”The Land of Laughs was lit by eyes that saw the lights that no one’s seen.”


Jonathan Carroll

Thomas Abbey is a prep school English teacher who is weighed down with loneliness, boredom, and a lackluster attitude about the direction of his own life. He has three passions: one, he s to collect unusual masks from around the world; two, he loves the books of Marshall France; three, he hates (loves) his famous father.

He has been defined his whole life as the son ofÂ….

Things begin to change for him during a chance encounter in a bookstore. Bookstores, in my experience, are sometimes the best settings for life changing moments. Thomas finds a first edition book by France he has never seen before, only to be told by the bookseller that the book has already been sold. A piece of his collectorÂ’s soul goes up in flames. He decides to wait to meet the person who has bought the book to offer her more than she paid for it. His father has left him with means, the bastard, and so the price of the book is irrelevant in regards to the pleasure he will achieve in owning it.

This is how he meets Saxony. He has masks on his walls. She has puppets. He loves Marshall France and so does she. As it turns out, she will provide the spark that will set him on a new course. No one has ever successfully written a biography of Marshall France. Saxony is good at research, and Thomas is a pretty decent writer; maybe between the two of them they can bring Marshall France back to life.

Back to life? Interesting choice of words there, Mr. Keeten.

Thomas takes a semester off, and he and Saxony decide to make the pilgrimage to Galen, Missouri, which is where France had lived until his sudden death at the age of 44. I donÂ’t know if Jonathan Carroll picked 44 on purpose or not, but that number resonates with me because it was the age of two of my favorite writers when they died: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Robert Louis Stevenson. In fact, one might say IÂ’m a little leary of the number 44.

There is one hurdle that must be leaped for Thomas to have a chance at writing this book about his favorite writer. FranceÂ’s daughter, Anna, has the keys that unlock all the doors with the treasure troves of information to make the book a definitive biography.

Anna has that “Lauren Bacall-deep ‘if-you-need-anything-just-whistle’ voice” which gives Thomas an ”eleven-foot-long erection.”

Maybe a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea. He has been knocking boots with Saxony, so this is a new wrinkle that could potentially blow the whole project sky high. To the discerning collector, having sex with your favorite writerÂ’s daughter is the ultimate in obtainable collectible items.

All that I have discussed is the set up for the main plot, which leads up to the twisty, eyebrow raising, mouth dropping conclusion. Things really start to get wiggy when Thomas hears the Bull Terrier, named Nails, talking in his sleep. I didnÂ’t say barking. I said talking.

What the hell is going on? I mean...what the hell?

Soon Thomas is wrestling with the concept of whether his idol was...God or Frankenstein?



The thing I’ve always enjoyed about Jonathan Carroll is how his plots always start out so normal, and he just keeps adding elements. Some of them are a bit odd, but still within the scope of the lives we all lead. He sucks us in, makes us invested in the characters, and then he starts leading the reader into more and more unfamiliar territory, but still at a pace that the reader has to keep going to find out where Carroll is taking them. Then he hits you with the great reveal that is a bit wicked, a bit deviant, and always brimming with originality. I recently read Pat Conroy’s book “My Reading Life”, and he devotes the final pages of that book discussing how much he enjoys Carroll’s work. Conroy inspired me to reread Carroll’s books for the pure joy of having a chance to revisit his writing, but also a chance to review these books that have given me so much pleasure over the years. If you haven’t had the chance to read Jonathan Carroll, I can’t recommend him highly enough.

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie , visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeetenfantasy horror unnatural-appetites150 s Bill KerwinAuthor 3 books83.3k


This cult classic--a bigger hit in Poland than in the author's native USA--is a strange novel, and a very interesting one. At the beginning, it seems to be a piece of realistic fiction, narrating the efforts of a high school English instructor in his 30's and his researcher girlfriend to write the biography of a deceased children's book author they idolize. But when they get to the author's hometown, things get weirder and weirder--and the book itself gets stranger and stranger. Un many books that develop this way, however, the ending does not disappoint. This is a good novel, well worth your time.weird-fiction132 s karen3,997 171k

jonathan carroll's books are gourmet jellybeans. even his shittiest flavors are better than most regular jellybeans, and who doesn't jellybeans? (alfonso claims that only white people eat jellybeans, which is untrue, but it's such an odd racial stereotype i feel compelled to add it here).

you know how there is some music that no matter what mood you are in, it just happens to be the right music?? jonathan carroll is that for me. he's just...wonderful, a new crush you can't stop gushing over. he's definitely a high fabulist, but in the best sense of the term. let's compare: better than graham joyce, more charming than millhauser, slightly less ambitious than robertson davies, but always always entertaining. i would name-drop alasdair gray, but so few people have read him, it's not even worth it. stop reading this review and go read lanark, already...

jonathan carroll can be summed up in two words: death and dogs.
not your gritty noir alsatians snarling over an abandoned corpse, but generally affable dogs involved in some way in a character's meditations or experiences with death and what comes next: bull terriers who are either sentient or symbolic, but are carroll's literary stamp as recognizable as any of lynch's recurring visual details/tics.

carroll has a few major themes; mostly ideas of life and death and karma and the afterlife and man's responsibilities to man and woman and ghosts and film. they are philosophical/moral/spiritual journey stories but in a playful, not didactic way. "spiritual journey" should in no way conjure up images of coelho, redfield, or martel. take those thoughts to go, please.

land of laughs is a really good introduction to jonathan carroll. the ending? shrug, not the best, in my opinion. but it honestly does not matter, because it's such an incredible story throughout. his endings are pretty consistently weak, but it almost becomes an adorable quirk, when kids can't say "spaghetti" or something that people think it is cute when kids do.

at the end of the day, he is just a good storyteller, and the opening credits for amazing stories, isn't that the foundation our littry appreciation should be built upon?

come to my blog!books-about-books-about-books favorites great-authors-no-one-reads ...more107 s karen3,997 171k

real review of book here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

review of this spectacular edition:

ohhhhhh A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!



after missing out on buying this very limited print run edition of The Land of Laughs because i couldn't justify, at this financial point in my life, spending $85 on a book i've read many times and already own many many different editions of in different languages or with different covers, i had the mopes, but then LO!

connor got me a copy for early christmas!

and it's signed by carroll and the three illustrators and numbered (111 is a wonderful number):



it is beautiful! and HUGE!

look how much bigger it is than a dime!



or fizzgig



or even oogie boogie



and it's illustrated all over the place.

here is the back cover



and the dust jacket flaps





and then there are full color illustrations at the beginning:





and tons of internal illustrations throughout:





kids, go to bed!



I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT!

maggie loves it, too!





and maybe, just maybe, it cures cat cancer.

we will wait and see how big of a christmas miracle this book is.

but i have high hopes.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, CONNOR!!!favorites thanks-for-prezzies74 s ?Misericordia? ?????? ????2,482 19.1k

Morbid and unsettling, even though extremely ingenious. Obsessions, talking dogs, infidelity, diaries of doom, freedom vs fate, writers of destiny, ... what the fig?
Q:
Why couldnÂ’t a woman be marvelous for once? Not winky, not liberated, not vacuous Â… (c)
Q:
Don’t they scare you?”
“No more than you do, my dear.”
That was that. Five minutes later she was gone and I was putting some of the linseed oil on another mask. (c)
Q:
“The Land of Laughs was lit by eyes that saw the lights that no one’s seen.” (c)
Q:
I sang it constantly to myself in that low intimate voice that children use to talksing to themselves when theyÂ’re alone and happy. (c)
Q:
After I had the book I noticed that it had been neatly rewrapped in a piece of paper that must have been a copy of some old handwritten sheet music. It was a nice touch, but all I wanted to do was tear it off and begin reading the book again. I knew thatÂ’d be rude, but I was thinking about how IÂ’d do it when I got home. Grind some beans in the Moulinex, make a fresh pot of coffee, then settle in the big chair by the window with the good reading light Â… (?)
Q:
“I know it’s none of my business, but why on earth would you pay a hundred dollars for that book?”
How do you explain an obsession? (c)
Q:
I wondered then for the first time if France really appealed only to weirdos us: puppet-obsessed little girls in hospitals and analyzed-since-five boys whose fathersÂ’ shadows were stronger than the kidsÂ’. (c)
Q:
About a week later I stayed up one night to get some reading done. For once it was nice to be in my mouse-hole apartment because one of those winter storms was blowing outside that go back and forth between mean, hard rain and wet snow. (c)
Q:
ItÂ’s fun working in the library and trying to pull out things on someone you love. (?)
Q:
SheÂ’d be hugging a copy of Kafka or Kierkegaard to her chest. I kept getting the impression that she carried them title out so that whoever looked her way would be sure to see what she was reading. (c)
Q:
Needless to say, it pretty depressing at first to hear that the author of my favorite book in the world was kept on at the job because he cooked a mean lasagne. (c)
Q:
Reading a book, for me at least, is 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 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. (c)
Q:
“That’s the one thing that you’ll have to get used to around me, Thomas: wherever I go, I always carry my life around with me.” (?)
Q:
Her hands were folded in her lap, but mine still gripped the steering wheel. I felt ripping it off and handing it to her. (c)
Q:
She stood in the middle of the room, beaming, and told us to come in and sit down. I say “told” because whatever she said sounded either an order or a definitive statement. She was not an insecure person. (?)
Q:
The feeling passed, but its echoes didnÂ’t. (c)
Q:
It was a strange assortment, too — Richard Halliburton’s The Magic Carpet, the notebooks of Max Frisch (in German), Aleister Crowley, Gurdjieff’s Meetings with Remarkable Men, a French priest who fought for the underground in WW II, Mein Kampf (in German), the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Three on a Toothbrush by Jack Paar. (c)
Q:
As soon as I started eating, I knew it was going to be a long, long meal. I wondered why I was damned to eat horrible food from the hands of interesting women. (c)
Q:
In fact, she not only stopped, her whole face shut down an airport in a snowstorm. (c)
Q:
I have a bad habit of judging people as soon as I meet them. Unfortunately IÂ’m wrong about them a lot of the time. (c)
Q:
There were crosses on top of crosses. Jesus bled all over the room from fifty different places, each showing him suffering some new kind of agony. (c)
Q:
I felt IÂ’d float right up out of my chair and around the room on the slightest breeze, My mind lay down and put its hands behind its head. (c)
Q:
A Queen of Oil from Anna, a Marshall France from Saxony, my chapter done, and the fall had just about arrived — my favorite season of the year. (c)
Q:
Naturally I still have that paranoia, but you get used to living with anything after three years, even that. (c)
Q:
The moon was a werewolfÂ’s delight Â… (?)
Q:
All the things that I knew were a little weird about me stood up, took a bow, and started walking around inside me at top speedÂ… (c)
Q:
“Are you frightened?”
“Yes. Where are my pants?” (c)
Q:
I felt taking a nap at the bottom of the ocean. (c)43 s Maciek569 3,575

