По ту сторону безмолвия

Answered Prayers #5

by Jonathan Carroll, Джонатан Кэрролл

В жизни Макса Фишера все складывается удачно. Его комикс "Скрепка" пользуется устойчивой популярностью у широкой публики и благосклонностью у высоколобых критиков, его новая любовь Лили отвечает ему взаимностью, а ее десятилетний сын Линкольн души в нем не чает. Но в прошлом, по ту сторону безмолвия, таятся призраки, угрожающие его счастью, рассудку и самой ткани бытия...

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller, Speculative Fiction, Literature, Magical Realism

317 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

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

[Caro the Helmet Lady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is Jonathan Carroll a one trick pony? All of his books seem to be constructed after the same blueprint - guy with an artsy or close to arts (or a writer) job meets a fantastic woman, extraordinary in everything - her looks, hobbies and her mysteries, and they try to meet their happy end no matter what, but some magical realism crazy shit elements intrude their lives and everything ends with unexpected plot twist. This book was a bit different.
This was supposed to be a realistic book, with no magical inclusions. Probably the only one in series (although this is a very loose series, books are not really connected much with each other and the characters are usually new with every book). And once I got used to this idea - I was ok with it. Kinda? But in the very ending of the story, very weird scene happened... and I don't get what for. At all. And I don't know what to do with it now.
But in overall I liked the book and even if Carroll actually IS a one trick pony - I still like him and I'm forever reading his books. But this one wasn't much close to the beauty of The Land of Laughs.

[Ruth Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I started this book I thought it was going to be a solid 4 star rating.

A great storyline, interesting characters that I liked a lot, and the writing style was smooth and easy. I couldn't put it down.

Then, with 20 pages to go it just got…weird. I was left scratching my head and wondering if someone else had written the ending.

I was so disappointed. How could something this good finish the way it did?

A 4 star beginning down to a 3 star ending.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 3 out of 5]

reviews.metaphorosis.com

3 stars

A successful cartoonist meets a charming, intriguing woman and her son. He finds a dark secret from her past, and faces hard choices in how to react.

The first half of the book is good.

Carroll makes a point that he wanted to start the book with a jolt, but was ultimately argued out of it. He also points out that this is one of only two realistic books he's written - not much in the way of talking dogs (though there is a bulldog); not even any fountain pens. Those two items combined may explain the result.

The book is made up of three parts, and the first two (the most realistic) are good. Well written, interesting, smooth - I was looking forward to writing a positive review. Yes, there were some weaknesses (e.g., like all of Carroll's narrators, this one is highly judgmental, and often wrongly so, by my lights). But largely, the story moved forward nicely.

In the third part, everything comes apart - for the protagonist, but also for the story. Actually, that happens at the very end of part two, when he makes a difficult decision, but Carroll somehow mixes in some very disturbing sex 'play'.

In the third section proper, the characterization goes off the rails. While to some extent, Carroll is depicting normal teenage alienation, the extent of it here was difficult to buy, and is more papered over than explained. More disturbing, though, is that a major plot point turns out to be something of a red herring, deliberately concealed until the point where we find out and feel cheated. It's a major flaw of construction, and for no really good reason except authorial convenience.

At the end of the book, there's a stab at introducing some magic a la Carroll, but then it's withdrawn. I wasn't sure what the point of it all was - it's not as if Carroll couldn't have gotten away with magic. In fact, it's what readers expect. Instead, we get a strange hybrid that doesn't work well in either category. I wonder here whether there was too much or too little editorial intervention. The editor was wrong about the opening line. Maybe they should have focused less on that, and more on the other end of the book.

It's not the book I hoped it would be. The first half (two thirds, really) is strong, and enjoyable. If you're a Carroll fan, read it for that. For the rest,... it seems serious Carroll fans love it. If you're not one, you may want to pass.

On another front - this is part of the Answered Prayers series, to the point that it includes Finky Linky. I first thought this book should have been earlier in the series, but it turns out to be more of an alternate universe. It's not that Finky Linky.

[EpidermaS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Powieść bardzo specyficzna (niekoniecznie w dobrym tego słowa znaczeniu), ale z przyjemną narracją i dynamiką.

