This book started out really interesting and I enjoyed the author's use of language, like "some answers in life are so weird yet satisfying that on hearing them, all the mind can do is sit back and burp." Then again, this metaphor doesn't quite make sense, which is a lot like the rest of the novel; there is something off about it. It started out fine - I was intrigued by the main character, despite his being an asshat and the surreality of his world. And then the ladies showed up, and they were

I love Carroll’s metaphysical fantasies. They’re rich in weird incident and literary spectacle, but at the centre of them beats a very human heart. We navigate our lives through narrative and Carroll reminds us how rich and vital stories are. A brilliant novel, whose explorations of God, death and life are fascinating and delightful.

Not having read any Jonathan Carroll for about 20 years, I was unsure about this book, but he didn’t fail to please!!! This is the second book and I hadn’t read the first, but it didn’t seem to matter. It is a mad insight into death, which makes you think about what it could be like on the other side of life!

I found this book during a random trip to Goodwill. Most of the times I've gone there I'll come out with a couple books that end up being nice additions to my collection. Most times, though, I usually don't find books that are just spot-on for my taste using this method. Living in the Bible Belt, there aren't just a whole lot of second hand books with metaphysical and surreal themes. Jonathan Carroll is known for his magical realism, which if you know me, you know I love some magic (read: any fa...

To live in Jonathan Carroll's world must be both beautiful and terrifying... his characters are preternaturally beautiful, graceful people with unusual names, but they have the most ordinary habits one could imagine—the men and women in a Carroll novel enjoy waking up between clean sheets; they eat big breakfasts with fresh-squeezed orange juice; they drive cars and talk on cellphones and have romances and affairs just like their mundane counterparts... but then their world just veers into the s...

This is the sequel to WHITE APPLES, so Vincent and Isabelle are front and center. Booklist stated:"Prolific and imaginative, Carroll writes delectable novels that combine riddle-like metaphysics with Magritte-like surrealism and romantic fantasy. In his latest cosmic Vienna-based tale, he echoes Hermann Hesse and Steven Millhauser as he picks up the story of the passionate lovers Vincent and Isabelle, who starred in White Apples (2002). In spite of this connection, readers new to Carroll's magic...

A decent follow-up to "White Apples".

I don’t want to talk too much about this excellent Jonathan Carroll novel because I want you to experience it (if ever you went ahead and read it – you should, you know) the way I experienced it. I didn’t read the blurb, and had no idea what the book was about, so essentially I threw myself into the first chapter empty of expectation. And lo, how I floundered. The novel has the most interesting chapter titles (“Tunica Molesta”, “Knee-Deep in Sunday Suits”) and the first chapter is called, “Simon...

Absolutely favorite book of all time! Characters are easy to fall in love with and the story line changes the way you think about life. Really makes you think! Love! Love! Love this book!

Everything in Glass Soup felt forced to me, from the premise to the plot to the writing. I love imaginative fiction and fabulism and everything like that, but this novel was not a good example of any of it. It's like Carroll flipped the formula around. Instead of creating an absurd scenario because it has meaning, he created an absurd scenario and then tried to infuse it with meaning. The result is a wandering, disjunct novel that doesn't deal in any new way with its rather simple premise of goo...

It was strange picking up Glass Soup. While The Wooden Sea and White Apples fit together into the same sequence, they fit together plot wise but not so much right where the last one left off. Glass Soup is a very direct sequel to White Apples. There's enough background information in it that you don't necessarily have to read White Apples first, but I'd still recommend doing it. For one, it really helps you feel more for the characters and the choices they make.I feel strangely about the book as...

Now and again you judge a book by its cover and you judge correctly—this is a ride worth taking more than once.

This book is a sequel to “White Apples”, which I did not know before I started reading. Apparently it doesn’t much matter; the gist of it is that Vincent and Isabelle fell in love, Vincent died, and Isabell did the whole Orpheus thing and went to the land of the dead and brought him back to life. “Glass Soup” takes place very shortly after that. Isabelle is pregnant, and her child is a very important one: the fate of the universe hinges on whether he is born in the land of the living or of the d...

The afterlife is the stuff of dreams...literally. The book opens with pretty-but-dumb Simon Haden, who is dead but doesn't quite know it. His after-death reality is the sum of all dreams he had while alive; like dreams, it is discordant and uncomfortable and non-nonsensical. It's an interesting premise - if your dreams were the stuff of worries while you were alive (missing flights, sleeping through exams, not being able to run when someone is chasing), your death is more of the same; if your dr...

Years ago, if anyone would have asked me who my favorite author was, my reaction would have been immediate and enthusiastic... Jonathan Carroll, of course. Then he left his Vienna characters behind and branched out into new worlds. I found myself reading Kissing the Beehive, The Marriage of Sticks, and White Apples with increased detachment. They were still quick reads with interesting twists and turns, but it felt to me as if the "heart" had been removed from his writing. The characters were mu...

I was a bit disappointed ... and I can't put my finger on why.Carroll is one of my favorite authors of all time, but the last 2 novels I've read have left me feeling flat. Something about the writing seems cockier ... the storyline sloppier.I feel less rooted, with a few shakes of the surreal. It's more like trying to ride an eel through Wonderland or the like. The premise is that Chaos wants to rule the world and upset the balance of life by having a live human give birth to a child in the afte...

Jonathan Carroll is one of my favorite authors, because of his inspired word pairings, wise insights into life and interesting characters. Glass Soup does contain all that, but it's a sequel to his previous novel White Apples, and, unfortunately, it feels too much like a sequel. Although it's been years since I read White Apples, Glass Soup seemed to repeat some of the former's best parts, without adding much to them. It's not a bad book, and it's certainly accessible to people who haven't read

That’s more like it - it’s still too plotty for it to be Carroll at his very best, but it’s a far looser and stranger and darker and more focused novel than White Apple. There are some fantastic characters here, Flannery is even more terrifying an opponent than the previous one and Brox and Bob are all time classics. I’m also very fond of Sunday Suits and Jelden Butter, especially as they are mere cameos but created so brilliantly that they really dazzle. The plot resolves well and it’s all very...

This will probably be a short review – which is odd given how much I love Jonathan Carroll’s books. I read them out of order, so I am always a bit lost in his world(s). The same characters appear in several books, but I can’t keep track of what they’ve done and how they are all connected…but I am perfectly fine with that. In fact, I love it.I was lucky enough to attend one of his readings of “White Apples” – and was sucked into his universe. Life, death, love, bull terriers, life sized bags of c...