Jonathan Carroll is a writer whose name I have been hearing over the years, but whose fiction I've never tried. An American living in Vienna for many years, he has developed a quiet but steadfast cult following - much the city itself, with its with its unlimited supply of quiet coffee houses - the famous Viennese cafés, described by UNESCO as places "where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill". Legend has it that soldiers from the Polish-Habsburg army found sacks full of strange beans while liberating Vienna from the Turks in the 1600's. They initially wanted to burn them as they thought that they were camel food, but Polish king Jan III Sobieski gave them to one of his officers, who recognized what they were and soon started the first coffee house. Many Viennese cafés hang the picture of the officer - whose name was Jan Franciszek Kulczycki - in their windows.

The Land of Laughs is Carroll's debut novel, published in 1980. It's both a fan favorite and a cult classic, having been reprinted by Orion Books in 2000 as the ninth volume of their Fantasy Masterworks series. The Orion edition brough it back to print, as it has fallen out of it for a number of years, and became a reason for despair for many Carroll fans who couldn't get their hands on their favorite author's debut, which grew in value and expectations. Of course now the age of digital publishing has largely eliminated such problems, as the Kindle immortalized hundreds of thousands of volumes which would otherwise share the same fate - which is both a blessing and a curse: the blessing being an eternal digital life of novels, with readers not fearing that their favorites will go out of print and that they will be unable to read them, as there is no print to speak of - but also a curse, resulting decreasing sales of paper books made of trees in favor of their Kindle counterparts made of ones and zeroes. I fear for independent mom-and-pop book stores going out of business, places where you could walk in and browse the books and talk with the owners about them. I would very much miss such places, as I would miss the paper book - with its smell and feel and history. Most of my books come from second hand, and I always wonder about the previous readers and owners. Where did they get it? How did they it? What was the book's journey before it reached my part of the world? Sometimes readers would inscribe short notes on the book, a dedication to someone they gave it to - and I wonder, what made that person to give it away?

I hope that you'll excuse this longish introduction, which I felt was appropriate for Carroll's novel, which also deals with books. It's narrated in the first person by Thomas Abbey, a man famous for being the son of his father - a famous actor. Thomas is a man stuck in a limbo - he teaches English in a prep school in Connecticut and feels that his life is as interesting as watching grass grow. Desperate for a change, Thomas decides to do something which is interesting to him - write a biography of his favorite writer, the late Marshall France. France wrote children's books which Thomas loved when growing up, and remained very much interested in. Although France was renowned for his imaginative and unique work, almost nothing is known about his personal life. Motivated by curiosity about France's life and staleness of his own, Thomas sets out on an ambitious project which will take him to the small midwestern town of Galen, Missouri, where France was born and lived. He will be accompanied by Saxony Gardner, a fellow France-fanatic whom he met by chance in a bookstore while shopping for a rare book by his idol. With their combined efforts they hope to convinve France's surviving daughter, Anna, into letting them her write father's biography. To their surprise, Anna welcomes them warmly and find her excited about their proposal - even eager to have the biography written as soon as possible. But it won't be long before Thomas and Saxony will discover that in Galen not everything is what it seems.

Carrol doesn't hesitate to use all the tropes: a troubled male protagonist and a female sidekick, a mysterious woman and a town with its own secrets, and the last but not least - books full of wonder. Who could resist such a mix? Beginning The Land of Laughs feels sitting down to relax in an old and comfortable armchair - a personal favorite, creaky and wobbly but still very relaxing. But in Carroll's case the armchair is filled with holes, and its arm rests dangle dangerously, threatening to fall apart at any moment.

Published in 1980, the book is charmingly dated with having no contemporary technology which we grew so used to - forget about cell phones, personal computers, iPads and Facebook. To do his research Thomas has to go to a library, and actually browse through huge volumes. But the sheer fact that he was so obsessed with a writer's work and never in all these years developed any interest in learning anything about his life seems wildly implausible - even if he had no Google. (imagine if he had a Kindle - so many problems solved! But then you can't hit anybody on the head with a Kindle. Well, you can, but the thing is so light and thin that it'd break in two and would feel a mosquito bite, so what would be the point?).
I did not find any of the characters likable, and found Thomas to be
unsympathetic, ungrateful and boring. None of the characters was paricularly interesting and all of them were very undeveloped - especially both women. Anna is presented as little more than a mysterious minx, and Saxony never rises above the label of the devoted nerd. There's a ton of sex scenes in this book which it really could have done without, which made it seem as if they were the only reason for inclusion of two female characters. This smelled strongly for sexism, even for an 80's fantasy novel. Perhaps the biggest flaw is that along with technical aspects the plot itself has dated - after so many versions of a similar story done in film, television and literature I did not find any of the developments particularly surprising, and the sudden and unsatisfying end left me feeling let down.

The Land of Laughs was praised by Neil Gaiman, who also chose it as his selection for Audible. Pat Conroy has described Jonathan Carroll as a "cult waiting to happen", and it has happened indeed - but I would never have guessed it from this rather weak and predictable debut. I do not understand why Orion books chose it as a representation of a Fantasy Masterwork, and why it's considered a cult classic - it reads more a clunky creative writing assignment commisioned to a young writer, fresh out of college. The plot is largely predictable, the characters and their relationships shallow, and the sudden resolution lets any tiny amount of suspense swoosh away quickly air from a punctured balloon. Perhaps his later novels are better - I sure hope so - but only in the eighties could anyone begin a longlasting career with an effort this.

fantasy read-in-2013 reviewed29 s Margitte1,188 593

I had no clue what to expect of this novel, and cannot even remember where I encountered it already many months ago.

FROM THE BLURB Have you ever loved a magical book above all others? Have you ever wished the magic were real? Welcome to The Land of Laughs. A novel about how terrifying that would be.

Schoolteacher Thomas Abbey, unsure son of a film star, doesn't know who he is or what he wants--in life, in love, or in his relationship with the strange and intense Saxony Gardner. What he knows is that in his whole life nothing has touched him so deeply as the novels of Marshall France, a reclusive author of fabulous children's tales who died at forty-four.

Now Thomas and Saxony have come to France's hometown, the dreamy Midwestern town of Galen, Missouri, to write France's biography. Warned in advance that France's family may oppose them, they're surprised to find France's daughter warmly welcoming instead. But slowly they begin to see that something fantastic and horrible is happening. The magic of Marshall France has extended far beyond the printed page...leaving them with a terrifying task to undertake. If I have read the blurb or , I would probably have skipped it, since I am not overly keen on magical realism. Some people define this novel as modern fantasy, but while reading it I kept on thinking about Gabrial Garcia Marquez. An then I thought about Neil Gaiman's works. Sela, in the end this author, who developed his own cult in the end, was indeed hailed by Neil Gaiman as one of 100 best magical realism authors in the world. The book was first released in 1982, but became so popular that it was released again in 2010.

With that said, the story fitted perfectly into the surrealistic world of magic meeting reality in Galen, Missouri.

The story is written in the cultural language of the early Eighties, with all the elements of the times present, such as women as sidekicks for mostly salacious purposes, and the music of the times forming the background noise of the plot ( I actually enjoyed that). Small town America functions perfectly in the scheme of things with little indication of what was to be expected in what seemed to be a perfectly normal smalltown life.

As the story progresses, things change and weirdness creeps into the lives of all the inhabitants. Nobody has any other dogs but bull terriers in town. Everyone seemed to be weirdly happy even in the most inexplicable moments.

The magical realism allowed for the gobsmacking, surreal ending.

I don't want to say much about the plot, since it will spoil the surprise for someone who might want to read this book. I found this book strangely mesmerizing. Although it was a bit too creepy for my taste, I still kept on reading until the very end. Gripping, mysterious, compelling, and totally out of my comfort zone. Still I felt connected and invested in this magical experience. From the beginning there were ants running down my spine, and they relentlessly increased in numbers till the last sentence in this very well written book.

