be among that crowd.

[astried · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like my fantasy book to fit one another. What I mean is, you can have your fantasy world as crazy as you like but please stick to your rules. Because otherwise it would just fall apart and unbelieveable.

Carroll broke too many of his own rules in this book for me. His concept of different selves just plain sloppy and used mainly to make it easier for him but not for the benefit of the story. When I tried to see the big picture I didn't see how it all connects the way it should on time-travel theme. And what about the dog, the alien, the mystery? Everything ended unsatisfactory.

[Roger Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one strange book, strange like a dream. In the literature of the fantastic strange happenings in a small town is a common theme, but in this one the strange is taken another step. The entire book is like one continuous dream. For example, there is an instance in which the protagonist gets out of bed and walks through his house in his underwear. He is interupted on his way back to bed by a visitor and he never gets back to bed. He also never gets a chance to get dressed. He also ends up out and about in the town with no mention of his getting dressed and, in fact, never getting the time to get dressed, but no one comments on his being only in his underwear, so he is presumably dressed. This could have been only an oversight on the part of the author, but soon afterwards he finds himself being chased by a vicious dog and climbs atop a car to get away. On top of the car he wishes he could fly and then he jumps off and flies away. That is just like a dream. One outlandish situation suggests another and off we go into another outlandish situation which will be followed by another at the slightest suggestion. This is only one example though. Others include dogs that die and will not stay dead, meetting various versions of oneself at various stages of life, dead people who talk, time travel, space aliens with the powers of gods and so forth. The entire book is weird from start to finish and it is amazing how nonchalantly the protagonist accepts all this wierdness which is mostly happening to him. Do not be fooled though. Even though it is like one long dream that does not mean their is no plot. The plot is involved in the protagonist's trying to figure out what is going on and with a sense of urgency. In the end the urgency does seem to turn out to be kind of moot, but the urgency is still there to keep the suspense and excitement going.

[Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not only have I never read Jonathan Carroll, I don't think I've ever read this genre - although I'm not quite sure I know which genre it is. Sci-fi? Fantasy? Metaphysical something or other?
Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed Carroll's writing. I found his main character Frannie, at all ages, totally engaging and believable. I wish the relationship with his wife had been further developed, but loved the relationship with the stepdaughter as well.
I felt like I was a participant in someone's bizarre dream and read the book with that in mind. I tried not to figure anything out and just go along for the ride (partially because I just couldn't find the meaning behind the twists and turns in the plot). So I finished this last night and went on to have my own bizarre dreams!! :-)
I too felt unsatisfied with the ending.

[Matias P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Literatura weird, misteriosa y con ritmazo en sus mejores tramos. También muy yanqui y tópica en su ambientación y personajes. Aunque leí con voracidad buena parte de este libro, nunca me convenció por completo y todo el cierre me pareció un desatino.

7/10

[Daniel C · Rating 3 out of 5]

A longtime lover of literature, I once asked a blind date if she was into books. "Books are alright," she said. "Although I prefer nonfiction. And I definitely don't have time for magical realism."

That phrase -- "I don't have time for magical realism." -- became sort of a running gag among my book loving friends and I. Maybe we're just mocking a world that brooks the supernatural less and less each day, or maybe we're just thumbing our noses at the idea that dream lives are only the domain of the asleep.

Whatever the case, it's certainly true that Magical Realism as a genre doesn't have quite the profile of, say, Fantasy. Even buffered by the brilliance of people like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Toni Morrison, the genre seems to exist in the same misty half-worlds as the characters it generates.

Carroll's oeuvre makes a great case for the style, but not in any consistent fashion (a flaw common for this kind of fiction). His first book, The Land of Laughs, was a fun but mordant look at the nature of fate, fear, and the art of writing. It was tightly plotted, but just as madcap as anything written by that other, more notable, Carroll. Since then, Jonathan Carroll has made a decent living tickling the imaginations of loyal readers everywhere.