Początek to pomieszanie obyczajówki i romansu, jednak zza winkla spogląda już na czytelnika thriller. Choć fabuła od początku nie wydaje się być odkrywcza, to sam sposób przedstawienia historii przez autora wciąga i sprawia, że nie chce się odkładać książki. Kiedy jednak docieramy wraz z bohaterami do okresu, kiedy Lincoln staje się nastolatkiem, wszystko staje na głowie. Ta część powieści wydaje się być nieco oderwana od reszty. Chłopak przechodzi niezłe przebiegunowanie osobowości, a ostatnie strony książki - z uwagi na motywy zahaczające o realizm magiczny i horror - były dla mnie mocno rozczarowujące.

Pozycja dla czytelników, którzy lubią takie kundelki literackie. Nie mam nic przeciwko mariażom różnych gatunków, ale w "Poza ciszą" mieszania było tak dużo, że utwór traci swoją tożsamość. Finisz kojarzył mi się z Kingiem, a właściwie z tą odmianą twórczości Kinga, którą lubię najmniej. Historia raczej nie dla mnie, ale jestem pewna, że książka znajdzie swoich sympatyków.

PS Strasznie zdziwiło mnie tłumaczenie nazwy zespołu "Nine Inch Nails" na "Dziewięciocalowe Paznokcie"...

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've already reviewed so many Jonathan Carroll books on here, and I'm running out of adjectives to use. He is simply the best author I've found. In this terrifying early book of his, a man has a perfectly good, happy life with a quirky, sexy wife and a sweet, loving child...and then he finds out something unbelievable that rips everything apart. And then what? In typical J. Carroll fashion, things get surreal in a hurry. I can't stop thinking about the last line of this book. It punches you in the face. Read it.

[Christi Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first Jonathan Carroll book and from what I understand it's a bit of a departure from his other books. I really enjoyed the single character perspective with which he wrote this book; I think it works very well to keep the outcome of the story unpredictable which is something I like and to intimately connect you with the main character. The psychology of the main character (Max Fischer) and the implications of his thoughts and actions didn't fully hit me until after I finished reading the book and thought about it for a little while. When a book leaves me with something to think about and consider after I've finished reading it then I know it's a great book and this one certainly is. Many of the reviews say it's difficult to put down once you've started reading it and I have to agree. I read 3/4 of the first day and finished it the next day. His writing is engaging, his character development thorough and believable when it counts. There is no unnecessary description or story lines. It's efficient, interesting, and thoroughly well-written. At no point did I feel compelled to skim through or skip any parts because they all contributed to the crafting of the story and I savored every word. I'm looking forward to reading more Jonathan Carroll!

[Christine Greeley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grabbed this book off the shelf in my library because it looked interesting. It was my lunchtime read, and it sucked me in when I reached the first sentence of the second paragraph:

"I hold a gun to my son's head."

Yep I was hooked. Now I had to plow through this book to find out how this author was going to take me through this story to the point where the narrator would be threatening the life of his son.

As he tells the story of falling in love with the perfect woman, becoming an instant father to her 9 year old son,and eventually discovering the secret that would unravel their "perfect" existence, I found I couldn't put this book down until it was done. And when it was over, I felt I'd traveled a great distance--in a short book-- on a road of lies that lead inevitably to tragedy. The story is a deep parable about how keeping something secret will lead to the death of the thing you were trying to protect.

I am an instant Jonathan Carroll fan, and can't wait to read more from this author!

[Giorgio Comel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pur essendo un libro di quasi 30 anni fa (è stato pubblicato nel 1992) non è un libro passato. Parla con voce chiara e autorevole, riesce ad essere piacevole, distensivo, rapinoso e nello stesso tempo un trattato di valori umani imprescindibili. Come l'amore. L'amore di una donna. Di un uomo. Di un figlio. Di un padre. Quello che crediamo sia amore. Quello che ci diciamo, ci promettiamo. Le cose che faremmo o non faremmo in nome dell'amore. Quello che nascondiamo o esibiamo. Avevo questa perla nascosta in libreria da anni e non l'avevo mai sfogliata. It's never too late.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty sure this book was awful. To be fair, I didn't much like the last book I read either (Indigo)and both were billed as "thrillers" so it may simply be the case that I don't like this genera. I strayed into it by accident seeking the vein of stuff which I most enjoy which I see variously labeled speculative, surreal, magic-realist, etc.

