The Panic Hand: Amazon.de: Jonathan Carroll: Englische Bücher

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Gebundene Ausgabe

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Produktinformation

Gebundene Ausgabe: 295 Seiten
Verlag: St Martins Pr (November 1996)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN-10: 0312146981
ISBN-13: 978-0312146986
Gr��e und/oder Gewicht: 20,6 x 14,7 x 3 cm

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Produktbeschreibungen

Amazon.com

"I want you frowning now, knowing something is very wrong with your parachute even before actually pulling the cord and praying it opens. P.S. It won't." So Jonathan Carroll addresses his readers in this much-awaited collection of 20 stories. Author of several wry and dark novels, Carroll has a considerable following, but his books are difficult to pigeonhole, so some horror and fantasy readers are still unfamiliar with him. This collection shows off his talents admirably, in tales that range from bittersweet sadness over God's failing memory, to a disturbing friendship between a dog and a dying child, to a macabre fantasy about how men and women manipulate each other. As The New York Times put it, "Carroll's world is one that is subtly out of kilter, and which can take a turn for the sinister at any time." This volume is winner of the 1996 Bram Stoker Award for Best Short Story Collection.

From Kirkus Reviews

A first collection from the American-born author (who now lives in Vienna) of eight previous novels, including such highly praised fantasy work as The Land of Laughs (1980) and A Child Across the Sky (1990). The volume, previously published in Great Britain, where it won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection, is a mixed bag. Carroll at his best explores the psychological and social consequences of ``impossible'' situations (an ``imaginary friend'' who comes to life when his playmate reaches adulthood, a house that ``remembers'' its former occupants) with a deadpan clarity that's reminiscent less of any contemporary writers than such past masters of the genre as Saki and John Collier. He has a real gift for seductive titles (``The Sadness of Detail,'' ``The Dead Love You''), arresting opening sentences (``The first thing Beizer did after hearing he was going blind was to buy a camera''), and comically arbitrary details (a rock group named ``Rattlesnake Orgasm,'' a taking dog that's said to have a voice ``kind of like Paul McCartney''). But though his stories often sparkle with crisp dialogue, their wit is frequently vitiated by colorless narrative prose and the imperfect development of some sketchy premises. The real gems here include two novellas: ``Uh-Oh City,'' in which an academic couple's energetic housekeeper turns out to be God (or at least an aspect of Him) and ``Black Cocktail,'' a strange tale of symbiosis and conflict spun from the notion (well concealed till late in the story) of how a human soul is constructed and what this implies about the nature of friendship and sexual attraction. Best of all is the story ``Friend's Best Man'' (winner of a World Fantasy Award), about an amputee's bewildered relationship with a dying girl and a dog that can predict the future. Carroll's weaker stories are slight and uninvolving, but his best are among the finest fantasies being written today. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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3 von 4 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

The Time Between 20. Dezember 2000

Von Pauline Woodfin - Ver�ffentlicht auf Amazon.com

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

If you are a Carroll fan, there is this void between his last book and next that can be filled by reading the Panic Hand. If you are not yet a fan, time's a wasting, get thee to a Carroll book! The stories in here are little vignettes of Carroll's creative mind: there are stories here that can be novels, movies, dreams and poetry. This book is a good text for the beginning writer--the plots and prose are well-crafted. Some of he stories--Sadness in Detail, being one--are best left as it is in the book-- a short story: what if God is forgetting the details? This and many of the stories question the reader and sometimes invite a brief journey into strange realms. I have stopped trying to place Carroll into a genre; I love his stories and that is enough.

5 von 7 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

Wild and Wonderful Fare 29. Januar 2003

Von Glen Engel Cox - Ver�ffentlicht auf Amazon.com

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

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.

4 von 6 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

Carroll at his top form 13. M�rz 2006

Von Aleksandra Nita-Lazar - Ver�ffentlicht auf Amazon.com

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

This is a treat for Jonathan Carroll fans. If you like his special style (I know, not everyone likes him, but I do. I guess people either love him or hate him), you are in for a treat. The short stories in this collection are exactly what the readers like about him. The intriguing details of people's lives in the world where everyone has something special about them, be it a hobby, a phobia, a secret, a way of thinking; the magic springing out of nowhere, and the whole parallel supernatural universe created in his own, irreproducible manner. The same themes as in his novels are developed in more concise manner. The dogs, as always, are very significant and mysterious creatures. The dark corners of the characters' souls, where even they go only reluctantly, in dreams or in extreme circumstances, are explored. Death, childhood fantasies, painful and pleasant memories all form the unique mosaic of Carroll's world. All the stories are superb, although my absolute favorites are "Mr. Fiddlehead" (the last dialogue couldn't be better). "The Jane Fonda Room" and "My Zoondel". I like Carroll especially when I want to get away from the mundane surroundings and at the same time think about some universally important issues. I recommend this collection.

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