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The Wooden Sea: A Novel
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765300133
ISBN: 0765300133
Label: Tor Books
Manufacturer: Tor Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: February 09, 2002
Publisher: Tor Books
Studio: Tor Books
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Editorial Review:
Frannie McCabe was an obnoxious juvenile delinquent in his teens, but has settled down into comfortable middle age in the small town of Crane's View as its chief of police; like other Jonathan Carroll protagonists, the hero of The Wooden Sea is about to find himself caught up in uncanny goings-on. First a dog walks into his office and drops dead--more importantly, it will not stay buried. Then a quarreling couple simply disappears, and then Frannie finds himself haunted by his younger, more abrasive self, and by visions of the last day of his life, as an old man about to be knocked down by a motorbike in Vienna.
What all this means and what lessons Frannie is supposed to take from it all are where the questions lie; anyone who has read an earlier Carroll novel will know the sorts of thing that are liable to happen, the sorts of thing that they are likely to mean--but any reader of an earlier Carroll novel will almost certainly be buying any of his books they can get hold of, anyway. This is an inventive and moving fantasy by a writer who more or less defined dark fantasy as a critical term. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk
From the moment a three-legged dog limps into the life of Police Chief Frannie McCabe and drops dead at his feet, McCabe finds himself in a new world of disturbing miracles. His small town of Crane's View, New York has long been a haven of harmony and comfort--but now he finds himself afflicted by the inexplicable, by omens that converge to throw his life into doubt. And what he does over the next few days may have consequences for the whole world . . . .
A beautifully written novel about coming to terms with one's own past and making it part of the future, The Wooden Sea is Jonathan Carroll at his best, with perhaps his most satisfying conclusion ever.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The Wooden Spoon....
This was a very odd book and not a book I would normally pick up and read. I was captured by the humor and the idea of this very strange plot. It's unique qualities kept my interest. The story is about McCabe. He is a cop in the town he grew up in. He is on his second marriage to a woman he really loves and a step father to Pauline. It was nice to see a good relationship between the step-parent and step-child for a change. One day a strange, crippled dog wanders into town and McCabe adopts ... Read More
Rating: - Great read!
I picked up this book after reading Carroll's Glass Soup, which I liked, but left me a bit disappointed. I was much more satisfied with The Wooden Sea. I loved the characters, Carroll developed them all so well and the plot twists and turns. Carroll's sci-fi-ish, alternate reality set amongst the regular world is very thought provoking. I would have gave this book 5 stars, however, as with Glass Soup, Carroll leaves a lot of loose ends and unanswered questions. Still, I would recommend reading ... Read More
Rating:  - Best book by this author so far . . .
. . . Although it wouldn't surprise me if Carroll tops himself, numerous times, in the future. I pretty much loved everything about The Wooden Sea. I love the gruff and good-hearted manner of the narrator, Frannie, and his growth from a snot-nosed punk to a law enforcer and positive role model in his community. I love the snappy exchanges between Frannie and his wife, Magda, and the care Frannie shows towards his stepdaughter, Pauline. I love how nicely every event in Frannie's routine turns out until ... Read More
Rating: - A Little Sound and No Fury, Signifying Nothing
There's no doubt that Jonathan Carroll is a capable wordsmith. His writing is textured and fluid and he enjoys a capacious and imaginative narrative style. Sadly, the ease with which he weaves the story belies a lack of story organization or thematic development that ultimately deprives the reader from a significant payoff in any form other than admiration for Carroll's syntactical technique. On my decimal scale (0.0 to 5.0), this book gets a 2.7 because it does have the redeeming quality of being skillfully ... Read More
Rating: - Surreal and real at the same time
Not full of "100s of F words" at all, as claimed by a previous reviewer. The book is written in perfectly normal language, assuming one isn't a Sunday school teacher living in 1892. This is exactly the way real people talk (in New York at least). Slightly disappointing ending, I'd have liked more loose ends tied up, but the dialogue is so snappy, the descriptions so lyrical and the plot so imaginative that the ending doesn't really matter.
This was my first Jonathan Carroll, bought on impulse, and I now intend ... Read More
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