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The Carousel
Winner! 2011 Book of the Year from the Delaware Press Association! Can they all be made whole? A bone-weary, emotionally drained woman shows up one morning at a diner and gas station in a small Northeast town. Intending to refuel on gas and coffee and just keep driving, she is drawn instead to a pile of discarded carousel horses at the junkyard next door. Her find begins a ripple of gossip, mystery, and a restorative journey for the horses, herself, and the curious collection of townspeople taking the tumultuous ride of hope, patience and a chance to grab the brass ring.
232 pages, Paperback
First published March 20, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 16, 2017
The Carousel is like no other lesfic book I’ve ever read. The scenes are very short, shifting from person to person in town, sometimes even shifting perspective from one person to another within the same scene. The tone is quite dark and uncomfortable at first, and yet the writing is gorgeous, whether on the first page or the last.
Full review: http://www.thelesbianreview.com/carou...
Full review: http://www.thelesbianreview.com/carou...
March 15, 2015
If somebody would have told me how much I'd enjoy reading a novel about restoring old carousel horses, I would have laughed at them.
Stefani Deoul's "The Carousel" caught me from the first page; spellbound me, would be more correct. Wanted to read it fast to find an answer to the mystery, wanted to read it slow because I didn't want the story to end.
And it's not only about restoring old carousel horses, it's about love and grief, faith and friendship, courage and perseverance.
This is one the most beautiful stories I've ever read. If you don't read any other book this coming year, read this!
And I loved it maybe even more on second reading!!
Stefani Deoul's "The Carousel" caught me from the first page; spellbound me, would be more correct. Wanted to read it fast to find an answer to the mystery, wanted to read it slow because I didn't want the story to end.
And it's not only about restoring old carousel horses, it's about love and grief, faith and friendship, courage and perseverance.
This is one the most beautiful stories I've ever read. If you don't read any other book this coming year, read this!
And I loved it maybe even more on second reading!!
August 23, 2011
"Through the yellowed haze of her headlights, Millie Hickson saw the strange car parked outside as she pulled in to open for her morning shift at the Old Town Diner and Gas. Even at this hour, before dawn's early light made its appearance, the vehicle appeared unremarkable but for the layers of dust and mud consuming every inch of it."
Thus begins a novel set in an unnamed town in the northeastern United States when a mysterious woman stops there after an aimless road trip. The use of a phrase from the American national anthem ("Oh say, can you see, by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?") suggests that the mud-covered car, like the U.S. flag under siege, will turn out to be a beacon of hope and community spirit.
For Millie and most other town residents, the town is a dead end, a place that anyone with energy and ambition escapes sooner or later. She has been unofficially engaged to Tom, the town sheriff, for years, but neither of them seems eager to make a commitment to each other. Nan takes care of her grandmother, who has nowhere else to go and who has stopped talking. Several of the teenagers in town are subjects of concern for their school counsellor, who fears that they are throwing their lives away. Even the Reverend (leader of a generic Christian congregation) has almost lost faith in his calling.
Like symbols of a lost childhood, the remains of an old carousel in a junkyard next to the diner catch the strange woman's attention. Old Lyle, who holds the keys to the yard (labelled "The Town Dump"), explains to her:
"'Been there oh, at least, um, forty years now. . . Yep. Must have been the summer of sixty-five. Bought it off some Carnies.' The memory made him chuckle. 'Said this was it, they'd had it. They were going to San Francisco and become hippies. Get some of that free love that was goin' around. Yep. Hunk of junk it was too. Didn't run, had pieces missing. Funny, thought people would want it but didn't work out that way. Seems to just hang on year after year.'"
The strange woman is inspired. Although she is exhausted and has no place to sleep (except in her car), she decides to start restoring the wooden horses of the carousel with tools she has conveniently brought with her.
She communes with the wreckage:
“She sat stroking, feeling, listening for something only she could hear. Her eyes kept scanning the broken pieces. They were most likely the desolate ruins of an Old Parker County Fair.”
This could be a reference to county fairs in the early 20th-century in various Parker Counties (revived in Parker County, Texas, in 1947 as a way to preserve the culture of the “Old West”) or to the work of skilled carousel-maker Charles Wallace Parker (1864-1932), who formed his first company in Kansas in the 1890s. The heyday of the American carnival or county fair and its centrepiece, a whirling carousel, seems to have been approximately 1890-1930, and it coincided with the heyday of the American small town, as sentimentalized in popular culture. By the 1960s, when the last “carnies” who ran the carousels were finding other roles, many Americans were leaving small towns to find industrial jobs and faster rides in the city.