After reading three Graham Joyce novels, I pulled Indigo at random and found it somewhat different from the others I'd read. Similarly, I found Carroll from a mention in a review of Joyce's books (review of The Silent Land, I think) and chose After Silence at random. Reviews here -- even by people who liked this book -- give me to understand it's not representative of Carroll's work so I may give him another spin.

I really enjoyed the lead up in this novel. It even made me laugh out loud a few times. The first third or so with the narrator's history, character & world building, etc. was great. But, once The Discovery is made (or was really obviously implied by events) and The Plot kicks in, the rest of the book felt disjointed and nonsensical. Elvis is presented as a bad seed in the story but it's kind of a meta reference because his introduction flags the beginning of some really stilted dialogue and action.

I know kids go bad for seemingly no reason, rebellious teenagers are a fact of life, but having an adoring, sweet-natured 9 year old turn into borderline homicidal nut in, literally, the turn of a page was just too hard to take. There's really no impetus given for his actions. Lilly, the only character who gets any significant motivation in the book, all but disappears near the end. Lincoln's and the narrator's choices don't even make sense in light of emotional trauma, and the introduction of what seems to be the book's core conceit comes out of nowhere. Is Lincoln an angel, is it just the narrator's mental breakdown? ...who really cares? By the (pointlessly abrupt) end neither idea was developed sufficiently to lend gravity to either possibility.

Yes, I just didn't care for this one. Too may loose ends. And loose ends can be OK, but there wasn't enough subtlety or subtext to justify them here.

[surfmadpig · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Jonathan Carroll.

But I hadn't read Jonathan Carroll in a while, and while reading this book I started wondering what's wrong: Have I outgrown my Carroll phase or is this one a dud?

I think it's the latter - it was fascinating at first but I found the last part very forced and somehow... off?

I plan to read another one of the few Carroll books I haven't read very soon, hoping to feel the soul that he usually brings into his books again.

[Anthony Cardenas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm conflicted. I'm a huge Jonathan Carroll fan, and consider his books The Land of Laughs and Bones of the Moon to be his masterpieces. After Silence is in many ways a very "Jonathan Carroll" novel in its marvelous depiction of human relationships, of quirky females, and, of course, a dog. The first part of After Silence really makes you fall in love with these characters as they fall in love with each other. I found myself rooting for them and hoping things worked out for the best.

But, of course, this is a Jonathan Carroll novel, so (as the mysterious opening suggests and experience with his novels tell us) I expected the other shoe to drop and we would descend into a magic-realism type of denouement. But what happens on the second half is so dark and tragic and such a social violation…i wondered if I was reading a Carroll book at all. The choices the characters make are so…wrong and have such disturbing consequences, i found myself reading till the end not for love of the characters, but simply to find out…where is this going and how in the hell is this going to end?

The first part of the book is marvelously written, which is to be expected. But the latter parts…I have to say it felt a bit disjointed and a little too "sped up"…like the author found himself trying to get to the end in a hurry but himself had no idea what to expect there. I think it has to do with the fact that there is a such a time differential between the first part and the last…so much has happened and we're just simply thrown from the present situation to the future one with very little guidance or understanding of how they got there.

All in all, I would recommend this book for those looking for a dark, tragic reading experience, but with a warning to Jonathan Carroll fans that this may not be what they are expecting. I know it wasn't for me. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but…it does beg the question, why did he write this book? And why did he write it in this way?

Those are the questions I am asking myself. The characters' motivations are not intriguing int he least to me. Right now, I'm not asking myself why Lily did what she did, or why Max didn't do what I as a reader secretly wanted him to do, or is Lincoln's fate something that was inevitable or a fictitious exaggeration meant to punish the other characters.

