The Land of Laughs

I'd recently picked up a more recent Jonathan Carroll work "The Wooden Sea" with an eye to finding something "new and exciting". Having moved on to "The Land of Laughs", Carroll's first novel, I found myself reading it in virtually one go, curled up on my couch burning the midnight oil, and came away with that same feeling of magic.

"The Land of Laughs" follows Thomas Abbey, son of a movie star who can never escape from the shadow cast over him by his famous father. He leads a relatively quiet and mundane life as an English teacher at a boarding school, with the one bright spot in his life always centering around the works of a reclusive children's book author by the name of Marshall France.

After a chance encounter in a bookstore with a woman who is also a fan of the author, he conceives the idea of writing France's biography in collaboration with her. Their enterprise leads them to the small town of Galen, Missouri, the author's home before his death. Having been led by France's publisher to expect a hostile reaction from the townspeople upon learning of his purposes, Thomas is surprised to find himself greeted with all but open arms even by Anna, France's daughter.

After Thomas settles in Galen to write the biography with Anna's full cooperation, events gradually begin to grow out of control and dispel the illusion that Galen is just another quiet Midwest town.

What I really liked about "The Land of Laughs" (as well as "The Wooden Sea") is how Carroll manages to strike a great balance between being funny and insightful. I might smile at something on one page then be touched by something else on the next page. He also has a knack for injecting surrealism into everyday life yet managing to make it seem almost normal. In Carroll's world, anything can and will happen, but it makes an odd sort of sense.

To be fair, the ultimate premise behind "The Land of Laughs" has been done before, but on the other hand, the approach here is a fresh take on it and more than worth the read. Carroll's work most likely won't appeal to the purists who want their fantasy to come with all the familiar trappings (not that this is a bad thing). However, I find that his style has grown on me and I'd recommend it for anyone looking for something different, or just a good read in general.

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Other Reviews of works by Jonathan Carroll

The Wooden Sea - Feb 25, 2008