The decline of small towns, the traditional heart of American culture, suggests the slow death of innocent pleasure, community ties and a sense of place. More particularly (as the reader eventually finds out), the decline of a small town, as symbolized by the abandoned carousel, gives the strange woman a focus for her personal grief. Creepily, she gets silent messages from the wooden horse she names “Miriam.”
In some versions of this fictional setting, the strange (mentally ill? possessed by a demon?) woman would have come to the town to wreak vengeance. In other versions, she would become a scapegoat for a soul-dead community. These are the horror-movie versions of this plot.
This novel, however, is the feel-good, family version of a stock American story about The Stranger Who Transforms a Town. Not surprisingly, the author has worked as a television producer and script writer.
Soon after the stranger begins trying to restore the horses, she starts inspiring compassion, selflessness and hope. She saves Millie from a bad marriage when Millie takes her in despite the opposition of Tom, who doesn’t trust strangers. Millie becomes aware that she and Tom are not in love and never were. She decides not to settle for what is convenient, and tells him they are through. Thus she sets herself free to find happiness.
The regulars in The Old Town Diner and Gas begin talking to each other. Apparently by coincidence, Nan’s grandmother (who has outlived numerous children) speaks words of wisdom about coping with grief, thereby opening the floodgates of Nan’s love for her and vice versa.
Miraculously, no one asks the strange woman for her name, sensing that she is trying to start a new life and would prefer not to be identified by old labels. She is gradually accepted as Millie’s long-term house guest. An independent young girl named Jess becomes the stranger’s assistant in the junkyard.
And then the natural-born leaders of the town emerge to form a carousel-restoring organization with a fundraising committee, a carving and a painting committee, and an administrative board, all reporting to the stranger, who is affectionately called Boss Lady. The Reverend gets involved, bringing his flock with him. The local construction company gets involved. (Actual carousel-makers Soloman Stein and Harry Goldstein have descendants in the town.) The high school gets involved, turning the town project into a credit class for formerly-aimless teenagers, including an androgynous girl who draws the first sketch of a horse to be carved from scratch.
Boss Lady continues to be an enigma with a tragic past while the other town residents reveal their own sorrows, one by one. The town’s Jewish community becomes reconciled to the Reverend’s Christian flock, and Cameron, the dykey girl with a talent for drawing and carving, inherits the woodworking tools of a long line of Jewish woodcarvers after being disowned by her own family.
The secret of “Miriam” is finally revealed along with the real name of Boss Lady. By this time, the lesbianism of the woman who first appeared as a stranger doesn’t seem likely to shock anyone, since the town has become a haven of love.
I can imagine loving this book at age ten, and loving it more as a made-for-television movie. For better or worse, it just doesn’t satisfy my adult craving for realism. A vision of small-town America as a place of universal acceptance, devoid of sexism, ageism, homophobia and religious intolerance, is not simply nostalgic; it is a pie-in-the-sky dream of what never was, as much a fantasy as multi-colored horses that can last forever.
----------------------------------------
Thus begins a novel set in an unnamed town in the northeastern United States when a mysterious woman stops there after an aimless road trip. The use of a phrase from the American national anthem ("Oh say, can you see, by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?") suggests that the mud-covered car, like the U.S. flag under siege, will turn out to be a beacon of hope and community spirit.
For Millie and most other town residents, the town is a dead end, a place that anyone with energy and ambition escapes sooner or later. She has been unofficially engaged to Tom, the town sheriff, for years, but neither of them seems eager to make a commitment to each other. Nan takes care of her grandmother, who has nowhere else to go and who has stopped talking. Several of the teenagers in town are subjects of concern for their school counsellor, who fears that they are throwing their lives away. Even the Reverend (leader of a generic Christian congregation) has almost lost faith in his calling.