It's not for everyone, but I do believe it will be a thrill for the right reader. I won't become one of the groupies, but certainly appreciated the rattling of my comfortable reading cage. It was the perfect choice for this purpose :-)) Just over 240 pages it was a perfect read.2017-read american-author american-novel ...more29 s seak435 471

Thomas Abbey has always loved the books by Marshall France, you may even say he's obsessed with them. He has a copy of just about every book written by the famed (and fictional) author and has an inheritance from his famous father that allows him to pay big bucks for even the rarest publications.

Abbey, who is also a school English teacher, decides he wants to write a biography of his favorite author even though he's never written anything in his life. He manages to run into a fellow France-obsessed fan in his endeavors and they proceed to visit the mysterious town where France did the majority of his writing and where he escaped the limelight.

The Land of Laughs is really a book for book lovers. I'm sure if you've found yourself here on Goodreads, you may have been borderline obsessive about an author or two in your life and even currently, so this book is extremely easy to relate to in that respect.

If this doesn't make perfect sense to you, I don't know what will:

“Reading a book, for me at least, is 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 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.”

Then again, I've gotten over my need to read through everything I start. Life's way too short for that.

The Land of Laughs is considered a fantasy, but most of the book has almost nothing fantastical about it. It could also very easily be described as a horror, at least just as much as it can be considered fantasy because there were some truly spine-tingling scenes toward the end that are worth the read alone.

What impressed me almost immediately is that this is Carroll's debut novel and he's writing about a fictional author who's legendary in this novel he's created. Naturally, you have to prove at least to some degree why this person is such a beloved author. I guess you don't have to necessarily, but it would be much harder to make it believable. And yet, some of the lines from this fictional author are beautiful and therefore completely believable in all respects.

Similar to Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, The Land of Laughs is a book of many other books. Many of the famous books that are fictionally written by Marshall France are explained and even plotted even though never written in real life. Carroll even gives us lines from the books which are splendid and as I said above, purvey the beauty of France's writing.

The eponymous book is actually France's most famous book:

"The eyes that light The Land of Laughs was lit by eyes that saw the light's that no one's seen."

There were a few lines this that just made me smile and enchanted me to no end. I wish I could find more of them right now because they're excellent and really do provide a magical quality to the story and writing both.

In addition, the rest of The Land of Laughs is written in a clever way that resonated really well with me. The first person narrative of Thomas Abbey is clever, but in a self-depricating way. In a book where I should have been bored by the slow start, I was enamored from the beginning.

This story has that magical aspect to it that makes reading an experience. Neil Gaiman doest this to me as well with the same sort of wit and charm. Add to that the twist at the end and this is one of those books that's impossible to forget.

4 out of 5 Stars (Highly Recommended)
201317 s Karl3,258 323

This is copy 40 of 300 copies signed by:

Jonathan Carroll
Ryder Carroll
Michelle Lopes
David Mattingly2016-10-books-bought17 s Ashley Daviau1,945 959

I was recommended this book by a good friend and I will forever be grateful to her for that because I couldn’t have loved this book more. In fact, I’m ready to dive head first into the world of Carroll’s writing! This book is just pure perfection, it has everything you could want as a reader; stunning writing, amazing characters and a truly fascinating storyline. And it’s the most beautiful mix of fantasy, horror and magical realism I’ve ever had the luck to read! Trust me, you need to read this book!16 s Bülent Ö. 273 132

Hayran oldu?unuz bir kitap, bir yazar varsa, Kahkahalar Ãœlkesi'ni okuyun mutlaka.

Bu hayranl??? çok güzel tan?mlayan bir hikaye anlat?yor çünkü. Yazman?n, en güzel yarat?m süreci oldu?unu dü?ünüyorsan?z, mutlaka okuyun bu kitab?. Çünkü bu kitap, yazma sanat?na harika bir sayg? duru?u.

A?k?n gerçekçi bir sunumunu görmek istiyorsan?z mutlaka edinin bu kitab?: Tutku mu, huzur mu?

Çok garip, ola?and??? bir kasabada aylar geçirmek isterseniz hiç kaç?rmay?n bu kitab?.

Gülmek istiyorsan?z, ?a??rmak istiyorsan?z kesinlikle geçin bu kitab?n ba??na.

Sönmez Güven'in harika çevirisi, Jonathan Carroll'?n müthi? kalemi okunmay? bekliyor.

Bal çalal?m dima??n?za:

?ngilizce ö?retmeni Thomas Abbey, en sevdi?i yazar Marshall France'in biyografisini yazmay? akl?na koyar. Bu u?urda, yine Marshall France'e duydu?u hayranl?k sayesinde tan??t??? ve çok ho?land??? kuklac? Saxony Gardner ile Marshall France'in do?du?u kasabaya, Missouri eyaletinde bulunan Galen'a gider.

Kasabadan, önceki biyografi yazarlar?na gösterilen tepkiye benzer bir tepki görece?ini dü?ünse de tam tersi olur: Marshall France'in k?z? Anna France ba?ta olmak üzere, tüm kasaba ona iyi davran?r ve biyografiyi yazmas? için destek ç?kar. Kasabada bir ev tutan çift, bir yandan Marshall France'in hayat?na dair detaylara ula?maya çal???rken di?er yandan kasabada meydana gelen garip olaylara al??maya çal???rlar.

Tüm garip olaylar??n aç?klamas?, büyülü bir sonla bize ula??r, kitab? a?z?m?z aç?k kapat?r?z.

Y?llar sonra düzelti: Çok özledim bu kitab?.zirvedekiler15 s Stuart722 301

The Land of Laughs: Weird things are afoot in small-town Missouri
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
The Land of Laughs was written back in 1980 and I wonder how many readers know about it now. It’s written by Jonathan Carroll, who has written a number of offbeat modern fantasies, and I only know about it because it was selected by David Pringle for his Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels. Even that is probably not enough to put it on most radars, but Neil Gaiman also chose it for his “Neil Gaiman Presents” series of audiobooks, so I listened to it during a series of long walks along Tokyo Bay in Rinkai Park. It’s narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, who does a nice job of capturing the strange events of the story.

The Land of Laughs is the story of Thomas Abbey, son of famous film actor Stephen Abbey. He teaches English at a small Connecticut prep school for rich kids, and tries to avoid the huge shadow that his famous father casts over him. Dissatisfied with teaching The Scarlet Letter to bored teens, he decides to take a sabbatical to pursue his greatest passion — writing a biography of his all-time favorite writer, Marshall France, a renowned creator of quirky children’s fantasies in the mold of Lewis Carroll. France was a secretive man who lived much of his life in the small town of Galen, Missouri, and when Thomas runs into another obsessed female fan of Marshall France named Saxony Gardner, they strike up a relationship and decide to take an extended road-trip to Galen to research a biography of their beloved author.

When they arrive in small-town Galen, they are unsure how the townspeople will react, and even less so the famous authorÂ’s daughter Anna, a mysterious woman who they have been warned will be hostile but turns out to be extremely welcoming and offers to help with their research. They meet many of the townspeople, attempting to gather as much material as possible about the life and influences of Marshall France. But the longer they stay, the more they notice a number of strange and disturbing incidents in the supposedly idyllic small town, which seems to have an overabundance of bull terriersÂ…

The Land of Laughs may sound a familiar set-up, with dark undercurrents lurking beneath the surface of a quiet Midwestern town, but this is as much about the obsessions of Thomas and Saxony and the intensity with which they idolize their favorite childhood author. As we learn about their pasts, we come to understand why they have been so strongly drawn to the quirky fantasy worlds of Marshall France. All lovers of fantasy worlds are ly to recognize that sentiment, even if not to this degree. And as the emotional lives of Thomas, Saxony, and Anna get tangled with the life of Marshall France, things get deliciously twisted.

The revelations of the power of Marshall FranceÂ’s imaginary worlds and how they have influenced the town of Galen are eye-opening. And though there are moments of discomfort, this story is far more humorous than horrifying, at least until the final chapters (which felt a bit rushed, and less than fully satisfying). The Land of Laughs could have been played as an Amityville-style horror story, but really itÂ’s more about obsessions and how they shape our lives, as well as the overwhelming influence that parents can have on their children. It also is a tribute to the god powers of the author to create and shape worlds to his/her liking, but a warning of the responsibilities that come with that. It is a very entertaining and thought-provoking tale, and not anything else IÂ’ve read before.dark-fantasy-gothic fantastic-weird magic-realism-reality-as-illusion15 s Caro the Helmet Lady797 402

I've read this book twice. Both times I was satisfied and amazed. And I am going to do it again. fantasy-urban-fantasy favorites magical-realism13 s Iva415 41

???? ????? ????? ??? ????, ????, ????????????. ?????? ??????????????? ?? ?????????? ?? ???-???????? ????, ?????? ???????, ?? ??? ? ????????? ???????????? ???????? ?? ?????????? ?????????. ???????, ???? ?? ???????????? ????, ?? ? ???????? ????? ????.
????? ?-??? ? 600 ?-????????, ? ?? ???????? ??? 400-? ?? ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ??????? ??????????? ???????????.
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?? ?????? ?? ??? ????? ? ???????, ?????? ????????? ??????? ?????????????. ???? ??? ????, ? ????????-????????? ?????? ? ??????? ??????? ???????? ?? (?????????!) ???????? (? ?? ??? ?? ??? ??????? ?? ???????? ? ?????? ??????? ?????????).

???????? ?????? ????????????, ????? ???????? ?? ???????? ????????? ????? - ??? ??? ???????? ??????.