No, instead, I'm asking myself…what made Jonathan Carroll write this really strange, compelling, but ultimately unsatisfying and disturbing book? As I was reading it, I could almost sense his need or desire to try and revert back to his typical (does he really do anything typical? Maybe) manner of introducing a Fantasy or Magical element to all of his books to bring a kind of deeper meaning to seemingly mundane events. But then I could see him holding back, and allowing the logic (or the illogical) actions of his characters plays out realistically. Was Carroll perhaps attempting an experiment, seeing what would happen if he told a story without magical intervention or explanation? And then watching in horror as his story became as dark and twisted and tragic as it did?

Those are the questions I am asking myself. What the characters did and why they did it…I don't want or care to know.

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every now and then you read a book that makes you reevaluate things. Every now and then you get a book that forces you to look at something ugly, something horrible, and try to make sense of it. After Silence was one of those books.

Jonathan Carroll tends to write magical realism, so After Silence was a.. very different monster. Realistic fiction, it didn't hold the typical marks of a Carroll book. The humor was only there in small pieces, for the most part it was part and parcel a view of his nihilism.

The story follows Max Fischer, a cartoonist, as he enters into a relationship with Lily Aaron and her son Lincoln. After some time he begins noticing strange things occurring. There is no trace of her supposed ex-husband, facts begin not adding up. He delves into the mystery, and realizes that she has quite the questionable past. Here come the questions of morality - does this change his love for her? How does it affect Lincoln?

I didn't dislike the book, but I didn't like it as much as I typically enjoy his novels. The book made me uncomfortable, would be the easiest way to put it. I respect the book for making me uncomfortable, but I don't think I would read it again. I'd more just let it sit, and continue letting it sit for a very long while.

[Daryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many years ago I read Jonathan Carroll's Outside the Dog Museum. I don't remember much about it - any details, beyond a couple of interesting quotes that I kept - but I know I liked it. Enough so that I picked up this novel. I don't know quite what to make of it, though. It starts out interesting enough, but then turns kind of mainstream & boring throughout the middle section. There's a mystery which is solved rather mundanely, and then toward the end, it's twisted into a slightly more boring vein. And then there's one bizarre scene near the very end of the book that comes out of nowhere, is never explained or even commented on. Is it magic realism? Maybe, but it doesn't fit. And then the book ends. Abruptly. Leaving the reader wondering. The writing is okay, but the story never really goes anywhere.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

After Silence is not your typical Jonathan Carroll novel at all. Even though I wasn't expecting this type of tale to be written by my favorite author, I still loved it. Amongst all the characters' constant lies, they seemed more truthful than many characters in his other novels. The only part of the novel that has currently let me down was the ending. Not that I didn't enjoy it, I just didn't get it. I feel like I'm missing something. Once I get what happened at the end my stars could change to a perfect five...or stay where they are. Someone read this and explain the ending to me.

[Theo Logos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jonathan Carroll endings are almost always problematic - it's damn near his trademark. He takes you on enchanting, fascinating, sometimes amazingly bizarre journeys through his novels that more often than not seem to end in crash landings.
This was far worse. The second half of the book turned incredibly dark, AND the ending crashed hard. I think I see what he was going for, but it definitely didn't work for me. That's not nearly strong enough - I hated the way he ended this book; it was toxic. It will be a long time before I even consider this author again.

[Maria Beltrami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro di grandi potenzialità, con una storia d'amore che coinvolge un uomo, una donna e il bambino di lei, e il grande segreto che segna la loro vita.
Un libro purtroppo irrisolto, come se a un certo punto l'autore avesse deciso di tralasciare diverse cose, di tagliare corto, di avere fretta di arrivare alla conclusione.
Peccato, perché è pure scritto bene.

[Midas68 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another 2/3rd's of a good novel and another 1/3rd wacked out not so great ending for Carroll.
He's a very Romantic Wonderfully Fantastic and Mysterious Writer, One that has a dark side that comes into play sometimes to the benefit of the novel and sometimes not.

3 Stars

[Hillary · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd book for sure. I mostly enjoyed it. It's a bit surface-level. I don't feel like we get to know the characters very well, especially Lily, yet we are supposed to understand why Max is so head-over-heels in love with her. I don't think there's a very good explanation for a large 7-year gap in which Lincoln becomes an asshole. This could have been fleshed out.
As others have mentioned, the ending leaves one wanting for sure. It's very very odd. Concept is cool. Overall not a bad read.