Like symbols of a lost childhood, the remains of an old carousel in a junkyard next to the diner catch the strange woman's attention. Old Lyle, who holds the keys to the yard (labelled "The Town Dump"), explains to her:
"'Been there oh, at least, um, forty years now. . . Yep. Must have been the summer of sixty-five. Bought it off some Carnies.' The memory made him chuckle. 'Said this was it, they'd had it. They were going to San Francisco and become hippies. Get some of that free love that was goin' around. Yep. Hunk of junk it was too. Didn't run, had pieces missing. Funny, thought people would want it but didn't work out that way. Seems to just hang on year after year.'"
The strange woman is inspired. Although she is exhausted and has no place to sleep (except in her car), she decides to start restoring the wooden horses of the carousel with tools she has conveniently brought with her.
She communes with the wreckage:
“She sat stroking, feeling, listening for something only she could hear. Her eyes kept scanning the broken pieces. They were most likely the desolate ruins of an Old Parker County Fair.”
This could be a reference to county fairs in the early 20th-century in various Parker Counties (revived in Parker County, Texas, in 1947 as a way to preserve the culture of the “Old West”) or to the work of skilled carousel-maker Charles Wallace Parker (1864-1932), who formed his first company in Kansas in the 1890s. The heyday of the American carnival or county fair and its centrepiece, a whirling carousel, seems to have been approximately 1890-1930, and it coincided with the heyday of the American small town, as sentimentalized in popular culture. By the 1960s, when the last “carnies” who ran the carousels were finding other roles, many Americans were leaving small towns to find industrial jobs and faster rides in the city.
The decline of small towns, the traditional heart of American culture, suggests the slow death of innocent pleasure, community ties and a sense of place. More particularly (as the reader eventually finds out), the decline of a small town, as symbolized by the abandoned carousel, gives the strange woman a focus for her personal grief. Creepily, she gets silent messages from the wooden horse she names “Miriam.”
In some versions of this fictional setting, the strange (mentally ill? possessed by a demon?) woman would have come to the town to wreak vengeance. In other versions, she would become a scapegoat for a soul-dead community. These are the horror-movie versions of this plot.
This novel, however, is the feel-good, family version of a stock American story about The Stranger Who Transforms a Town. Not surprisingly, the author has worked as a television producer and script writer.
Soon after the stranger begins trying to restore the horses, she starts inspiring compassion, selflessness and hope. She saves Millie from a bad marriage when Millie takes her in despite the opposition of Tom, who doesn’t trust strangers. Millie becomes aware that she and Tom are not in love and never were. She decides not to settle for what is convenient, and tells him they are through. Thus she sets herself free to find happiness.
The regulars in The Old Town Diner and Gas begin talking to each other. Apparently by coincidence, Nan’s grandmother (who has outlived numerous children) speaks words of wisdom about coping with grief, thereby opening the floodgates of Nan’s love for her and vice versa.
Miraculously, no one asks the strange woman for her name, sensing that she is trying to start a new life and would prefer not to be identified by old labels. She is gradually accepted as Millie’s long-term house guest. An independent young girl named Jess becomes the stranger’s assistant in the junkyard.
And then the natural-born leaders of the town emerge to form a carousel-restoring organization with a fundraising committee, a carving and a painting committee, and an administrative board, all reporting to the stranger, who is affectionately called Boss Lady. The Reverend gets involved, bringing his flock with him. The local construction company gets involved. (Actual carousel-makers Soloman Stein and Harry Goldstein have descendants in the town.) The high school gets involved, turning the town project into a credit class for formerly-aimless teenagers, including an androgynous girl who draws the first sketch of a horse to be carved from scratch.
Boss Lady continues to be an enigma with a tragic past while the other town residents reveal their own sorrows, one by one. The town’s Jewish community becomes reconciled to the Reverend’s Christian flock, and Cameron, the dykey girl with a talent for drawing and carving, inherits the woodworking tools of a long line of Jewish woodcarvers after being disowned by her own family.
The secret of “Miriam” is finally revealed along with the real name of Boss Lady. By this time, the lesbianism of the woman who first appeared as a stranger doesn’t seem likely to shock anyone, since the town has become a haven of love.
I can imagine loving this book at age ten, and loving it more as a made-for-television movie. For better or worse, it just doesn’t satisfy my adult craving for realism. A vision of small-town America as a place of universal acceptance, devoid of sexism, ageism, homophobia and religious intolerance, is not simply nostalgic; it is a pie-in-the-sky dream of what never was, as much a fantasy as multi-colored horses that can last forever.
