I've never read anything by Jonathan Carroll, but they sound like my kind of book. should I start with The land of the Laughs ?

Either Land of Laughs or Voice of My Shadow.

Teppy, the bookstore is called Borderlands, I think.

beth, I'll note that Jonathan Carroll is one of my prime examples of Imprinted By A Distinct Sensibility. Which is my theory that certain creative types have such distinct and original visions that the first time you encounter them tends to be your favorite of their work.

Also see: Monty Python, Marx Brothers, Jim Thompson...

I saw what's-her-name who plays Jane on tv in another role, all cleaned up and was shocked to find myself thinking, "Well, she's rather attractive" before I put 2 and 2 together.

my theory that certain creative types have such distinct and original visions that the first time you encounter them tends to be your favorite of their work.

I will say, although I can intellectually recognize that The Nothing Man is a fairly lame tabloid-y novel, and the least of Jim Thompson's many works, I also hold it dear to my heart for its OTT ranting about serving hot dogs in mayonnaise to a man who's had his dick shot off.

Actually, aforementioned ranting is basically the Platonic ideal of Thompson in my head. I know he's done more subtle work, but I also know that the impulse to shocker-headline lurks behind every word. (See also: subplot in The Grifters.)

Hm. I read Black Cocktail first. And then, I think, Bones of the Moon. My favorite is From the Teeth of Angels, but Land of Laughs & A Child Across the Sky are very close.

(So I dispute your theory. Nyah.)

Oh, I would advise people who haven't read Carroll: if you have trouble with unlikable protagonists, he may not be for you.

Teppy, the bookstore is called Borderlands, I think.

That sounds right.

Oh, I would advise people who haven't read Carroll: if you have trouble with unlikable protagonists, he may not be for you.

See, I was reading Amazon.com's reviews of Land of Laughs, and several of the reviews referred to the protagonist as unlikable, but I don't get that. He seems fine to me.

But you haven't finished the book yet, right?

But you haven't finished the book yet, right?

Nope. (And I started to say that in my previous post, but thought it was stating the obvious.) I did, however, get to the part where he has lots of sex with Anna, which I felt was obviously inevitable. And yet I still don't find him unlikable. Yet.

I feel like I shouldn't say anything specific. I didn't mean, "Everyone who reads it will hate the narrator." I don't think that's the case. I don't dislike him; I don't like him. It hardly ever occurs to me to judge a character that way.

If I knew someone who often said things like, "I love this book because the heroine is so sympathetic and admirable," and "I hated that book because the main character was such a horrible person," I would not recommend he try Carroll.

I was browsing through a book at Cody's at lunchtime that would be of interest to many Buffistas, though Betsy, Jilli, JZ, DXM, Ginger and Micole come particularly to mind.

The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana by Jess Nevins.

It's huge and covers tons of Victorian popular genre fiction, mostly by character (a curious way to go, but then you get to look up Clarimonde and Dyson and Usher, Roderick, and Black Bess).

Nevin does a god job of linking up all the little tributaries and trends that run into the big rivers of the popular characters which survive to our time. How and when the Byronic hero informs the vampire, for example.

Much like the literature of that time, it has a very gothy bent with lots of stuff on Machen and Gautier as well as the usual suspects (Poe, Doyle, Verne, Wells et al).