I stopped at 170 pages and I think that qualifies as read - boring, dumb, and dated.

Don't understand the reviews on this one.

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I have never hated a book so much. No completist, I have abandoned books I was not enjoying. But this left me feeling betrayed. I felt it was flawed; about two-thirds of the way through it changed pace awkwardly, a rapid escalation of the fantastic in a rushed exposition. But I continued reading: I wanted to spend more time with the characters, whom I liked and cared for, and I wanted the conclusion. I had some ideas, and was willing to be surprised because I thought the author was on the same emotional arc he had induced in me. But he wasn’t. A rapid descent into paranoia and horror. I threw the book in the trash after turning the last page. I’ve never done that before. I found something pleasant to do to distract myself from the hurt and disappointment. Later, on reflection, I thought he might have been telling the story of the protagonist’s descent into madness. But that would have made the book merely banal. I think it was meant to be true fantasy. In which case, it is bad: disappointing and hurtful.

Which is a shame, because White Apples and The Wooden Sea were excellent. Or at least I remember having loved them, tho’ I think they also had dire elements of existential terror. Land of Laughs was his first novel, a novel about a first time writer and perhaps full of the fears of a first time writer perhaps laughing at his own fears.

People who like dark shocks will like it.

Disrecommended. ( )

El protagonista de esta novela es un ferviente seguidor de Marshall France, un olvidado escritor de cuentos no demasiado conocido. Rebuscando en una librería de libros de segunda mano, encuentra una edición para él desconocida de uno de sus cuentos y descubre que no puede adquirirlo ya que ha sido comprado por una joven que lo tiene reservado. Dispuesto a conseguirlo a cualquier precio, entra en contacto con ella con el fin de hacerle una propuesta que no pueda rechazar...

Thomas Abbey decides to write a biography of his favourite author from his childhood and visits the town where the writer lived, where there are very odd goings-on going on.

I don't remember what led me to put this on my wishlist. The last third was a bit weird in a mildly interesting way, but even so there was nothing that really grabbed my attention. ( )

Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work. - Flaubert
......
The plates hated the silver, who in turn hated the glasses. They sang cruel songs at each other. Ping. Clank. Tink. This kind of meanness three times a day. - Peach Shadows by Marshall France
......
"Reading a book, for me at least, is like traveling in someone else's world. If it's a good book, then you feel comfortable and yet anxious to see what's going to happen to you there, what'll be around the next corner. But if it's a lousy book, then it's like going through Secaucus, New Jersey--it smells and you wish you weren't there, but since you've started the trip, you roll up the windows and breathe through your mouth until you're done."
-Thomas Abbey, The Land of Laughs, Jonathan Carroll

This is a book by a book lover for book lovers. It is a story wrapped in the love of story, winding its way through broken promises real and imagined between fathers and mothers and grown children and lovers and husbands and wives, finally between the creator and creation. The story itself is mostly a hanger for these many explorations, but I didn't mind that. I loved Thomas' constant reminiscing of his parents, his broken, beautiful relationship with his father. I loved, loved, loved Saxony Gardner. (Honestly it hurt some that Thomas did not commit to her as I did, but this is his weakness and cowardice and inability to see what is in front of his face; it is an integral part of his character - I was very much reminded of Updike's hated Rabbit in places, but Thomas is much smarter and more self aware in his loathsome moments.) I loved that Carroll does not spare his characters their own ugliness.

Honestly, my only complaint is the abruptness of the ending. Why do you wait until the final pages to do the most interesting thing you will do in the entire book?!? Otherwise, I honestly loved the ending, and I would happily read a sequel that provides the rest of this book. (But then, that relationship in particular was the one I loved and always wanted more of, so your mileage may vary.)

I enjoyed this and will be continuing on to the rest of Carroll's works; trying to decide now between [b:Voice of Our Shadow|42147|Voice of Our Shadow|Jonathan Carroll|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386925378s/42147.jpg|968926] and [b:Bones of the Moon|42146|Bones of the Moon (Answered Prayers, #1)|Jonathan Carroll|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391047473s/42146.jpg|968918].

**Original review 9/8/15, edited 11/18/15 as I am going to add my favorite foreign cover to all of my Jonathan Carroll reviews from here on out.**
This time it's the Polish cover:

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