----------------------------------------
January 2, 2025
“She drove with a purpose born of desperation. If she could drive fast enough, far enough,
perhaps she could disappear…seeking a release she did not know how to find.” In exhaustion
and out of gas, she pulled into the Old Town Diner and Gas. Millie Hickson, waitressing on the
early morning shift, poured the “frightened and fragile” looking woman a cup of coffee and tried
to chat her up.
The Town Dump, next to the Diner, caught the woman’s eye as she was pumping gas. The
junkyard owner, Old Man Lyle Johnson, told the strange looking woman, “must have been the
summer of sixty-five. [I bought carousel horses] off some Carnies.” The woman looked at one
particular horse…she embraced and caressed it…examining the broken pieces. Could she
restore the horse and make it whole? With Lyle’s permission, and armed with newly purchased
tools, she would work on “Miriam”. “Miriam”, chipped and weathered, still had life in her eyes,
appeared ready to prance. The junkyard itself contained thirteen horses, all in
disrepair…broken. She herself was a broken lady, waiting to be mended. Perhaps her wounded
“pieces” could be put back in place.
In a small sleepy town, the entire community bonded when a merry-go-round repair lady
stopped to gas up. Support for the restoration efforts soon included plans for a totally restored
carousel fueled solely by the generous work of hundreds of volunteers. The array of workers
directed by the “Boss Lady” were as young as eight and as old as ninety-eight. Mentors
provided life lessons as well as carving and painting. Fundraisers such as the “Name a
Carousel Horse” raffle contest became increasingly popular. Each fully restored Carousel Horse
was a reason for the town to have a celebration!
“The Carousel Horse” by Stefani Deoul is a beautiful novel that embraces the theory of “it takes
a village”. Highly recommended.
perhaps she could disappear…seeking a release she did not know how to find.” In exhaustion
and out of gas, she pulled into the Old Town Diner and Gas. Millie Hickson, waitressing on the
early morning shift, poured the “frightened and fragile” looking woman a cup of coffee and tried
to chat her up.
The Town Dump, next to the Diner, caught the woman’s eye as she was pumping gas. The
junkyard owner, Old Man Lyle Johnson, told the strange looking woman, “must have been the
summer of sixty-five. [I bought carousel horses] off some Carnies.” The woman looked at one
particular horse…she embraced and caressed it…examining the broken pieces. Could she
restore the horse and make it whole? With Lyle’s permission, and armed with newly purchased
tools, she would work on “Miriam”. “Miriam”, chipped and weathered, still had life in her eyes,
appeared ready to prance. The junkyard itself contained thirteen horses, all in
disrepair…broken. She herself was a broken lady, waiting to be mended. Perhaps her wounded
“pieces” could be put back in place.
In a small sleepy town, the entire community bonded when a merry-go-round repair lady
stopped to gas up. Support for the restoration efforts soon included plans for a totally restored
carousel fueled solely by the generous work of hundreds of volunteers. The array of workers
directed by the “Boss Lady” were as young as eight and as old as ninety-eight. Mentors
provided life lessons as well as carving and painting. Fundraisers such as the “Name a
Carousel Horse” raffle contest became increasingly popular. Each fully restored Carousel Horse
was a reason for the town to have a celebration!
“The Carousel Horse” by Stefani Deoul is a beautiful novel that embraces the theory of “it takes
a village”. Highly recommended.
April 30, 2021
This is a story about grief and pain. About a found family and how a bit of an oddball project can help ease some of that pain.
It's about finding yourself lost, and then finding yourself.
All in all it was an okay read. I was a little intrigued by the carousel horse that spoke to two of the characters, but I never got an answer to why that was. The writing is a little too clumsy for me, too chaotic in the constant pov changes (within same section), and I never got an answer to the biggest mystery there was.
It's about finding yourself lost, and then finding yourself.
All in all it was an okay read. I was a little intrigued by the carousel horse that spoke to two of the characters, but I never got an answer to why that was. The writing is a little too clumsy for me, too chaotic in the constant pov changes (within same section), and I never got an answer to the biggest mystery there was.
August 9, 2018
An exceptional and gratifying read. Held my attention all the way through. I suffered with them, cheered with them, and even shed a tear in one part of the story. I also worried that the person that had all of the venom would destroy everything that the others worked for. In other words, this book took me in and I can highly recommend.