??. ??.: ? ? ???? ??????? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ???????? ????????, ?? ????? ???? ?????????? ???????????11 s kimera170 66

sexist feedle-faddle wannabe literaturehorror magical-realism oddball11 s Phil WilliamsAuthor 19 books117

(Review originally posted on my author website, Write Right Now)

Jonathan Carroll has developed an almost cult status as a slipstream author, and it was with his contemporary fantasy reputation in mind that I picked up a copy of The Land of Laughs, part of the Fantasy Masterworks collection. It had incredibly high praise from a number of reputable critics and authors, including Neil Gaiman, and comes with claims that if youÂ’re new to Jonathan Carroll then his debut is a great place to start. Such build up can go two ways with a book; it can give it an advantage making you love it before youÂ’ve even begun, or it can set you up for great disappointment.

In this case, it was not what I had hoped for in one major way. For a fantasy masterwork with such strong endorsements, it was remarkably light on fantasy. In fact until the final third (if that) youÂ’d be forgiven for thinking it was a relationship drama. Except it was remarkably light on drama, too.

In short, this is the story of a rather uninspiring teacher, Thomas Abbey, who sets out to write a biography of his favourite writer, Marshell France. His journey to the town France lived in reveals a series of inconsistencies that suggests more is going on than anyone’s admitting. The problem is there isn’t that much more going on – much as it heads to a rather crazy reveal it is, despite its extremity, rather predictable and doesn’t generate much in the way of tension or excitement. It’s scarcely a spoiler to say, for example, that the sinister overtones of details such as whether or not France changed his name amounts to precious little nothingness.

In fact for a good 200 or so pages of the 240 page book what youÂ’re actually treated to is the meandering tale of a man trying to navigate the standard challenges of biography writing against the background of meeting an adoring geeky girlfriend and the seductive daughter of his idol. Given the rather unable nature of the protagonist, whose greatest challenge in life is having a famous father, itÂ’s the handling of these two female characters that is to make or break the plodding story.

And the handling of the adoring girlfriend, in particular, is a misogynistic mess.

To say the book feels dated is an understatement; its almost glacial pace is one thing, its attitude to the girlfriend, portrayed as a perfectly selfless and undeserving victim, should have been laid to rest centuries ago. The protagonistÂ’s male entitlement is bold and unashamed, though, to the degree that his cheating is not only accepted without much in the way of judgement itÂ’s also forgiven without any kind of atonement. I was waiting for terrible things to happen to Abbey, whose arch appeared only to become increasingly irritating and self-important. Sadly, he never changed, and was scarcely even threatened.

Carroll is known for combining various genres, and I was in hope of feeling a sense of dread or horror – even just conflict – that I persevered. The only feeling I got from The Land of Laughs, though, was shock at the handling of the protagonist’s philandering. Which was presented dismissively (despite a few vacuous comments that he felt pretty bad about it, but kept doing it) and was ultimately inconsequential.

It’s a shame, as in all I could sense the building blocks of the greatness others see in Carroll here – it’s testament to his writing ability that I managed to finish the book despite any particular interest in the plot or characters. And the ideas in there hinted at his ability to create interesting new worlds. It just all felt too lacklustre, too lacking in pace and drama and, most unforgivingly, too accepting of its main characters flaws.10 s Joanna Slow432 47

Ponowna lektura „Krainy chichów” potwierdzi?a, ?e nie da si? wej?? dwa razy do tej samej rzeki. M?odzie?czy zachwyt, którym postanowi?am zarazi? moje nastoletnie latoro?le. Niewiele pami?ta?am poza gadaj?cymi bulterierami i zaskakuj?cym pomys?em ciekawie wplataj?cym magie w codzienno??. Wypar?am straszliwy seksizm bohatera i narratora, cz?sto ?enuj?ce poczucie humoru i straszny, bliski grafomanii j?zyk. Nic si? nie uratowa?o, mo?e tylko fascynacja fragmentami z opowie?ci Marshalla France’a.10 s Ramazan69 11

hayran oldu?umuz yazarlarla ili?kimiz ço?u zaman s?k?nt?l? geliyor bana. en az?ndan kendi aç?mdan. ?öyle bir dü?ününce ki?isel olarak hiç tan?mad???m bolano’ya örne?in ya da vonnegut’a, calvino’ya dünyan?n en iyi insan? muamelesi etmem, edebiyat? d???nda bir sevgi beslemem, nerden baksak biraz yanl??. bir zarar? yok tabii ço?unlukla ama eserle kurulan bu sevgi ba??n?n mahiyeti her anlamda tehli bir yandan. s?rf bu sebepten elimde imkan dahi olsa (bolano hariç :d) o yazarlarla ya?arken tan??mak istemezdim san?r?m dü? k?r?kl???na u?ramamak için. kahkahalar ülkesi tam da bu fikrin filizlendirdi?i bir roman i?te. tak?nt? halinde sevilen bir yazar?n biyografisini yazmak ad?na pe?ine dü?en bir çiftin bradbury romanlar?ndan f?rlam?? bir kasabada ya?ad?klar?. türde?lerinden ilk fark? bu kez zay?f bir ba?lang?ca sahip olmas?. ancak ilerleyen bölümlerde yaln?zca seksenlerin kalburüstü nostaljik polisiye-gizemlerinden birini de?il, teknik olarak çok da sa?lam bir roman yazd???n?n gövde gösterisini yap?yor carroll. çok tatl? roman, kitapl?kta özel k?sma konan nostaljisi yeten kontenjan?ndan.stephen king’in sadist’i de benzer mevzuya odaklanan çok iyi bir roman. zaten king’in de çok sevdi?i bir kitapm??. borges de okusa ucundan severdi bence, zaten ficciones’deki bir öyküden de esinlenme var.8 s Brent Legault729 130

Here's what I think: it has a lot of "Boy, howdy!" dialogue. Sometimes the narration reads an eager family newsletter and is infested with as many tired phrases. The plot and its "twists" are no more interesting or serpentine than an episode of The Twilight Zone or a Stephen King short story. Someone (An editor, perhaps. Did this book have an editor?) should have suggested that Carroll look up "elegant variation" in Fowler's. Much or most of his sentences are just careless, thoughtless, rushed. I often had to check the spine of the book to make sure I wasn't reading something that had been published by a vanity press. Many scenes are simply overwrought, almost all of them are overwritten. The main character talks often about rewriting but I don't get the impression that Carroll thinks much about it. I don't know how I read this book to its awful, awful end. regrets-i-ve-had-a-few8 s Robert WarrenAuthor 2 books16

A dear friend who knows me well pressed this book on me and said, "Read it, you'll love it." She told me nothing about the Land of Laughs, and I'm glad. She loaned me her old paperback copy, which, un later editions, has no Neil Gaiman intro. I'm also glad about this, as I'm sure NG, who I love, divulges some plot points because he can't help himself.

The passing of this book from hand to hand was one of those times when a friend's enthusiasm was all it took for me to give it a shot. While I didn't LOVE it, I found it really enjoyable and original, with some golden WTF moments that somehow, amazingly, work. All told, time well spent in Jonathan Carroll's head.

As I said, I'm glad she didn't give me any details, and I'm doubly glad I didn't read any of the on Goodreads (or anywhere else) before I settled in. In the ensuing review, I will endeavor not to spoil any of the surprises of Land of Laughs. And there are quite a few surprises. I was going to list a few hugely successful books that owe JC/LoL a debt, but even that would give you some clues and spoil some of the fun.

One of the aspects that drew me in was Carroll's ability to create characters who are petty, obnoxious, and selfish, yet somehow magnetic. Narrator Thomas Abbey (great names all over this tale) is the son of a famous deceased actor Stephen Abbey. Thomas is an unfulfilled English teacher obsessed with children's book author Marshall France, who died unexpectedly at age 44, some years before. Thomas and fellow France devotee Saxony Gardner - damaged, shoot-from-the-hip, high maintenance and my favorite character - travel from NYC to France's hometown in the Midwest - Galen, Missouri - so Abbey can write France's biography and Saxony can edit it. France's editor has told them it's a fool's errand - France's daughter Anna is impossible - but of course they go anyway. Absolute madness eventually ensues. The book you finish is not the book you begin.

For me, it was quite a "meta" experience, as the kids say. At times I was thinking, "I am reading a book about the unparalleled pleasures of reading a book, inhabiting a world in which deeply flawed people discuss inhabiting a world invented by deeply flawed people." That sounds unappetizing, maybe a little heady, but, when combined with the sharp, economic details of the landscape, the Galen townspeople, and the gradually unfolding craziness, I was engaged, especially for the last 1/4 of the book. I just wish the craziness could've unfolded a little sooner. But still, a nice payoff.

Sometimes I loathed Thomas Abbey and actually wanted something bad to happen to him, but when bad things did happen to him, I felt for him, which is a trick only a great writer can pull off. I never wanted anything bad to happen to Saxony.

The Dead Dad Dilemma is the soul of Land of Laughs, and frankly, I've never read a story that handles it in such an original way. The two Dead Dads - Marshall France and Thomas Abbey's father, Stephen - haunt the book and, it turns out, drive the narrative, though you only gradually come to realize it.

Another aspect that kept me glued is Carroll's ability to fuse dream reality with "real" reality. In fact, when you put down Land of Laughs, you'll experience that feeling of half-wakefulness, when a receding dream still seems real, for a few delicious, or horrifying, moments.6 s Rita29 6

The Land of Laughs is a tricky book.

