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Outside the Dog Museum
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - A fascinating literary trek into magical realism courtesy of Jonathan Carroll
When the likes of fantasy authors as diverse as Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub and Jonathan Lethem are praising Jonathan Carroll's work, offering it the finest compliments that they can muster, then you know that Carroll is an author worthy of your attention (All three provided memorable blurbs in the back cover of this book's paperback edition.). Truly, without question, Carroll is both a memorable writer and a fine literary stylist. However, at least not in "Outside the Dog Museum", should he be regarded as a writer of fantasy. Instead, I concur with another reviewer who noted that this novel is truly a philosophical novel draped in moments of magical realism. Carroll's usage of magical realism may not be as beguiling as those from the likes of Borges and Garcia Marquez for example, but nonetheless, he manages to do a fine job of it in this novel.
Caroll's fine prose is written in a breezy, almost conversational, style, that works well in his depictions of the protagonist, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Harry Radcliffe, and his intense personal and romantic relationship with both of his mistresses, Claire and Fanny, who know each other well. After winning his award - and recovering from a recent divorce through the aid of a bizarre mental therapist - Radcliffe is offered a commission by the Sultan of Saru - a fictitious Gulf State emirate - to be a dog museum in honor of the sultan's late father, the previous ruler of the emirate. What follows is a series of fascinating, and occasionally confusing, adventures and misadventures for Harry Radcliffe set in both the emirate and Vienna, Austria - where the museum is ultimately built. Not only must he contend with his complex personal relationships with both of his mistresses and his therapist, Harry is unexpectedly confronted with a fundamentalist Islamic rebellion against the Sultan of Saru within his emirate. Until the very end Carroll does a fine literary juggling act, but his less than memorable conclusion is the main reason why his fine novel isn't earning my highest praise.
Rating: - Hmmm. What to think...
I liked it. I liked its hopefulness. It read a lot like The Wooden Sea. Sorry, but it does.
I've been reading his work since The Land of Laughs. I like what he does, but I have to say it's starting to get a little repetitive. Don't get me wrong: each novel is enjoyable, just a bit repetitive.
Rating:  - a dog of a book
the blurb on the back cover "Harry Radcliffe is a brilliant prize-winning architect--witty and remarkable" (Really? I'm Sooo impressed.) He's also a self-serving opportunist, ready to take advantage of whatever situation, and women, come his way." (A man who is READY! However ooops--) But now, newly divorced and having had an inexplicable" (mysterious) nervous breakdown," (Not our hero!) "Harry is being wooed" (wooed, mind you) by the extremely wealthy" (I guess they mean really rich) "Sultan of Saru to design a billion dollar dog museum." (What a GREAT plot. The sultan, the dogs, remarkable Harry) In Saru he (Harry) finds himself in a world even madder and more unreal than the one he left behind" (Where did he live? Glendale?) "and as his obsession (Yes the obsession) grows, the powers of magic weave around him," (Like Harry Potter) "and the implications of his strange undertaking grow more and more ominous and astounding..." I could only get a ways into this epic before I realized I was crossing the line into madness myself.
Rating:  - from LOCUS MAGAZINE, July 2005
"I read the reissue of OUTSIDE THE DOG MUSEUM and was blown away by it. It may very well be his best book. I made the mistake, the first time I read it 14 years ago, of thinking of it as a fantasy novel instead of a mainstream philosophical novel with fantasy tropes. Carroll, like Graham Joyce, uses fantasy tropes but he isn't a fantasy writer. There's an argument that Mahler's 10 symphonies are really only parts of one vast search for the meaning of life. I think of Carroll's novels the same way. They're all a search for transcendence through mystic or surrealist means."
Rating: - fantastic allegorical tale
The Sultan of Saru tries to hire Pritzer Prize winning architect Harry Radcliffe to design a dog museum, but though he takes the bribes like a brand new car, Harry declines. Recently divorced over his Colonel Sanders' recipe and balancing two beautiful strong women, Fanny Neville and Claire Stansfield, at the same time he is a recovering mental breakdown patient struggling with what is reality under the guide of psychiatrist Venasque.
Reality strikes in the form of an earthquake devastating Harry's Santa Barbara home. Venasque's dog and the Sultan rescue Harry, who now feels obligated to both so agrees to the zillion dollar canine museum. In the Saru, Harry feels the magic is now in him, but soon finds himself in the middle of a Civil War in which his patron dies. Still Harry begins to understand the meaning of reality as magically altering when perceptions change while Harry also changes.
OUTSIDE THE DOG MUSEUM is a fantastic allegorical tale of a not so nice individual falling through the rabbit's hole. The amusing story line contains a powerful message while making a case that perception is relative. Readers will wonder if Harry's physical and mental transformations are magical or just the antihero going further over the edge following the insane shopping spree, the earthquake, and the war. Fans of metaphorical action tales will appreciate this fine satire by an author with the perfect surname even if Harry lacks Alice's innocence.
Harriet Klausner
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