""Thin statues and thin people. Never trust a thin person. They're either vain or on the run ... this isn't a thin society. We put such a premium on it because we've been told to, but then we turn around and enjoy our fat: fat homes, fat meals, fat wardrobes. What kind of car do you buy when you're rich? Rolls-Royce. A small house? Nope. No matter how little money you have, the point is to buy as big as you can afford. Why's that? Because deep in our hearts, we love fat. People come into the restaurant where I work and pretend to like nouvelle cuisine, but they don't. You can see when they look at the bill that they feel cheated having to pay so much for such small servings. That's all nouvelle cuisine is anyway - a clever new way of cheating a customer out of their money's worth. Give 'em a couple of spears of asparagus, artistically arranged, and you can charge more than if you gave them five." - pp. 10-11

"No great love ever really ends. We can shoot it with a gun or a stick it in the back of the darkest closet of our hearts, but it's clever; it knows how to survive. It can find its way out and shock us by reappearing when we were so damn sure it was dead or at least safely hidden beneath piles of other things." - p. 63

"Because jealousy is greed. I want it all and don't want to share any of it ever. Sometimes when I think about it, I'm jealous of all the men in your past and what they did with you. I'd like to go back and take all of the kisses and fucks away from them and keep them for myself." - p. 149

[Leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

I shouldn't be disappointed with the book; I should be disappointed with myself for not reading the editorial reviews on Amazon from Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal, which tell the complete story. I thought the book dragged for the first 30% and then picked up. After 80% or so, it just got weird. When Lily was telling Max her life story - which I thought would never end -- I was impressed with the author's ability to write with a woman's voice because only a woman would go on and on and on like Lily did. A guy would've told the same story in about a quarter of the time. (I wanted children, got involved with the wrong crowd, sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, wanted children, couldn't have children.) This is precisely how my husband and I can tell the same story. It'll take me about five minutes and he'll wrap it up in about one. In the case of Lily telling her story, I can't imagine any man wanting to hear the details of his current wife's sexual exploits before they were married. I will say it was an intriguing story in the middle and couldn't stop reading for about three hours.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird ending

Didn't knowwhat to make of the ending or what he was trying to say. Not sure i'd ever read another book by him. It didn't get interesting until several chapters into the book but kept reading after "the secret "became known. The 2 main characters were reprehensible in their actions or lack thereof. Didn't like either of them and there seemed to be hints they have influenced their daughter negatively also.

[Czytajki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Książka bardzo mi się podobała. Opis wydarzeń z punktu widzenia wątpliwych moralnie bohaterów. Od połowy akcja bardzo przyspiesza. Minus za przeskok czasowy, w którym zachowania bohaterów zmieniają się diametralnie, nie do konca rozumiem dlaczego. Niejednoznaczne zakończenie mnie zmroziło: magia czy obłąkanie?

[Cristian · Rating 3 out of 5]

La prima parte del libro mi aveva davvero intricato.
Purtroppo l'interesse e il piacere è andato poi scemando.
Comunque, lettura piacevole.
Ma ultimamente sto rivalutando l'iniziale amore per questo scrittore.

[April · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just not for me

This book just wasn't for me. It didn't ever get a good hook in me although I did finish it. There was a portion that was interesting enough to keep me going but it's not something I'd read again.

[Mark Day · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is perhaps one of the worst books I have read in a long time. I bought it from a library sale for $1.00. I paid too much.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carroll says fuck it to his usual shtick and for my money focuses more on the stronger elements of his writing. That being domesticity and a well paced story.

