"In Poland, my audience is all women between 18 and 30. At U.S. conventions, you have the fantasy and science fiction crowd. At Harvard you have an entirely different audience. It's so schizophrenic." -- Jonathan Carroll
Jonathan Samuel Carroll (born January 26, 1949) is an American author primarily known for novels, which can be characterized as magic realist, slipstream or modern fantasy. He also writes short stories.
"At a Boston signing, someone from the audience asked why I was so obsessed with furniture in my books. The question rattled around in my head. I had no idea that I was obsessed with furniture.""Both young children and old people have a lot of time on their hands. That's probably why they get along so well.""Coffee on an airplane always smells bad. Whenever it is served, suddenly the whole cabin stinks of it.""Even the handsomest men do not have the same momentary effect on the world as a truly beautiful woman does.""Everyone coming out of a perfume store is smelling the back of their hand.""For an adult, eating alone at McDonald's is admitting a kind of defeat.""I don't like to have to pan for gold when I read.""I feel like a cliche.""I find you write with one person in mind. Usually for me that one person is my wife, because she's my most severe critic and understands best what I'm trying to do.""I have never heard anyone say This is it. I know right now is the high point of my life. It will never get any better. Only in retrospect do we recognize the best times and of course then it is too late.""I read less of everything now. With only fond memories of others' work, it will be interesting to give my own journal writing a try now.""I write about what interests me. It's very dangerous when you try to satisfy an audience.""I've never seen myself as a fantasy writer - ever.""If I don't feel like writing today or for a few days, I don't. And I don't think about it. It is not an obligation-it is the greatest privilege.""It's always fun to walk down the street with or behind a really beautiful woman, for no reason other than to see how the world reacts to them.""Just write about what bites you and damn the rest.""Krakow is one of my favorite places on earth. It is a medieval city full of young people. A wonderful, striking combination.""May this house stand until an ant drinks the ocean and a tortoise circles the world.""Most men, no matter how well or badly dressed, carry overstuffed, beat up wallets that should have been replaced years ago. Why is that? Every time I see a guy take out a wallet anywhere, it looks like a piece of old melted chocolate cake-with strings.""Old people are often impatient, but for what?""One of the saddest realities is that we never know when our lives are at their peak. Only after it is over and we have some kind of perspective do we realize how good we had it a day, a month, five years ago.""People are always waiting to be discovered.""People who truly love us can be divided into two categories: those who understand us, and those who forgive us our worst sins. Rarely do you find someone capable of both.""Salzburg... is a mountain town with a rushing river running right through the center, everything in the rain various shades of green and brown.""The Viennese wash everything. Where else in the world does the government hire public servants to wash public telephone booths and the glass over traffic lights? Every time I see someone doing these things, I smile like a child.""The Wilmington, Delaware, television station that bills itself as The Family Minded Station is Channel 69.""There's almost always a point in a book where something happens that triggers the rest of the plot.""Very often I'll find out at the end of a book what I put in at the beginning. A sort of process of elimination and discovery in one.""When I was in college, I was the editor of the literary magazine and insisted neither the editors nor the writers be specifically identified-only our student numbers appeared on the title page. I love that idea and still do.""Why do people always gesture with their hands when they talk on the phone?""Women are always complaining about men's fascination with breasts. But what if men were absolutely indifferent to breasts? What would women do then with these things that serve one function once or twice in a lifetime, and the rest of the time are just in the way?""You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across fields into your lover's arms can only come later when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip."
Carroll was born in New York City to Sidney Carroll, a film writer whose credits included The Hustler, and June Carroll (née Sillman), an actress and lyricist who appeared in numerous Broadway shows and two films. He is the half brother of composer Steve Reich and nephew of Broadway producer Leonard Sillman. His parents were Jewish but Carroll was raised in the Christian Science religion. A self-described "troubled teenager," he finished primary education at the Loomis School in Connecticut and graduated with honors from Rutgers University in 1971, marrying artist Beverly Schreiner in the same year. He relocated to Vienna, Austria a few years later and began teaching literature at the American International School, and has made his home in Austria ever since.
His first novel, The Land of Laughs (1980), is indicative of his general style and subject matter. Told through realistic first person narration, the novel concerns a young schoolteacher searching for meaning through researching the life of a favorite children's book author of his youth, which involves meeting the author's daughter. Everything seems fine until the dog begins talking to him, as the line between the fantasy world created by his research subject and the reality of the schoolteacher's life, while the reader begins to wonder just how much trust can be placed in this narrator. Subsequent novels would expand on these themes, but often contain unreliable narrators in a world where magic is viewed as natural. (One commentator claimed in The Times that "if he were a Latin American writer with a three-part name, his books would be described as magical-realist".)Unnamed reviewer for The Times, quoted on blurb page of the Futura paperback edition of Outside the Dog Museum, 1991.
Carroll's short story, "Friend's Best Man", won the World Fantasy Award. His novel, Outside the Dog Museum won the British Fantasy Award and his collection of short stories won the Bram Stoker Award. The short story "Uh-Oh City" won the French Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire. His short story "Home on the Rain" was chosen as one of the best stories of the year by the Pushcart Prize committee. Apart from the above honors, Carroll has gotten on the short-list for other World Fantasy Awards, the Hugo and British Fantasy Awards.
Bones of the Moon (1987) (slightly revised US edition, 1988)
Sleeping in Flame (1988) -- World Fantasy Award nominee, 1989
A Child Across the Sky (1989, Washington Post Book of the Year) -- BSFA nominee, 1989; WFA and Clarke nominee, 1990
Outside the Dog Museum (1991) -- British Fantasy Award winner, WFA nominee, 1992
After Silence (1992)
From the Teeth of Angels (1993), -- New York Times Book Review Notable Book; WFA nominee, 1995
The Crane's View Trilogy
Kissing the Beehive (1997) -- British Fantasy Award nominee, 1999
The Marriage of Sticks (2000) -- British Fantasy Award nominee, 2000
The Wooden Sea (2001, New York Times Book Review Notable Book) - Locus and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 2002
White Apples (2002) -- Locus and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 2003
Glass Soup (2005)
Oko Dnia (Eye Of The Day) (2006, Polish language edition)
The Ghost in Love (2008)
Novellas and short novels
"Black Cocktail" (1990)
The Heidelberg Cylinder (2000) [1000 copy limited edition, signed by Jonathan Carroll and cover artist Dave McKean. A few remaining copies left over from the print run were sold without signatures.]
Short story collections
Die Panische Hand (1989) (German language edition)
The Panic Hand (1995) [expansion of the 1989 German language edition; the 1996 US edition adds the novella Black Cocktail]
