White Apples - Jonathan Carroll Book Review

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Review Summary

Tor, Aug 2002, 24.95, 384 pp.
ISBN: 0765303884

Out of control womanizer Vincent Ettrich recently died, but in spite of his many women no one truly mourns his passing. However, ironically the philandering Vincent is a key player in the grand cosmic scheme. Thus, he is brought back to life to perform a key role that will enable the great plan to occur. He had left behind besides a wife, a pregnant lover. That unborn child is the critical person in the universe to insure the future goes according to the grand plan.

Though the fetus Anjo needs his mother Isabelle, Vincent is to teach his offspring what he has learned from his death. The problem is Vincent remembers nothing of his death or what it is he should be teaching his son. If he fails to do his part of the mission, Anjo will lack the knowledge needed to insure implementation of the plan leading to a failed future yet Vincent cannot accept that he died and came back.

When it comes to way out fantasy where readers peeping through the looking glass at death see a certain signpost ahead, it means Jonathan Carroll. His latest spin is all over the place as the story line is not linear in any sense with strange flashbacks that make the time continuum seem concentrically circular. Yet somehow the talented Mr. Carroll provides an insightful, weird, but entertainingly different perceptive on life, death, and the free will vs. pre-determinism debate that is not for everyone except those fans who want something unusual in their novels.

Harriet Klausner

Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar

Detailed literary breakdown of White Apples

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 40%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 10%

Tone of book - very upbeat
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - fantasy story on current Earth
Inner Struggle Yes
Plotlet: - search for identity/new understanding
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Family relations Yes

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - business executive
Age: - 20's-30's
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
Earth setting: - near future (later in 21st century)
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
How much dialogue? - significantly more dialog than descript

Most similar books to White Apples
Yesterday's Dreams by Danielle Ackley-McPhail
More Than Magick by Mary Taffs
Outside the Dog Museum by Jonathan Carroll
K-Pax by Gene Brewer
Secret Scroll - Daughters of the Moon 4 by Lynne Ewing

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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