Like most of his books, THE WOODEN SEA offers the proposition that surrealism is more than a quaint diversion or (at worst) a camping ground for antisocial obssessives. In spite of its loopy plot and complete overhaul of common narrative conventions, it has a message to make. In fact, its canon has much to do with the genre itself. "Don't forget how to dream. Don't forget that anything is possible. Don't throw away your youth when you finally grow up."

These are okay points for a book to make (if not a little chewy-sweet), and Carroll's story -- about a juvenile delinquent-turned-police chief named Frannie who awakens one day to a world of Spirit Dogs, Magical Feathers, time travel, prescient heroin addicts, and otherworldly beings -- doesn't let the goofiness goof up the touching spirit of the book. There's a definite measure of heart and well-phrased soul to the story.

But there's also a lot of sloppy edges and unbridled bravado. Carroll has a vivid imagination, but it seems as if that was the only thing he used to write this book. Breaking rules isn't a bad thing, when you're talking about common conventions of Story or Plot, but this book reads painfully as if it were made up on the spot. Themes other than those mentioned are taken up and discarded at a whim. Story arcs dead-end or are sometimes forgotten entirely. And there are so many loose ends, the denoument reads like shag carpeting.

In spite of its sweetness, the novel suffers from a lack of boundaries. After all, even magic has its rules. If you're interested in Carroll -- and you should be -- I'd recommend his earlier works over this one (although I haven't read everything he's written). And if, unlike my blind date, you DO have time for magical realism, for my money you can't beat ANYTHING written by Jonathan Lethem.

[Rodolfo Santullo · Rating 5 out of 5]

¡Gran regalo/recomendación de un amigo! Un autor del que no sabía nada, ni había escuchado nunca, que entra de cabeza en mis preferidos recientes con esta increíble novela de misterio surrealista -y con mucho de comedia delirante- que comienza cuando el Sheriff del pequeño pueblo de Cane´s View, Frannie McCabe, adopta un perro viejo y mutilado, lo bautiza Vertuoso, lo mantiene dos días en su oficina hasta que el can muere y lo entierra. Eso debería ser todo, una mínima anécdota en el día a día aburrido de un funcionario público con muy poco para hacer, pero será el disparo de largada de un montón de situaciones tan ridículas como sorprendentes -que el cadáver del perro no quiera quedarse enterrado, la primera- que van a trepar en la escalada del sinsentido a toda velocidad, mientras el bueno de Frannie trata simplemente de no volverse loco y que van a terminar disputando nada menos que el fin del mundo. Una reseña más completa del libro brindaría más detalles de su trama pero creo que no le haría ningún bien al lector, porque sorprenderse con los disparatados giros que Carroll va pegando es parte fundamental del disfrute. Sí agregar que el autor maneja como pocos (me viene a la mente el gran Christopher Moore, por ejemplo) un combo de géneros muy difícil de mixturar -hay tensión digna del mejor thriller, mucha fantasía y descontrolado humor- en una narración prístina, clara y super contundente. Acaso si le puedo cuestionar que el gran mapa que arma, el "big picture" que le dicen los gringos, no alcanza a cerrar como uno (yo, al menos) esperaría que lo hiciera (o de cualquier otra manera). Detalles, mínimos, que no afectan en lo absoluto el placer tremendo de encontrar una gran novela de un gran autor. Más Carroll en cualquier momento, por supuesto.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love Jonathan Carroll's writing, the way he sets up some great characters, makes you believe in them, and then hits them with something so leftfield that it pulls the carpet from underneath them and makes them re-evaulate everything they previously thought to be true. However, having come across Carroll's work about five years ago and reading on average one ot two of his books a year in no particular order, I'm coming to the conclusion that he's a bit of a one trick pony. Each book is more or less the same. Some interesting ideas underpin each one, but Carroll isn't too bothered about explaining them. He just throws marbles up into the air and let's you work out the pattern. Only, after a few books, you realise there isn't one. What is left is just the journey. And mostly that journey is interesting and page-turning, whilst sometimes it's tiring.