I thought it was pretty close to perfect, until the last ten pages or so; I walked away from the ending dissatisfied -- distressed, even -- and am still trying to work out whether it was a failure on the level of expectation or of writing. Was I thrown because I assumed the narrative would follow traditional, comforting fantasy logic? Or did Jonathan Carroll just write a careless, pulpy, trainwrecky ending?

The novel starts out full of nostalgia and metafiction. Two very odd people, Thomas (narrator) and Saxony (love interest; firey, tactless, vulnerable, stubborn, and adorable!) are drawn together by a mutual obsession with Marshall France, author of the whimsical children's books they fell in love with and never quite let go of. The plot unfolds quickly and engagingly. Thomas and Saxony become involved, and involved in a project to write France's biography. They end up in Galen, France's hometown, meeting his daughter and the people he used to live amongst. And then things get really fucking weird, shifting the emphasis to the "magical" half of "magical realism."

There's a lot of fun in the middle section of the book, and wonder, and exploration of the magical power of words. Without spoiling anything, I'll say -- the shiny surface of the town disintegrates. Think Disney on psychoactive drugs. Pay close attention to the cracks, Reader, and don't make the mistake of expecting a traditional happy ending, I did; Carroll is much more subversive than that.

There's no doubt that he's good. Carroll writes with a light, sweet touch which I really enjoy, especially after my recent binge on too much ponderous postmodern stuff. He carries the narrative with a concise mixture of smart dialogue and internal narration, and leaves the boring bits out, so scenes come through little detailed pictures in sharp, bright colours. The book's actually written in first person -- but in a personable, colloquial sort of first person, which makes it feel as if the narrator's a good conversationalist who's chatting with you.

I will read Jonathan Carroll again. I might even read this book again. But I'll probably skip the last ten pages.


genre-contemporary genre-slipstream my-love-slash-hate6 s Julia594

I'll end up with a slew of Carroll novels--this one came out in America in 1980, so is one of the early ones. Check out Carroll's website www.jonathancarroll.com . Neil Gaiman, who admires Carroll greatly, wrote an introduction for the website which says:

"Jonathan Carroll's a changer. He's one of the special ones, one of the few. He paints the world he sees. He opens a window you did not know was there and invites you to look through it. He gives you his eyes to see with, and he gives you the world all fresh and honest and new. In a bookstore universe of bland and homogenised writers and fictions, the world that words from Carroll's fountain pen is as cool, as fine and as magical as a new lover, or cool water in the desert. Things matter. You can fall in love with his women, or his men, worry when they hurt, hate them when they betray or fall short, rejoice when they steal a moment of magic and of life from the face of death and eventual nothingness."

LAND OF LAUGHS deals with the idea that a writer can bring people back to life, which is a sentence that Carroll fleshes out in his amazing, quirky, fantastical magical realism style. He lives in Vienna, where many of his novels are set. I'd start with LAND OF LAUGHS--and see if you're ready for his dark magic.

magical-realism6 s Pax118 43

Fun. Twisted fun. a fairy tale on drugs.5 s Katerina854 758

This book most definitely would have deserved 5 shining stars had it not been for the weakest love line ever (and the author should have revealed a bit more about the female bookish-nerdish sidekick, I got a feeling as if she's got a lot to hide).
(and I wish the main character hadn't been such a self-important jerk sometimes!)

Apart from it, it's almost perfect. What I d the most was the ending, which was beautiful and scary and cool. I d the whole 80's gadgetless atmosphere, when people actually had to go to libraries to do research and shuffle through all yellow pages of newspapers, when they couldn't just call each other from the middle of nowhere crying for help, and had to stay at home for a week to take a long-awaited phone call. Hey, when they actually visited and talked to people. This is so, so old-fashioned and at the same time familiar it makes me want to shed the tears of joy:)

Surely enough, the central idea of getting lost in a magic world created by a book is not less familiar, and the point of finding out everything about the guy who created the world is as well deeply felt by me. Thank you, Mr Carroll, for me being 14 again.

In a nutshell, this book is really cosy and it would be a blessing to the adults who, Thomas, spent their childhood wrapped in an old blanket, hugging a book and hiding a flashlight from preoccupied mothers. Hey mom, I'm just gonna finish this chapter real quick!
2014_read american_lit books-about-books ...more5 s Teri NolanAuthor 1 book2

I nearly gave this novel fives stars - it was so close! The omission of that fifth star was purely based on dialogue. The story was five star, the narrative was five star, but sometimes (not all of the time) the dialogue did not flow naturally, real conversation. It's a cleverly written book, very enjoyable and holds your attention in that delectable way the best stories do. Land of Laughs was written in 1980 and published in 1982, which was really fun because reading the story reminded me what it was to live before the technology explosion of the 1990's. It was a time-travel back to those yesteryears that I sometimes miss. Miss a lot! But, I wouldn't part with my iPhone, no.

I'm not one to outline plots in my as so many others have done that before me. Instead, I to say things about the book that made me particularly happy or annoy me in some way. In Land of Laughs, the mystery Carroll sets up and gradually reveals made me very happy. The crafting of the female characters annoyed me just a tad. We have come a long way baby, as things that were acceptable in 1980 make me cringe now! I do, however, stand by my stars, and suggest you read this novel. It pulls you in and keeps you there and lingers after you are done.5 s Debbie949 14

This is my favorite type of fantasy novel. The story starts out seeming entirely probable. Thomas Abbey is bored with his school teacher job and decides to quit and pursue a writing career. He heads to Galen, Missouri to research a biography on Marshall France, his favorite writer. Marshall France had written “The Land of Laughs” a magical children’s book. The town of Galen is populated with quirky characters, including Anna, Marshall’s daughter. (Marshall had died several years earlier.) The townspeople seem a little strange and some of their actions a little odd. And things just keep getting stranger and stranger. I hate to say much about the plot, because I don’t want to give away any surprises. The ending had 2 surprise twists that provide a perfect ending.
I enjoyed the 1980Â’s setting. Thomas and Saxony (his girlfriend) searched in bookstores instead of online for rare books. And had phone calls on telephones with cords. Even though this book is almost 35 years old, I hadnÂ’t heard of it or Jonathan Carroll until recently. IÂ’m looking forward to reading more of his fantasy novels and hope they are all as entertaining as The Land of Laughs.
3 s Karen882 112

I loved Jonathan Carroll's The Land of the Laughs. I have this book in Hardcover, First Edition. Inscribed and signed by Jonathan Carroll "To ___These Laughs are just for you." That being said, this is the only Jonathan Carroll book that I d. I don't fantasy or science fiction. The Land of Laughs came out in 1980. So I disagree with some of the negative . I was utterly transfixed by the narrative and the ending blew me away. This was a chilling, albeit fantasy genre that I could not put down and read in one sitting. Highly recommended for fans of Neil Gaiman. This book was reread by me and knowing the ending did dampen things the second time. It remains to be an all time favorite read.favorites3 s fantasy fiction is everything282 180

The Land of Laughs, just take a look at the tile it seems The Land of Laughs is a happy story. No! It's not a happy story,no exceptional from the beginning to the end. yes, It has some humor in the tone of the protagonist Thomas, Abby but still doesn't cover the gloomy atmosphere the story was built gradually by Jonathan Carroll. I how interesting things happened as the story pacing, even it isn't merry ,still intrigued for me.
2021-fantasy-read-in-english books-i-read-in-english fantasy-fiction ...more6 s Saretta1,260 194

Il paese della pazze risate non è affatto un paese ma un libro, per la precisione un libro per bambini scritto da Marshall France, scrittore osannato dal protagonista del romanzo.
La ricerca di informazioni sullo France e il desiderio di diventarne il biografo porterà Thomas Abbey e Saxony Gardner a Galen, cittadina in cui lo scrittore è vissuto fino alla morte.
Il romanzo è divertente e ironico, parla del rapporto con i genitori che non ci sono più e di quello con le divinità crudeli che guidano le loro creazioni umane.
Detto questo ci sono un paio di considerazioni da fare: Thomas è il tipico esempio di uomo guidato dagli istinti e chiaramente privo del concetto di fedeltà (quindi mi ha fatto innervosire da matti) e di intuizione (che Anna sia una pessima persona il lettore lo capisce subito).
Considerazione sull'edizione: la quarta di copertina Mondadori è una roba che più spoiler di così non si può, quelli che scrivono questi riassunti andrebbero bacchettati fortissimo sulle mani, così magari ci pensano due volte prima di svelarti il succo del romanzo.
biblioteca fantasy weird4 s tim66 74

I have friends who, when entering my library for the first time, see my collection of Auster novels and say, "Oh my God! You read Auster!" I have other friends who, when entering my library for the first time, see my collection of Auster novels and say, "Oh my God! You read Auster!?" One way spoken in surprise and delight, the other in surprise and derision. Yes, Auster polarizes.

And I get why people don't him. Many of his novels have a self-referential shtick that I can see as being off-putting to some readers. I once had dinner with a friend in L.A., a card carrying Austerhater, and I was trying to convince him of the merits of Leviathan. I kept coming at him in different ways, trying to sell my way around his objections, but no sale. At one point he actually said, "If you don't stop talking about that shit book I won't tell you about an amazing book I've just finished that I was going to recommend to you." This friend, despite his Auster issues, has really good recommendations (this is years before GR, mind you, his influence is waning thanks to my new chums) - I took the bait, dropped the Auster pitch and received the recommendation for The Fortress of Solitude. I was never going to convince this friend of Auster's merits, so I consider it a good trade.