July 26, 2023
Honestly, this book is just about perfect. It made me laugh out loud; it made me cry. The dialogue felt real and the characters felt real. I wish that carousel was real. The only thing that held it back was the utterly atrocious proofreading. With a better editor and proofreader, Stefani Deoul could be the next big thing.
July 29, 2019
Excellent!
I loved The Carousel. This is such a moving story. The beginning will feel a bit jumbled and disoriented. Just bear with it. You will relish the story. Moral of the book: Get your nose out of your electronics, talk to your neighbor and embrace your community.
I loved The Carousel. This is such a moving story. The beginning will feel a bit jumbled and disoriented. Just bear with it. You will relish the story. Moral of the book: Get your nose out of your electronics, talk to your neighbor and embrace your community.
February 26, 2024
A lovely reminder of the specialness within living a small town community. I enjoyed the way the characters interacted, the richness of the text, and could have done with even more descriptors of this carousel. Well timed and paced, this story feels like a worn pair of blue jeans, familiar and safe
September 16, 2019
A heartbreakingly beautiful story, masterfully woven with characters you can reach out and touch.
February 21, 2011
Amazon reviews: "Wonderful! What a delight - absolutely full fleshed characters and the visualizations from the writing placed me front and center... the journey was a total pleasure. thanks so much - this was a memorable adventure."
"Some books are more than the sum of their parts, transcending their base elements to become deeper and more important than they might seem at first. They provide the comfort of traveling to a known destination in familiar surroundings but take an interesting and surprising route. Such is the case with Stefani Deoul’s The Carousel.
In the hands of a lesser writer, this material might well be mired in mawkish sentimentality, but Deoul never stoops to the cheap sob. Her merry go round lady is dark and unpredictable, and her relationship with Millie has a tense dynamic that gives the plot some real drama. Deoul’s prose is straightforward and uncluttered, sharp enough to make its point and lyrical enough to leave an impression.
The sub-plots and minor characters are also interesting and well-drawn, especially the expert carvers Sam and Morris, whose age and experience demand they pass their skills to an initially unwilling apprentice, teenage Cameron.
If all this sounds a bit contrived, I swear you won’t notice. The prose is that good and the characters will sweep you up in their enthusiasm until you find yourself cheering them on, chagrined at their setbacks and elated by their successes." - Jerry Wheeler, Out in Print
“It’s not only the story itself—of finding beauty and belonging in the places—and people—where one least expects it, that makes The Carousel linger in the reader’s mind long after the last page is turned. It’s the writing -the gorgeous, heartbreaking, lyrical writing. If I hadn’t been so caught up in the story, I would have stopped—again and again --just to reread the resonant, detailed, surprising, and beautiful paragraphs.
Maribeth Fischer, author of The Life You Longed For
"Some books are more than the sum of their parts, transcending their base elements to become deeper and more important than they might seem at first. They provide the comfort of traveling to a known destination in familiar surroundings but take an interesting and surprising route. Such is the case with Stefani Deoul’s The Carousel.
In the hands of a lesser writer, this material might well be mired in mawkish sentimentality, but Deoul never stoops to the cheap sob. Her merry go round lady is dark and unpredictable, and her relationship with Millie has a tense dynamic that gives the plot some real drama. Deoul’s prose is straightforward and uncluttered, sharp enough to make its point and lyrical enough to leave an impression.
The sub-plots and minor characters are also interesting and well-drawn, especially the expert carvers Sam and Morris, whose age and experience demand they pass their skills to an initially unwilling apprentice, teenage Cameron.
If all this sounds a bit contrived, I swear you won’t notice. The prose is that good and the characters will sweep you up in their enthusiasm until you find yourself cheering them on, chagrined at their setbacks and elated by their successes." - Jerry Wheeler, Out in Print
“It’s not only the story itself—of finding beauty and belonging in the places—and people—where one least expects it, that makes The Carousel linger in the reader’s mind long after the last page is turned. It’s the writing -the gorgeous, heartbreaking, lyrical writing. If I hadn’t been so caught up in the story, I would have stopped—again and again --just to reread the resonant, detailed, surprising, and beautiful paragraphs.
Maribeth Fischer, author of The Life You Longed For
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews