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The Panic Hand Jonathan Carroll 9780312146986 Books

Download As PDF : The Panic Hand Jonathan Carroll 9780312146986 Books

The Panic Hand Jonathan Carroll 9780312146986 Books

I'm usually not a short fiction reader. It usually doesn't evolve enough to be interesting. I enjoyed speculative fiction because it focuses on cocnept and ideas and how they play out in the future. Gives my mind more to think about than the limits of the prose.
I enjoyed this collection well enough. JC's writing is always a comfortable read. However the story "Uh-Oh City" is awesome. He presents an idea that I would love to see fleshed out. He leaves questions on the mind that want to be answered. The book was worth it for that story alone for me.


Tags : The Panic Hand [Jonathan Carroll] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The twenty stories collected here transmit the same intense charges of intellect and emotion that characterize Carroll's longer works. Among the many pleasures are: Friend's Best Man - An award-winning story about a dog that teaches its owner the real and very frightening meaning of The Animal Kingdom. Black Cocktail - A short novel about a high-school kid who never grew up - literally. The Sadness of Detail - What are we to do when contacted by angels? What are we to do when one makes an offer we can't refuse? A Flash in the Pants - Original to this volume - a story about a beautiful stranger and a house that remembers all too well its previous owners.,Jonathan Carroll,The Panic Hand,St Martin's Press,0312146981,1001-WS1601-A04013-0312146981,General,Fantasy fiction,Fantasy fiction, American.,Short stories,FICTION General,Fantasy fiction, American,Fiction,Fiction - General,General Adult,POPULAR AMERICAN FICTION,United States

The Panic Hand Jonathan Carroll 9780312146986 Books Reviews

I hate to harp on it, but Jonathan Carroll has problems ending stories. I would like to say I don't care because even a partial story by Carroll is enough, but the truth is that I'm always left with a craving that you get when you read a story and you're wrapped up into it and you require completion. Supposedly American audiences require a "happy" completion, but I hope I'm beyond that. "Uh-oh City" has all the things that are quintessential Carroll characters who are intrinsically interesting, a doozy of a "weirdness," and the, unfortunately, open ending. The premise is that there are 36 people who are God, but not individually, but collectively. One-thirty-sixth of God is still pretty much amazing, though, and when God(sub36) tells you that they are dying and you are next in line to become part of the 36thhood, what can you say? Complications ensue, as they usually do, and things are never as they seem in a Carroll story, but after the final twisty turn we reach the last sentence and we are still on the precipice of understanding, and need a final push to put us over...and it never comes.
The other stories here are more of the same wild, wonderful fare. THE PANIC HAND was originally published in Germany with a slightly different table of contents. I own a copy of that book, but being unable to read German was slightly hampered in trying to understand the stories. Carroll's better at the long form--his favorite literary device is the untrustworthy narrator, and it takes at least 50 pages to set up a story with one of those that won't annoy the reader. Even still, his tendency for the twist and his incredible way of creating characters that you would like to know in a few sentences is enjoyable even in the short form.
Writers who don't feel like producing the sociological, autobiographical and confessional tracts that dominate the world of American fiction have it tough. Magazines and publishing houses demand an endless stream of stories about sensitive types growing up amidst cornfields; family members dying or just about to; the difficulties of growing up X in a non-X world; and how "Uncle Bert molested me when I was twelve."
To his credit, Carroll will have none of it. Well, he'll have a little, provided he can transform it in his own unique way. Try "Friend's Best Man" (a dog story with a difference), "Uh-Oh City", "The Sadness of Detail", or the hilarious "Postgraduate" (gives new meaning to the term "lifelong learning").
I detect a fairly strong Central European influence, probably owing to Carroll's long residence in Vienna. Some of the stories seem to owe something to Robert Walser or Kafka, and the premise of "Postgraduate" is similar to that of Gombrowicz's "Ferdydurke". All to the good, I think. Not all the stories are first-rate, but writing fiction of this sort requires one to take risks.
THE PANIC HAND is a collection of 20 stories of such variety and oddness that it is difficult to give potential readers any general idea of their content. It wouldn't be entirely inaccurate to label them as fantasy, though that term has connotations that miss the mark. Besides, in several, no outwardly fantastic elements appear; in others, one might consider them closer to horror. But regardless of genre, nearly all of them were compelling and interesting, even if the endings did not always bring a satisfactory resolution.

In these stories, Jonathan Carroll takes for his subjects such ideas as werewolves, Jewish mythology, the gestalt soul, imaginary friends, Hell, stalkers, and the takeover of the world by animals; others are undefinable. Regardless of his outward imagery though, these stories are about people - about their relationships and how the odd event provokes a sudden reevaluation of their lives. As such, I thought there were several that were extremely well done, including THE FALL COLLECTION, THE SADNESS OF DETAIL, LEARNING TO LEAVE, and A WHEEL IN THE DESERT, THE MOON ON SOME SWINGS. I have a feeling though that if five or ten people were to read this collection, each would have a different 'favorite'. In other words, I thought there were few stories in the collection that were unpolished or clumsy - almost all were well-done - though it seemed as if the different approaches might work better with different readers.

While the themes and - I think - the objectives are different, these stories remind me of the short fiction of Peter Carey and George Saunders - two authors who I also feel use fantastic and odd settings to examine personal meaning. This is different than the short science-fiction/fantasy/horror that I read in times past, which used the oddness factor to set up a 'gotcha' ending. Mr. Carroll often kept me guessing throughout the story - they were sideways enough I couldn't begin to guess what was coming next - but his endings don't appear to be designed to jump out at the reader. The effect of the story may be unsettling, but in the ones that affected me the most, the result was more of an appreciation for rendering a particular state of being in a very effective way.

Fans of purely realistic fiction will probably be unamused, but those who appreciate literate speculative fiction - or just literate short fiction - may want to give this one a try. Like most single-author short story collections, this one also has it's ups and downs, though the ones I liked, I really liked. Four stars.
I'm usually not a short fiction reader. It usually doesn't evolve enough to be interesting. I enjoyed speculative fiction because it focuses on cocnept and ideas and how they play out in the future. Gives my mind more to think about than the limits of the prose.
I enjoyed this collection well enough. JC's writing is always a comfortable read. However the story "Uh-Oh City" is awesome. He presents an idea that I would love to see fleshed out. He leaves questions on the mind that want to be answered. The book was worth it for that story alone for me.