But after having completed this beautiful and haunting novel, I will go to the mat for Auster on this one. A fully imagined vision of hell, ItCoLT is a meticulously and beautifully written book of a dystopian country that is only a few shades of horrible away from life on any of Earth's locales. Auster's use of the first person narrator (penning her thoughts to a family she may never see again) leading the reader through a tale of horror in a nameless country works. We are invested in Anna Blume from the opening pages. Good and evil, right and wrong - they are worthless considerations in a land where humanity is an anachronism. Huxley opined, "Maybe this planet is another planet's hell." Auster takes that premise to the next place, our hell, and creates a setting that is so clear, so horrible, one can't help but feel one's been there after reading Anna Blume's missive.

I'm going to buy another copy of this book and give it to my Auster hating friend for his birthday. If he doesn't it, I will revoke his literary friend status.94 s Ahmad Sharabiani9,564 149

In the Country of Last Things, Paul Auster

The novel takes the form of a letter from a young woman named Anna Blume.

Anna has ventured into an unnamed city that has collapsed into chaos and disorder.

In this environment, no industry takes place and most of the population collects garbage or scavenges for objects to resell.

Anna has entered the city to search for her brother William, a journalist, and it is suggested that the Blumes come from a world to the East which has not collapsed. ...


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???? «???? ????????» ???? ?? «?? ????» ???? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ?? ??? 1986?????? ????? ??? ????? ???? ????? ?? ??? «??? ????» ??? ?? ?? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ???? ?? ???? ????? ????? ? ????? ?????????? ? ?? ?? ???? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ??????? ?? ???? ???? ?? ?? ??????? ???? ??? ??? ?????? ?? ????????? ??? ?? ???? ???? ? ?????? ?? ????? ??????? ? ???????? ????? ??? ?? ?? ????? ????? ???????? ??????? ?? ????????? ? ?????????? ????? ?????? ?? ?????? ??????? ? ??? ?? ????? ??????? ?? ?? ???? ???? ????????? ????????? ??? ???? ??????? ????? ?? ??? ??? ??? ?? ?? ??? ???????? ?? ???? ???????? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ??? ??? ????? ?????? ? ????? ???????? ?? ????? ????? ???? ???? ?????? ??????? ???

??? ?? ???: (?? ????? ??? ??????? ?? ??? ???? ?????????? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ?? ?? ??? ????????? ?????? ??? ???? ? ?????????? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ?? ?? ???? ?? ?? ???? ?????????? ? ??? ?? ?? ???? ? ????? ?? ?????? ??????????? ?? ??????? ????? ??? ??? ???? ??????? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ??? ?????????? ?? ???? ? ???? ???? ??????? ?????????? ? ????? ? ????? ?? ????? ? ????? ?? ??????????? ???? ???? ??? ????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ??? ????? ??? ???????? ???? ??? ???? ?? ????? ?? ??????? ?? ??? ???? ?? ????? ? ?? ?????? ?????.?

?????? ??????? ????? ?? ?? ????? ???? ????????? ?? ??? ??? ???? ?????????? ???? ??????? ??? ??? ??????? ?? ?? ?????? ?????????? ?? ??? ?? ???? ???? ??? ???? ???? ?? ???? ???? ???? ? ?????? ???? ?? ???? ???? ??????? ???? ????? ???? ???? ??? ??????????? ? ???? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ????? ???? ???????? ??????? ?? ?? ??? ????????? ??? ???? ?????? ??????? ???? ????? ????? ???? ????????? ??? ??????? ??? ?? ?? ???? ??? ????????? ? ??????????? ?? ????????? ??????????? ????? ?? ?? ????????? ? ?????????? ????????? ???? ?? ???? ??? ????????? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ??? ????? ????????? ? ???? ?? ?? ??????????? ?????? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ??????? ????????? ???? ??? ???? ???? ???? ??? ???? ?? ????? ??????????? ?? ????? ?? ?? ???? ??????????? ??? ???????? ???? ???? ????? ???? ?? ??? ?????????? ??? ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ????????)? ????? ???

????? ?????? ????? 18/04/1400???? ???????? ?. ??????? Araz Goran831 4,277


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????? ????? ??? ?? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ?????? ???????? ???? ????? ???????? ??????? ????? ?? ????? ??? ?????? ????? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ??????? ??????? ???? ???? ??????? ???????? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ???? ?? ???? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ???????? ??? ????
??? ???? ????? ?? ???? ?? ??????? ?????? ???? ?? ???????? ????????? ???????? ????? ????? ?? ???? ??????? ?????? ???? ????? ??? ???? ????? ?? ?? ???? ??? ???? ???????? ?? ??? ???? ????? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?????? ?????? .. ??? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ????? ??? ?????? ???? ??????? ??????? ??? ??? ??????? ?? ???? ????? ???? ????????? ????? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ??? ??? ??????? ?? ???? ????? ???? ??? ???????? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ??????? ???????? ???????? ????????.. ???? ????? ??? ?????? ????? ????? ??????? ????? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ???? ????? ??????? ?????? ?? ????? ???????.. ???? ?????? ?? ??? ???? ?????? ?????? ?? ???? ??????? ?????????????? ??? ?? ???? ??????? !! ..




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?????? ??????... ??? ??? ?????? ??? ?????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ??? ?? ????? ????? ?? ???????? ??????? ?? ?????? ??? ???? ??????? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ??????? ????.. ??? ???? ?? ???? ?? ????? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ???? ???????? ???????..




??????? ???? ????? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ????? ?? ????? ????????? ??????????? ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ?????? ???????? ??????? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ?????? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ??????? ???? ??? ??????? ??? ????? ???? ???? ????? ????? ??? ???? ??????? ??????? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ???????.. ????? ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ????? ????? ???? ??? ????? ????? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ????? ????? ?????? ??? ???????? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ???? ???????.. ??? ?? ??? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ????? ?? ????? ????? ?? ???? ??????? ???? ?? ???....



??? ???-?????? ?????-???????? ...more70 s Jenna ? ? ?865 1,531

"The weather is in constant flux. A day of sun followed by a day of rain, a day of snow followed by a day of fog, warm then cool, wind then stillness, a stretch of bitter cold, and then today, in the middle of winter, an afternoon of fragrant light, warm to the point of merely sweaters."

In the Country of Last Things was published in 1987 and set sometime in the future. That future could be close at hand, going by those couple of sentences. They perfectly describe the winters we've been having in Northeastern USA (where I'm guessing this book takes place), so different from when I was a kid.  It never says in this book just why civilization collapsed but no doubt the erratic climate change did not help, even if it was not solely responsible.

The book is written in the form of a letter and the first 20 or so pages were irksome for me. This is because the letter's author is trying to get the recipient to imagine what it is to be in this place and writes in the second person. I enjoyed the book much more when it switched to first person.

Anna, our narrator, has gone to look for her brother in some unnamed city where life is but a fragment of what it once was. People are starving, there is chaos and violence everywhere. People squat in burned out buildings. What government still exists is mainly just concerned with collecting corpses and human waste for fuel. They dole out a miniscule amount of food but aren't very concerned with keeping order or helping the citizens. In order to survive, Anna becomes a scavenger, searching for any old scrap of thing that she can take to be upcycled. An orange peel, a torn pair of underwear, a nub of pencil. Anything can be put to use in this place where there is no new production and everything is scarce.

Paul Auster describes the hopelessness and despair of this place, painting such a brilliant picture of the bleak cityscape, the fight for survival, the despondency and fear all around. He conveys so much in this short book (just under 200 pages), his writing brilliant.  A big thank you to my GR friend Hanneke for her enticing review without which I might never have learned of this book. I'm so glad I read it! Fans of post-apocalyptic fiction will most ly enjoy this one.post-apocalyptic67 s Ian "Marvin" Graye907 2,427

Post-Apocalyptic Apocrypha

I donÂ’t normally seek out post-apocalyptic novels, but Paul AusterÂ’s novel is one to treasure.

Even though it is an early work, I felt I was in the hands of a master.

It is both beautifully written and wise.

It’s easy to read, but it’s not so easily “readable” that I could read it without turning the telly off.

Although its style is sparse and economical, thereÂ’s a lot happening beneath the surface.

Still, Auster carefully manages exactly how much he wants us to know and what he wants to remain unclear or open for conjecture.

This transforms the reader into a literary detective, a sifter of clues and memories.

AnnaÂ’s Epistle to An Unnamed Friend

The story is told in the voice of 19 year old Anna Blume in the form of a long letter to a friend who isnÂ’t identified (but might be a little sister or a childhhod friend).

The letter is a summary of her time in a post-apocalyptic city, written hurriedly in the last days before she expects to escape it illegally.

IÂ’m not sure how appropriate or successful the epistolary format was.

There is only one long 190 page letter written in a blue notebook, not an exchange of correspondence.

We only get one point of view. It could just as readily have been a journal, apart from the fact that itÂ’s addressed to one particular person.

A Letter Never Sent?

Was her letter ever sent?

ItÂ’s not clear whether the letter was ever delivered or read. It's quite possible that it wasn't.

This could be an inevitable consequence of the choice of epistolary format.

Normally, this format would dictate that the novel must work internally within the letter.

We can only assume that someone “found” or received it, even if it wasn’t the addressee for whom it was intended.

However, in the first few pages, there are some clues.

Phrases ”she wrote” and “her letter continued” are interposed into the letter.

Perhaps, they are intended to suggest that somebody other than we readers might have found the letter and read it, if not necessarily the addressee.

However, ultimately, whether or not it was read by the right person, Auster implicitly makes the point that it was worth writing (if only because ultimately he wrote it!).

An Incomprehensible Apocalypse

As you would expect, Paul Auster doesnÂ’t tell us a lot about the nature of the Apocalypse itself. ItÂ’s cloaked in mystery.

