Chris reviewed Sleeping in flame by Jonathan Carroll
None
4 stars
Given that the same characters recur in several of his novels, it seems they could be regarded as a linked sequence, in which case From the Teeth of Angels is a single, rather downbeat episode from the greater whole. Sleeping in Flame, with its themes of reincarnation, the Tarot, and finding the original, demonic interpretation of fairy tales, is an entirely different kettle of midgets. It thrashes back and forth across Central Europe losing people on the way, and investigates the themes of love, loss and identity. There are good jokes too: I liked the description of an ex-boxer as looking like "an Easter Island statue with arms". Carroll also quotes Emerson with something I thought relevant: ‘Do not require a description of the countries towards which you sail. The description does not describe them to you, and tomorrow you arrive there and know them by inhabiting them.’ …
Given that the same characters recur in several of his novels, it seems they could be regarded as a linked sequence, in which case From the Teeth of Angels is a single, rather downbeat episode from the greater whole. Sleeping in Flame, with its themes of reincarnation, the Tarot, and finding the original, demonic interpretation of fairy tales, is an entirely different kettle of midgets. It thrashes back and forth across Central Europe losing people on the way, and investigates the themes of love, loss and identity. There are good jokes too: I liked the description of an ex-boxer as looking like "an Easter Island statue with arms". Carroll also quotes Emerson with something I thought relevant: ‘Do not require a description of the countries towards which you sail. The description does not describe them to you, and tomorrow you arrive there and know them by inhabiting them.’ Cavafy expresses a similar sentiment in "Ithaca", that the journey changes the traveller so that the destination reached is not the one originally envisioned.