With Carroll's books you have to suspend your disbelief that his characters have suspended their disbelief. They'll take anything that hits them in their stride. In this book, the interwoven plot is rather slapdash. The opening half was riveting, but then once Carroll set up his scenario I really got the feeling that he didn't know what to do with it. He's not great at endings (in fact, this book contains one of the better ones), but here the final half of the book isn't great at all. The writing slacks off and it just rambles a bit. Oh well, there'll always be another Carroll book to read which may or may not be better. 2.5 stars, although I don't have that option, so I'll be generous and give it three.

[Isabel (kittiwake) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I slipped it under his collar. Like an Egyptian king going to the hereafter surrounded by his worldly possessions, Old Vertue now had a beautiful feather to carry along. It was getting late and I had other things to do. Quickly filling the grave, I tamped it down as best I could, hoping another animal wouldn't catch the scent and dig it up.

Frannie McCabe is chief of police in Crane's View, a small town in New York state. He is generally happy with his lot, having outgrown his wild rebellious teenage years to become a respected member of the community, and is happily married with a teenage stepdaughter.

But then a couple well known for their domestic disturbances disappear in the middle of a screaming row, a stray dog that died in his office won't stay buried, a dead girl talks to him and a mysterious multi-coloured feather keeps appearing in the strangest places. And his seventeen-year-old self pays him a visit to tell him that there is a puzzle that he has to solve.

Confusing : )

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would be enjoyed by people who like the Thursday Next novels. It includes time travel and other supernatural plot twists that cause it to be pegged as a "science fiction" book, a category that always reminds me of Bradbury and Asimov. This is more just a strange book set in the present time but with very unusual, extraordinary events. The author is trying to figure out what a three-legged dog and a feather and a bone have to do with each other and what else is needed to finish the machine that will wake God up. (No, this isn't a Christian book.) I could say more, but you'd still be confused. Not sure what I think of this book. No doubt it will be floating around in my mind for a while, trying to find a shelf to sit on....

[Arpad Okay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an extremely surreal read, a book that just got weirder and weirder the deeper into it the main character fell. The overall feeling is that of Tim Powers, weird magic pulling strings behind the scenes and mucking things up for a surprisingly intellectual group of down-to-earth protagonists. With the foul mouth and taste for pop culture of Warren Ellis and the small town nostalgia of Stephen King. Magical realism turns to time travel turns to a poorly programmed reality folding in on itself. It was good and it was the kind of thing where people say "they should make a movie out of this" but it ultimately feels like a bunch of well-assembled really crazy ideas without anything deeper hiding beneath the surface. Beach book Philip K. Dick.

[Chelsea Polson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to enjoy this book, but I really... really did not. It tried so hard to be a sweeping epic, and not only did it fall short, it felt even more small and insignificant. I felt nothing for the characters and felt as though I was swept up in a dizzying swirl of nonsense that had no remarkable purpose.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

His best by far....sunshine surrealism...woohoo!!! Spank me again Helga!!!!

Every time I read this book I find something new and weird to love...

If you enjoy New Weird; Slipstream, or literary science fiction this is the read for you.

Highly Recommended!!

5 out of 5 Stars

[Chris Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

If any book demands a reread almost immediately, it’s this. I fully suspect this is actually a five star book that I haven’t really begun to fully comprehend. It’s the most formally challenging Carroll book to utilise the stranger aspects of his fiction, almost as if he decided to write a huge rambling epic of a book and then deliberately chip off an end of it and have that as the novel. There’s a real sense of this being the tip of a stranger and wilder and considerably more epic novel that Carroll is determined not to give us. All the elements are there, and unless Carroll provides us with a late period belated sequel they all feel like strands disappearing into the void. Which is somehow maddening but also immensely freeing