The novel is more concerned with its aftermath.

Anna Blume arrived in the city by foreign charity ship, 12 months after the Apocalypse occurred.

She comes from a different country to the east, possibly England.

There are opportunities to reveal where she comes from (presumably she has a foreign accent, but nobody comments on it; Victoria, one of the people she meets on the way, has sent her children to England to escape the Apocalypse, but they don't appear to discuss this common interest).

It seems strange that nothing is made of these opportunities to disclose her origins, although Anna might not have thought them important enough.

A Report Never Filed

Anna is looking for her older brother, William, a journalist who had previously come to report on the events for a newspaper, but has since gone missing.

ItÂ’s not clear how much reporting has got through to the rest of the world. Not much by the sound of it.

A Collapse of Epidemic Proportions

Only when Anna has been in the city for some time does she learn that:

"...some kind of epidemic had broken out there. The city government had come in, walled off the area, and burned everything down to the ground.

"Or so the story went. I have since learned not to take the things I am told too seriously.

"ItÂ’s not that people make a point of lying to you, itÂ’s just that where the past is concerned, the truth tends to get obscured rather quickly.

“Legends crop up within a matter of hours, tall tales circulate, and the facts are soon buried under a mountain of outlandish theories."

ItÂ’s not clear whether the epidemic was the primary cause of the Apocalypse or whether it was an after-effect.

Auster refers to the Apocalypse occasionally as a “collapse”, which suggests that it might have been just as much a social phenomenon, as a natural or even man-made disaster, though there is some sense of past destruction and imminent war.

He also mentions “the Troubles”, which were violent political disputes, although it’s unclear whether they preceded or followed the Apocalypse.

Whatever the physical cause of the Apocalypse, itÂ’s clear that not only have many buildings collapsed, but the social order of the city has collapsed into barely-controlled anarchy.

the surviving inhabitants, readers have to piece together the clues, and even then it isnÂ’t clear how reliable they are.

The City of Destruction

Auster does not name the city in the novel, although many consider it to be New York.

It contains a National Library, but I doubt whether it is intended to be Washington, because it seems to be a port, and we learn that there is nothing on the same continent east of it.

None of the street names are recognisable, although “Circus Street” might just be Broadway.

Even though Anna comes from a place that has been unaffected, she lacks knowledge about the continent that the city is on.

Again, she has to rely on what she has been told:

"This country is enormous, you understand, and thereÂ’s no telling where he might have gone. Beyond the agricultural zone to the west, there are supposedly several hundred miles of desert. Beyond that, however, one hears talk of more cities, of mountain ranges, of mines and factories, of vast territories stretching all the way to a second ocean."

Whether or not this is America, why doesnÂ’t she seem to have greater knowledge of the continent? Has the knowledge of the rest of the world been affected as well?

Wide is the Gate and Broad is the Road

Some clues as to the scope and design of the novel can be found in the epigram:

"Not a great while ago, passing through the gate of dreams, I visited that region of earth in which lies the famous City of Destruction."

Nathaniel Hawthorne

This quotation comes from Hawthorne’s short story, “The Celestial Railroad”, which is an allegory about the people of a city who try to build a shortcut between their own city and Heaven, between “The City of Destruction” and “The Celestial City”.

Hawthorne based his story on John Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress”, the full title of which is “The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come”.

Both works are concerned with the proper way to get to Heaven, which is itself described in the Bible:

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

Matthew 7:13-14

A Secular Pilgrim's Progress

The novel isnÂ’t overtly Christian or religious (even though Anna describes herself as Jewish). However, there is an underlying morality at work.

Without any obvious clues, thereÂ’s a sense that the city was doing something "wrong", that it had started to step out too confidently and aggressively for its own good, that it deserved to decline and fall, and therefore that it had it coming to it.

Perhaps, itÂ’s been punished for being immoral, greedy and inconsiderate, if not necessarily being irreligious.

In the wake of the Apocalypse, thereÂ’s a sense in which humanity has to reconstruct itself without the aid of institutional religion.

After her arrival, Anna is quickly reduced to the level of a local inhabitant.

She has to make her way back to virtue, happiness and fulfilment, and her letter describes a secular pilgrimage of sorts.

The Getting of Wisdom

Anna has to piece together every resource available to her, whether spiritual or worldly, to survive.

In the process, she gains some awareness, knowledge and wisdom, even if it could be taken away from her at any moment.

She starts by describing issues of subsistence, the hunger from which everyone suffers:

"You must get used to doing with as little as you can. By wanting less, you are content with less, and the less you need, the better off you are.

"That is what the city does to you. It turns your thoughts inside out. It makes you want to live, and at the same time it tries to take your life away from you."

Out of Order

Then she describes the social structures that have emerged to fill the void left by the Apocalypse: Runners, Leapers, Smilers, Crawlers, Dreamers, Fecalists, Resurrection Agents, Vultures, Tollists.

Where there is no longer any authority, there is now desperate tribalism, bare aggression and raw power.

Sickness prevails. Death is everywhere.

Even within the confines of the Library, many of the books have been stolen for fuel.

Those that remain have been scattered all over the floor.

They are "out of order" and therefore useless.

everybody else, Anna is left to her own devices. Or almost.

Populating the City

Having set the scene, Anna introduces the people she has allowed into her life in the city.

She makes friends and loses them, whether to death or fate or circumstance.

Still, the company of others gives her both love and hope, if only temporarily.

Every act of friendship is more valuable, given the circumstances in which it occurs.

At times, it seems that the novel is an allegory about the Holocaust, where even in the worst and most evil of conditions the beauty of humanity can still shine through.

Eventually, her band of accomplices resolves itself down to the comforting Sam Farr (who she had hoped would lead her to William), the charitable Victoria Woburn (who maintains a hospital in memory of her father) and the eccentric Boris Stepanovich.

A Persona of Indifference Becomes a Persona of Benevolence

Anna and Sam start a relationship, only to be parted, without knowing whether the other is alive.

Sam hibernates:

"I gave up trying to be anyone. The object of my life was to remove myself from my surroundings, to live in a place where nothing could hurt me anymore. One by one, I tried to abandon my attachments, to let go of all the things I ever cared about. The idea was to achieve indifference, an indifference so powerful and sublime that it would protect me from further assault. I said good-bye to you, Anna..."

Yet one day, he stumbles into VictoriaÂ’s hospital where Anna is now working.

Reunited at last, he takes on the role of doctor, and the patients start to trust him with their problems:

"It was being a confessor, he said, and little by little he began to appreciate the good that comes when people are allowed to unburden themselves – the salutary effect of speaking words, of releasing words that tell the story of what happened to them."

So Sam transitions from non-attachment to engagement with life and, by doing so, he reinvigorates Anna as well.

An Escape Never Made?

At the end of the novel, AnnaÂ’s unly "bande a part" is poised to escape the city.

So Anna writes her letter in the days leading up to their departure.

We never know whether they succeeded or what happened to them subsequently.

A Collection of Last Things

While there might be a tragedy inherent in this story, it also says something about the role of story-telling and writing.

Life is ephemeral. It happens, and once it has happened, it moves into the past and ceases to be:

"These are the last things, she wrote. One by one they disappear and never come back...When you live in the city, you learn to take nothing for granted. Close your eyes for a moment, turn around to look at something else, and the thing that was before you is suddenly gone. Nothing lasts, you see, not even the thoughts inside you. And you mustnÂ’t waste your time looking for them. Once a thing is gone, that is the end of it."

If thoughts canÂ’t survive, then neither can memories.

Memories require a human to maintain and transmit them.

Absent people, the memories die, and the reality that once was is no more.

Just as people deny the Holocaust, once the memories cease, people start to forget or deny the underlying factuality.

A Recollection of Lasting Things

Still, Anna feels the compulsion to write, to preserve these memories, to create an amulet:

"I am not sure why I am writing to you now...But suddenly, after all this time, I feel there is something to say, and if I don’t quickly write it down, my head will burst. It doesn’t matter if you read it. It doesn’t even matter if I send it – assuming that could be done. Perhaps it comes down to this. I am writing to you because you know nothing. Because you are far away from me and know nothing."

Towards the end, Anna pictures her letter as “one last thing to remember me by”.

The notebook could end up as a thing sitting on a shelf above a bed, one last thing that might last.

Boris the Chameleon

Anna owes some of this change of approach to the flamboyant, charlatan- Boris Stepanovich.

At first, she is captivated by, but sceptical about, his tale-telling and his constant metamorphosis:

"One by one, he took on the roles of clown and scoundrel and philosopher."

Un anyone else she has met, his character shifts:

"A man must live from moment to moment, and who cares what you were last month if you know who you are today?"

Yet Boris is a sentimentalist at heart, if a wily one.

Without words and memories, who would know what they are today anyway?

He says of a precious tea cup:

"The set has suffered the fate of the yearsÂ…and yet, for all of that, a single remnant has survived, a final link to the past. Treat it gently, my friend. You are holding my memories in your hand."

Hats Off to Boris

Anna gets another clue from Boris' love of ornate hats:

”Boris explained that he d to wear hats because they kept his thoughts from flying out of his head. If we both wore them while we drank our tea, then we were bound to have more intelligent and stimulating conversations.”

Equally, perhaps, society needs memories, to be truly civilized.

Civilisation is what separates us from mere subsistence, whether in a ghetto or a garret.

