Subject: AFTER SILENCE by Jonathan Carroll

From: [email-masked] (Glen Cox)
Date: 11 Jan 93 13:05:55 GMT

=== Review of AFTER SILENCE by Jonathan Carroll
=== Copyright (c) 1991 by Glen E. Cox
 
Jonathan Carroll never fails.  Every book is a pure delight for the senses--
mystical and suspenseful, yet realistic and touching.  If 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 musuem 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.  
 
Carroll is one of my favorite authors, and AFTER SILENCE is a prime example
of why.  For the newcomer, this is a fine place to start discovering one
man's personal view of what magic realism means in literature.  For the
converted, don't worry--Carroll hasn't slipped yet.
 
%A   Jonathan Carroll
%T   After Silence
%I   Macdonald
%C   London
%D   1992
%G   ISBN 0-356-20342-5
%O   Hardcover, 14.99 pounds
%P   240 pp.

-- 
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