[Rainb0warri0r · Rating 2 out of 5]

Romanzo atipico per essere di Carroll, almeno, atipico nel contenuto: salutate le tipiche visioni surreali dell'autore e immergetevi in un romanzo intimo, psicologico, che sviscera il rapporto di coppia e le liturgie famigliari.
Un uomo affermato, di talento, creativo, una donna come poche, custode di un terribile segreto, e un figlio. Prescindendo dal racconto del segreto di Lily, sorprende la limitatezza di personaggi, scenari e intreccio: tutto avviene tra le mura di casa e, soprattutto, negli sterminati abissi della coscienza umana, che può concepire i reati più terribili e pure giustificarli e perdonarli. Niente angeli caduti o animali fantastici, in L'assenza, bel titolo per l'edizione italiana: non c'è spazio per il mondo dei sogni, di fronte a una realtà che ti inchioda alla sua quotidianità. Altrove Carroll ha analizzato chirurgicamente la vita di coppia, i sentimenti umani, la paternità, dipingendola dei colori del fantastico e dell'horror; in L'assenza ha voluto mettere in scena il già grottesco teatro della vita umana. L'intento, immagino, è di scrivere un romanzo introspettivo, puramente riflessivo: l'unica spinta dinamica a una trama altrimenti piuttosto piatta è data solo dal mistero del segreto custodito da Lily; il resto è solo la cronaca di una vita quotidiana e lo studio, in un certo senso, delle reazioni e relazioni umane.
Il risultato non è però soddisfacente, e non è da attribuire esclusivamente alla mancante componente fantastica carrolliana, quanto piuttosto a quei piccoli difetti che Caroll si porta appresso sempre e che qui vengono ingigantiti. L'intreccio, per almeno metà libro, è il solito: un protagonista con alle spalle una storia sentimentale andata male ritrova serenità e stabilità in un improvviso rapporto con una presunta anima gemella; proprio quando Carroll generalmente inserisce il primo strappo al tessuto della realtà, in questo caso non accade nulla, se non una ripetizione dell'unico tema del romanzo (il segreto di Lily). Proprio questo viene prima rivelato senza enfasi al lettore, per essere poi ripreso e ridiscusso in maniera più lunga e ossessiva. Certo, Carroll non intendeva colpire il lettore con l'effetto sorpresa, ma studiare e raccontare come cambino le relazioni umane in seguito a determinati eventi. Peccato che il tutto sia estremamente noioso. Noia e piattezza sono i difetti principali di questo romanzo, che per oltre due terzi non va a parare da alcuna parte. I personaggi, che in un romanzo con una tale impostazione dovrebbero essere i punti di forza, più che compassione generano astio e diffidenza.
La delusione è tanta e amplificata alla luce di una buona conoscenza dell'opera di Carroll: considerato come l'autore sia stato capace di dare particolari colorazioni a romanzi più introspettivi e intimi, con simili tematiche, non si riesce proprio a perdonare un romanzo come questo, che ripete più e più volte la stessa brutta idea.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

While every Jonathan Carroll book is a pure delight for the senses– mystical and suspenseful, yet realistic and touching–there is one thing that I (and others) have asked for from past books are endings that put just that right piece de resistance on an otherwise splendid story. Not that I’ve ever been that disappointed by a Carroll ending; I just expect more after the wonders that went before. With After Silence, Carroll’s finally done it–this book has an ending that I can point at and say, “This is an ending,” and quite an ending it is.

Like most of his other novels, After Silence is a love story. This time it’s Max Fischer, semi-famous ‘Paper Clip’ author-cartoonist, who meets Lily Aaron and her son Lincoln at a museum showing. Max is the narrator, and proceeds to examine both his life, and the effect that Lily and her son have upon it. And everything seems idyllic…until. Like past novels, things aren’t as they seem in After Silence, and Max discovers that Lily’s protection of her son may have some other motivation beyond simple motherly love.

This is Carroll’s best novel since Bones of the Moon. What After Silence lacks is that touch of total lunacy of Cullen’s dreams; what makes up for this deficiency is Carroll’s most linear story to date. The details are still there–Lincoln’s disastrous birthday party, the weird and strange denizens of “Crowds and Power” (a Los Angeles restaurant at which Lily works), the nervousness of love and guilt, the Glock taped to the wall–but this time they seem more integrated with the story. Rather than those wondrous side-glimpses like “Mr. Fiddlehead” and “The Art of Falling Down” which were complete short stories wedged into the novels in which they appeared, everything in After Silence works towards the ending.