So, ultimately, Boris too revitalises Anna:

"We became dear friends, and I owe Boris a debt for his compassion, for the devious and persistent attack he launched on the strongholds of my sadness."

wise, Boris becomes the inspiration for the escape plan:

"Make plans. Consider the possibilities. Act."

Humanity must not just embrace contemplation, it must embrace action to survive.

Promise to Write

Anna promises to write to her friend when they get out of the city of destruction.

We never find out whether she got out safely, or survived, or posted her letter, or ever wrote again.

Hear Me Calling You

Still, we are lucky to have read her epistle of engagement and action and persistence and humanity.

She did not just call out into the blankness, or scream into a vast and terrible void.

She did not just create one of the last things that will disappear, she created something that will last.

She did not write in vain.

The "you" she was writing to has become the "we" who have read Paul Auster's novel.

It is we who have heard her call.
auster read-2011 ...more64 s Dalia Nourelden609 884

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?? / ??/ ????paul-auster ??????-????-?????? ??????-????56 s Hanneke351 421

The description of Paul Auster of a post-apocalyptic world in this novel seems for me the most plausible I have ever encountered in a dystopian novel.

Young Anne Blume arrives in a devastated city on an aid ship from somewhere obviously much safer and enters an imploded city. She arrives in this desastrous world to look for her brother whom she did not hear from for a year. The name of the city is nowhere mentioned nor in what country it is situated, but it must be New York. It is soon clear that life is in such a chaos that she will have to gather all her strength to stay alive and she must also realize the fact that she will only by sheer luck find out what happened to her brother, as all official means of communications are extinct. She will have to adapt to join the crowd of hungry scavengers, avoid being robbed of the tiniest possession, eat any little morsel of food she can find and take care to find a safe sleeping place at night. PeopleÂ’s most precious possession is a shopping cart which you have to chain to your waist against thiefs. There is no electricity, buildings collapse overnight, dead bodies line the streets. The dead are naked, their clothes are robbed within five minutes. Life for Anne, and the few companions she meets, consists of learning how to be the smartest, never lose attention and to be invisible if needed. Showing or receiving compassion is very rare, but proved to be life saving for Anne in a few instances.

This book made a big impact on me. I think it was really too close for comfort. If things would spin out of control, it could be only a few steps further into the future that we could be roaming the streets the slowly dying people in this novel. Such a terrifying thought. From now on, this dystopian novel of Paul Auster will stay with me as the most realistic one I have ever read.60 s Nahed.E614 1,787


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favorites ????-??-???? ??????52 s Lisa (NY)1,718 744

This post-apocolyptic novel about a young woman who enters a ruined city to search for her brother is infused with pending doom. There may be no escape. Yet a sense of deep humanity is always present - even in the midst of horror, Anna finds connection and love. Not as complex or layered as Auster's later works, but still compelling. 50 s Violet wells433 3,708

The account in the form of a letter of a girl who has gone to look for her missing brother in a dystopian city where everything that provides a sense of self is vanishing.

There’s a constant sense of an author discovering and enjoying his talent in this short novel. He doesn’t waste energy on making his world logically plausible or itemising how the apocalyptic disaster happened. We’re very much in an existential twilight zone world. The tone essentially is one of macabre playfulness. There’s lots of black humour as for example in the many cults (often of a suicidal nature) that have formed to deal with the growing hopelessness of the situation. My favourite were “The Runners”. The runners run as fast as they can, waving their arms about wildly until they simply drop dead. jogging taken to a whole new level in other words. There’s lots of parody of our contemporary world – every scavenger has a supermarket trolley, his or her most precious possession, tied to her waist an umbilical cord. "That is what the city does to you. It turns your thoughts inside out. It makes you want to live, and at the same time it tries to take your life away from you."

But along with the humour thereÂ’s also a chilling evocation of the Nazi ghettos and concentration camps. Ann eventually finds herself in Woburn House, a privileged enclave which calls to mind the morally dubious benefits of belonging to the Jewish council in the ghetto. AusterÂ’s prose, as ever, is sparse, almost beaurocratic in its conclusive rejection of the colour purple. In the Country of Last Things is an enjoyable thought provoking read though not on the level of the fabulous The New York Trilogy.

contemporary-american-fiction dystopia37 s Jessaka952 179 Read

There is a river that howls through a darkened forest. First it flows one way and then another. And when it untangles itself it disappears, to where, I do not know.

The above introduction came to me while reading this book, a book that speaks of a very strange world, more strange than my very words. It is a world that I do not understand, nor do I wish to understand it. Pages upon pages describe this world even before the story begins. People commit suicide just to escape it. Death by running. Death is seen in every doorway and on the streets with bodies stripped of clothing and all other possessions. It is as if they never belonged to them in the first place. Family members take their loved oneÂ’s gold teeth to sell in the markets, to buy rotten or fake food for themselves. Eggs filled with sawdust. Then the garbage pickers take those naked bodies away along with the buckets of sewage that has been placed on the streets. Then they are into energy to light the houses. those who have died, I wish to escape, but I am getting somewhat drawn in, much a moth to a flame.

What are these last things that caused the author to place these words in the title of his book? Last of Civilization? Last of your sanity? Last of your Family? Last of everything you own as it can be stolen, everything you buy to eat can be rotten.

A woman is looking for her brother. Where he is, even he does not know. When she finds him, will she even know it? She comes to this town and is subjected to a haircut to make her bald, unattractive to men. The fear is that they will rape her for her very beauty. Do men in this world really care that much as to whether a woman is beautiful or not? After this, she begins to pleasure herself. There is a reason why these acts are done in private. Some donÂ’t wish to see or hear about it, much less read it. I decide then that this is the LAST of the book for me, and I didnÂ’t even have to do a death run in order to leave this horrid world. I only had to close the book.sci-fi34 s Mohamed Bayomi227 155

????? ??????? ??????? ???? ?????? ? ???? ?????? ??????? ? ????? ?? ??????? ??? ????? ???? ???? ??? ???? ? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ???? ?? ???? - ??? ??? - ?????? ? ??? ???? ???? ?? ??? ??? ?????? ??????? ????????? ? ???????? ???? ??????? ??? ??????? ?????????? ?? ??????? ????? ????? ???????? ? ???????? ?????? ?????? ? ????? ?????? ? ????? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ????? ? ??? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ???????35 s 7jane731 343

Anna Blume writes in a notebook her account of her time in an unnamed city where she arrived by a foreign aid ship, 19 and a know-it-all, looking for her brother, William. It is addressed to an unnamed friend-from-childhood, and we know pretty early her search is futile. The story becomes not just her story, but a story of things ending, things decaying, vanishing into thin air or something.

The city is not named, nor the country she came from, nor the country she arrived to. But you can pretty much guess (the city is on east coast, the country expands westwise, she crosses a sea, talk of her childhood life suggests UK to me - I feel this city is a form of New York).

Something has happened to the city and to the country. I guess the economy has fallen apart (the current is 'glot' here), politically the government falls apart very often, the houses and the streets are not cared for, the weather changes wildly (including having 5-6 month long winter at least once). There is a 'build a wall' project, that thankfully falls apart due to economical/political reasons, there's sudden tolls across the street that you have to avoid. The food is scarce, no children are born, the dead are left in the street to collect. No planes have been seen in the sky for years (some even don't remember/believe in them); the rich have left the country (mostly), no ships beyond aid ships have arrived for years.
Yet people arrive regularly from the west (seems outside things are not much better). You can earn money from being a scavenger, or join groups for different forms of suicide/repentance (the description of the Runners is what made me try reading this first time around).

The description of the city comes first, in the book, some of the information of which is above. You have to piece things together to understand even a bit why this city (and the country) are in such a mess - mess that one could see being a 'near future' thing. Anna's story is simple yet an example of one arrival's life of surviving in the city (not all who arrive in the city from any direction are lucky, especially if they are not smart with it, or don't have enough money/connections).

The book ends with her notebook pages ending, her handwriting getting smaller (she says) as she comes to the end. There's no knowing if she even gets to send this letter-notebooks (she doubts it), nor if the plan to leave the city towards west succeeds, even with the permits, but the openness of the ending makes things seem hopeful.
This is a book (and a notebook) full of endings and vanishings, and how one accepts it or not; besides these themes, I loved the mood the story had - the end has come, but what an interesting way this world does it! All the characters, and the city, do it well.33 s Mohamed Samy207 107

???? ???? ???? ????? ?? ??? ?????..
??? ??????????..????? ?????? ??? ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ????? ???? ???? ?? ?? ??????? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ????? ???? ?????? ????? ???? ?? ???????? ????? ?????? ?? ???????? ??? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??????? ??????? ???? ????? ????? ?? ??? ???? ??????? ??????? ??? ???? ???? ????? ?? ????????..
????? ?????? ?? ????? ???????? ??????? ????? ?????? ?? ???? ?? ??? ???? ???? ??? ??????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ?? ???? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ??????.
????? ?? ??? ??????? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ???? the road ??? ???? ???????? ???? ?????


"?????? ???? ????? ????? ?? ?? ???? ?? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ??? ??? ?? ???? ???? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ??????? ????? ?? ???? ???? ????"33 s Juan Nalerio555 124

A través del personaje principal nos introducimos en una ciudad devastada, no se especifica cual.
Los pilares de la civilización se han relegado, la sociedad está derrumbada y el ser humano queda sumido en un caos citadino donde las miserias se potencian.

La redención y liberación vendrá a través de una biblioteca. Cuando no, los libros permiten sino salvar a la humanidad, iluminar un par de corazones.
Está bien escrito, vale la pena.32 s Asmaa Essam243 208

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