It’s also Carroll’s funniest book. Subverting the buddy movie formula by getting yourself stuck with various different iterations of yourself at different ages is a glorious idea (I have always intended to do something similar and am glad I won’t be treading on already trodden paths done here), and Carroll mines it for comedy and pathos and so much more. It’s a really strange book and feels somehow the most elusive book he’s written but also puts the White Apple/ Glass Soup books into context. It also seeds their hero as a schoolmate of Frannie as well which I particularly enjoyed. I do love it when an author subtly brings together his universe

[Mikko Saari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonathan Carroll kirjoittaa erikoisia kirjoja. Tälläkään kertaa juonesta ei kannata tehdä isompaa numeroa etukäteen. Tarina alkaa, kun pikkukaupungin poliisipäällikön Frannie McCaben toimistoon kannetaan kolmejalkainen koira, joka ottaa ja kuolee. Frannie hautaa koiran, löytääkseen sen myöhemmin autostaan. Siitä alkaa melkoinen tapahtumien virta.

Tarina on kiehtova ja moniulotteinen. Mukana on jonkin verran tieteiskirjallisia elementtejä; tapahtumat ovat selvästi epätodellisia, paikoitellen jopa surrealistisia. Jostain syystä kirja toi mieleeni elokuvan Donnie Darko. Jos ei pelkää astua tuntemattomalle maaperälle lukiessaan, The Wooden Sea tarjoaa kerrassaan mielenkiintoisen souturetken. (29.12.2006)

[Nancy Brady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surreal, absolutely surreal. This novel has everything: a three-legged dog, aliens, time travel, a character who shares a name with my cousin's husband (Al Salvato), a feather and a bone, a police chief, Frannie McCabe, who once was a juvenile delinquent, and so much more.

Some of the story was truly magical, and some of the story was just plain weird and quirky, yet there are some gems to be gleaned in the reading. What more can be said?!

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book bored me and I really tried, but finally gave up halfway through.
The middle aged male protagonist was annoying and creepy, especially how he thought about his step-daughter. The constant objectification of women was very off-putting too.

[Joel Ayala Alicea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta es la segunda novela que he leído de este autor y pienso que no será la última. Después de leer “The land of laughs” (la leí en inglés y ese es el título original) y ahora con “El mar de madera”, puedo, al fin, clasificar con seguridad el género literario al que pertenece la obra de este autor norteamericano: la fantasía surrealista.
Es por eso que quedé enganchado desde la primera vez. Siempre me han gustado las pinturas e imagenes de este tipo. Incluso las películas de Buñuel, que son del tipo surrealista me encantan( aunque solo he visto dos). Pero siempre me encontraba con el dilema de no saber describir o ponerle nombre a este tipo de literatura, que se distingue por hacer uso de imagenes extrañas o se pudiera decir oníricas. Algo casi como el “weird fiction” del que tanto se habla. Es un tipo de fantasía... rara; con imagenes y escenas salidas de un sueño. O de una pesadilla.
A mí me encanta el género fantasía, pero no en general. Me explico: ese tipo de fantasía a la que pertenece El señor de los anillos, con sus orcos, elfos y todo lo demás, nunca me ha gustado. Ni un poco. Lo siento, sé que es casí una blasfemia, habido caso que Tolkien es considerado como el padre de la fantasía moderna. El tipo de fantasía que disfruto es la del tipo de Algernon Blackwood, la de Jorge L. Borges o Adolfo Bioy Cásares. Es la fantasía (y terror) de William H. Hodgson.
Y la de Jonathan Carroll. Me he convertido en uno de sus fans. Recomendado.

[Steven Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story starts off with a one-eyed, three-legged dog expiring like an old wounded warrior, and then things get stranger and stranger. “The Wooden Sea” is a novel I picked up thanks to a recommendation in the “2003 Nebula Awards Showcase” as an example of the direction the fantasy genre was heading. And “fantasy” here means fantastical, not medieval.