The ending is tricky, although I would hesitate to call it a trick ending. As the story winds down in the last pages, the pressure on the characters and the pace of the novel increases, so it is important to catch every nuance in the last 20 pages to fully appreciate what actually happens in the ending. And, although I say the ending is satisfying, I won’t promise that you will like it.

[Julie Tridle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been wanting to read Jonathan Carroll for awhile, and I hope I just picked the wrong book to start off with. There were a lot of things about After Silence that I didn't like. For one, I felt through the last third of the book that I was seeing the story from the least interesting perspective of the options available. To me, this didn't seem like Max Fischer's story to tell. I'm not really suggesting the book should have switched perspectives-- but Max's distant view of it all bothered me.

I also found that the more I read, the less sympathy I had for the choices the characters made-- and I'm not talking about either of the "big doozy of choices" that the book is all about, but a lot of the smaller ones. There was a lot of secrecy going on between the characters in the last portion of the book that seemed only to exist to keep the plot moving. Like why Max didn't tell Lily that Lincoln knew the "big secret" as he left the restaurant. It didn't make sense to me. She could have been in huge danger, but, oh well. I couldn't buy it as existing for any other reason.

I also just really didn't like these characters. The long, drawn out explanation from Lily for the thing that she'd done made me want to vomit. Being expected to get to tell it without interruption-- like anyone owed her that. It made me nuts. Also, there was the boring, irrelevant thought process I was expected to be interested in that was going on in Max's head as he was flying to try to prevent a horrendous catastrophe that could irrevocably change-- or end, several people's lives made me want to shake him 'til his teeth rattled. If I was on that plane with him, I'd be shouting "Shut up! Shut up!I don't find every damn thing that goes through your head that f@#king interesting!" I don't know, I just didn't like these people.

Also, Carroll cheated with his plot in a huge enough way at the end of the book that I wanted to write him and demand my money back. I still might.

Anyway, I know this is a pretty vague review. It's been a few weeks since I finished reading the book. I have one more of his books to try. Hopefully I will like that one better.

[Ollie Skyba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Не могу сказать, что разочарована, так как не называют разочарованием книгу, прочитанную на одном дыхании. Даже если последняя ее страница вводит в оцепенение. Но на этот раз не в мистически необъятное оцепенение, полустрах-полувосторг, а в недоумение.
Как она могла закончиться так?
...
Я проглотила ее. Прочла за одну ночь в поезде. И не могу простить, понять, почему, как она могла закончиться так?..
...
Кэрролл взял меня в плен. Книга за книгой. Я перестала анализировать сюжеты, давать характеристики его героям,.. Я словно наркоман, с каждой новой книгой, снова и снова принимаю дозу кэрролловских «сказок для взрослых».
Хотя «По ту сторону безмолвия» - не сказочна. В ней не много мистики и почти нет леденящих кровь образов.
Даже наоборот, некоторые страницы кровь горячили и будоражили.

«Она стянула свитер через голову, лифчика под ним не оказалось. Груди тяжело вываливались из мягкой шерсти. Она сидела в трусиках-бикини, опершись сзади на руки, и смотрела, как я выпутывался из остатков одежды. Когда штаны были сняты, она запустила руку мне в трусы и дотронулась до...».

Сексуальная откровенность, балансирующая на грани порнографии...? Неожиданно для Кэрролла... А может, только для меня.
Ведь я уверена, что следующая книга будет по-прежнему сказочной. Пусть и не настолько «по-взрослому» :о)

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am doing a series of very short catch-up reviews so don't expect in-depth thoughts right now (unfortunately) after coming down with pneumonia in late February and being very *very* behind on life right now.

Reread project 2019 # 5 of 24 (yes I am falling behind...)

This one was really fascinating in the series of Carroll books that I am rereading so I wish that I had more time to write about it. I am really intrigued by its place (or lack thereof) among the magical realism that surrounds it as it is adamant that magic just doesn't exist - that this is all there is. Really fascinating to sandwich this one in amidst these fairy tales he has been writing. (And there is a long discussion to be had of whether or not it really fits in with the rest of this "series" as it has far less connections than the others so far. Anyway... Again, I would rate it lower today but still worth reading.