I had wanted to try one of this author’s books for ages and finally decided that an audio version would do the trick. As I was browsing his list of books on Audible the cover of this one struck me and the narrator sounded the best out of the bunch (the others either sounded like they had asthma or imitating Darth Vader).The main character, Miranda Romanac, is a woman who gets everything she wants and yet isn't quite happy. She regrets the turns her life has taken since high school, the way she h...

Dogs are here to remind us life really is a simple thing. You eat, sleep, take walks, and pee when you must. That’s about all there is. They are quick to forgive trespasses and assume strangers will be kind. 104We have affairs because we’re greedy. Don’t blame that greed on someone else. People are brilliant at justifying their motives. It’s one of our ugliest talents. 107It’s arrogant to think we know what’s right. Morality is only cowardice most of the time. We don’t avoid misbehaving because

This was my first time reading Jonathan Carroll and though my reaction to this book was mixed I am intrigued. It was an engaging read which spend the first 2/3 of the story firmly rooted in reality and the final 1/3 a confusing supernatural muddle with a generous dash of creepy. The first part of the story I flew through and really enjoyed despite not being crazy about the main character. This part of the book for me seemed to be a well written if at times a tad pretentious, argument for the ide...

It's been quite some time since I read any Jonathan Carroll. I enjoyed the gentle touches of magical realism in some of the earlier work I read, and those elements are present in "The Marriage of Sticks". The main character, the world she inhabits, is mostly the "real world", but then slowly opens up into a brush with something a little more supernatural.The writing is clear and the pace is solid, but I did occasionally think the dialogue was a little... overblown? Artificial? Although perhaps i...

I read it because it had a Thomas Canty cover and I typically love the books he does the art for. I spent a lot of time while reading the book wondering why I was reading it. It was just a story of some people during the first half. The second half brought in more preternormal aspects. A lot of things were left foggy and unclear and I kept reading in hopes of getting to the part where the information was that would explain what was going on. It managed to drag some of it out to the very last par...

The odds were stacked against this book, yet surprisingly I really enjoyed reading it.The only reason I read The Marriage of Sticks was to get rid of it - I bought a copy for no apparent reason over a decade ago. I was fully prepared to, even expected to dislike it. The title seemed silly, I've never read this author before, don't read much of this genre, and I found out on GoodReads that apparently it's the second book of some series... But it turned out to be a pretty entertaining read! Made m...

One of the worst stuff I have ever read. Too conventional, simplistic style of writing. Author unsuccessfully tries to capture the reader with "mysterious" events in the book. Not impressed at all.

Meh. Kinda simplistic writing. Unimpressed. This is the second... or maybe third, J. Carroll book I've read or tried to read... I don't think I need try anymore.

There is no genre to fit the work of Jonathan Carroll in, using anything and everything, like alternate lives, talking dogs, other incarnations, to tell his poignant stories that always have a big beating heart. Great book.

It is life as usual until Part II (slightly over 50% of the way through). Part I Miranda isn't especially remarkable - she has had her share of loves and of loss. She is in her thirties and attends her high school reunion w/ her best friend from high school. She falls in love with a married man who has grown children. She is slightly self-righteous and judgmental, but in a realistic way. The story is told from her perspective as an older woman reflecting on her past.Carroll is playing with the i...

Another book from Jonathan Carroll that was a huge bust for me. At times, he really has a way of making you stop caring about the characters and the story.

Well, that got weird. Magical realism of a sort, after pages of just...realism. Interesting, but not arresting.

I really liked this book--at first it seemed like a normal slice of life story--good characters and then suddenly it gets into some supernatural stuff and it takes a different direction--but all good-- a little like stephen king but not as crazy--and the author did this seamlessly so it didnt feel like a weird change

Haunting, disturbing, fascinating. It starts out as a normal-seeming albeit very well-written sort of everyday fiction... but veers slowly but surely toward the strange.I really liked the start, and I was certainly drawn in as it went along, but ultimately I just wasn't sure what the point of it all had been. The narration - and the author's level of comfort - seemed to pull back abruptly as the crux of the story arrived and I felt distanced from the characters and what was happening. I'm not co...

This was a good book in that it makes you consider the choices you make in your life, almost without thinking, and shows the impact of those choices on others, not just yourself. All choices matter - not just the ones you believe to be consequential. If you are looking for a book that makes you think - this is one. You need to pay close attention throughout the story in order to follow it - otherwise you will get to the end and say - "this book skips all over and makes no sense".

I'm with Holly, what she said, yeah.

reviews.metaphorosis.com 3 starsMiranda Romanac learns that an old flame has died, but begins to see him on the streets. When she gets involved with another man, the range of strange events increases to the point of danger.Carroll mixes mundane reality with a couple of very interesting supernatural premises. The first half of the book is largely realistic, though Miranda begins to experience visions and visitations as she falls in love with a married man. In the second half, the fantastic elemen...

The Marriage of Sticks slides along the slipstream, as most of his works to. His writing is filled with magical imagery and moments when you can't quite figure out what's going on, but in the end it doesn't matter because Carroll can tell a great story. Carroll's works always manage to live in the ordinary world and in the magical world that lies adjacent. In The Marriage of Sticks this is quite clear as the book moves through its paces and becomes increasingly creepy and fantastical.The main ch...

Not quite the match of the previous book in the sequence, The Marriage of Sticks is Carroll back on more familiar ground but this time he seems angrier, sadder and more bitter somehow. Obviously the town of Crane’s View is the linking theme to the trilogy but there’s far more about regret and the past going on here, with a strange sort of self hatred that I haven’t seen in his other books. There are a few bits here that I am going to have to chew over considerably, but at its best it’s magnifice...

Jonathan Carroll’s last novel, Kissing the Beehive, marked a departure in his oeuvre. In his nine previous novels, Carroll had created a strange marriage between the detail-oriented fiction of contemporary novelists and the fantastic mythology of the South American magical realists. Reading a Carroll novel was like discovering John Updike novelizing Twilight Zone episodes or finding the source material for a David Lynch film that did not contain the misogyny and grotesque. The critic John Clute