I think if I had to give just one label to this book, it would be “surreal.” The book starts off odd, then gets strange, and then gets truly weird. The lead character, a police chief in a small town, was extremely well rendered, and shows some real growth both prior to the timeline of the novel and within the novel as well.

The novel does suffer from something I think a lot of modern surreal novels suffer from, though... Things are somewhat explained by the end, and the explanation seems contrived and a bit too tidy. Somehow, the magic of the bizarre needs to be left as mysterious magic, and when it gets explained, it’s somewhat of a let-down. (I got this same feeling from Stephen King’s recent behemoth, “The Dome,” but Carroll’s reasoning here is significantly better than King’s was.)

But if you like strange, give this one a shot!

4 of 5 stars.

[Kellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very odd book and not a book I would normally pick up and read. I was captured by the humor and the idea of this very strange plot. It’s unique qualities kept my interest. The story is about McCabe. He is a cop in the town he grew up in. He is on his second marriage to a woman he really loves and a step father to Pauline. It was nice to see a good relationship between the step-parent and step-child for a change. One day a strange, crippled dog wanders into town and McCabe adopts him. Only to see him die shortly after. This is the catalyst that triggers the start of a bunch of surrealistic events. I think I understood one of the lessons this book was trying to teach and that was, every part of your life is important and helps build you into the man or woman you will become. However, I think there was more to this book, a deeper meaning that I just didn’t get. And of course, the ending made me scratch my head and try and figure out all the loose ends. I can’t say I really loved this book but it was so odd, I know I will never forget it.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was kind of crazy, but a lot of fun to read. It was exciting and had some truly hilarious moments. The ending was a bit disappointing, but I am not sure that a more conclusive ending would have been any more satisfying, really. I think I enjoyed Sleeping in Flame more, but this book was a lot of fun to read. It was very different... Although there was some acknowledgment given to Back to the Future, which was nice. I really did enjoy this and I do wish that there was more to the story overall... A sequel would be nice!Sleeping in Flame

[Elizabeth La Lettrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was so weird... I really don't know how to describe it. It was so out of the box for me but I really enjoyed it and was actually excited to get back to reading it whenever I had to deal with real life things.

I'm not sure to whom I would recommend it. Maybe to someone who just wants to read something fun and not predictable in any way.

Also, I don't think anyone but me would find this interesting but this is the second book in a row that I've read that included the line from poet François Rabelais "I go in search of a great perhaps."


Maybe someone is trying to tell me something?

[Arun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange. Poignant. Haunting. The experience of reading a Jonathan Carroll story is hard to describe to someone who has never encountered his work, and I'm not going to try here. The Wooden Sea, like other Carroll works, starts of in the here-and-now, the land of the real and understandable, but it doesn't take long before the story flies into the dark woods at the fringes of town into the unfamiliar territory of dreams. It takes a writer like Carroll to navigate this territory, to take the reader by the hand, and show her how to get there. And when you do find your way across this twilight zone, you'll find that you'll never see the world in quite the same way again. Highly recommended.

[natercopia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"He created it all - the universe, you, me...everything, and then rested. But before he did it, he arranged to be awakened by all of us, in concert. He gave us the knowledge and the resources, as well sufficient time to develop individually so that together we could build a device that would awaken God when it was time." Once again, Carroll delivers with this novel. Complete stars for humour, interesting concepts and views of things, story plot and good writing. I'll pick this novel up time and time again to refresh my memory.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Joseph C. Lincoln had set down to write The Man Who Folded Himself he would have come up with something like what I'm currently reading. Fran, a small town chief of police, has found himself in the middle of a time traveling mystery / conspiracy where the fate of Crane's View rests on his ability to sort things out. The first chapter didn't do much for me but by the second chapter the quirky plot began to surface. By the third chapter I was hooked all the way through the epilogue which seemed like a tidy albeit somewhat ambiguous (as many time travel books are) ending.