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    Bathing the Lion: A Novel
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    Bathing the Lion: A Novel
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    Bathing the Lion: A Novel
    Ebook323 pages4 hours

    Bathing the Lion: A Novel

    By Jonathan Carroll

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In Jonathan Carroll's surreal masterpiece, Bathing the Lion, five people who live in the same New England town go to sleep one night and all share the same hyper-realistic dream. Some of these people know each other; some don't.

    When they wake the next day all of them know what has happened. All five were at one time "mechanics," a kind of cosmic repairman whose job is to keep order in the universe and clean up the messes made both by sentient beings and the utterly fearsome yet inevitable Chaos that periodically rolls through, wreaking mayhem wherever it touches down—a kind of infinitely powerful, merciless tornado. Because the job of a mechanic is grueling and exhausting, after a certain period all of them are retired and sent to different parts of the cosmos to live out their days as "civilians." Their memories are wiped clean and new identities are created for them that fit the places they go to live out their natural lives to the end.

    For the first time all retired mechanics are being brought back to duty: Chaos has a new plan, and it's not looking good for mankind...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateOct 21, 2014
    ISBN9781466848917
    Unavailable
    Bathing the Lion: A Novel
    Author

    Jonathan Carroll

    Jonathan Carroll (b. 1949) is an award-winning American author of modern fantasy and slipstream novels. His debut book, The Land of Laughs (1980), tells the story of a children’s author whose imagination has left the printed page and begun to influence reality. The book introduced several hallmarks of Carroll’s writing, including talking animals and worlds that straddle the thin line between reality and the surreal, a technique that has seen him compared to South American magical realists. Outside the Dog Museum (1991) was named the best novel of the year by the British Fantasy Society, and has proven to be one of Carroll’s most popular works. Since then he has written the Crane’s View trilogy, Glass Soup (2005) and, most recently, The Ghost in Love (2008). His short stories have been collected in The Panic Hand (1995) and The Woman Who Married a Cloud (2012). He lives and writes in Vienna. 

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    Reviews for Bathing the Lion

    3.5/5

    38 ratings4 reviews

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    • 2/5
      What is there to say about this book other it just wasn't for me? Plenty. In fact, I could prattle all day long on the things I didn't like about this book, and I still wouldn't touch the tip of the iceberg of my issues. But let's pretend I can sum my problems up in a neat little review, just for the heck of it.Now, I've read reviews about this book that say the author is a little "odd" and that maybe this story isn't the best place to start with his work. But, in my opinion, if a story isn't a sequel or something very close to one, then it should be fairly accessible without me having to read the author's entire repertoire first. This book was one of the least accessible titles I have ever had the misfortune to read--and that has completely turned me off ever reading any of this author's work again. (Don't tell me I shouldn't start here with this author's books--tell me why I should have to start somewhere else in order to "get" a stand-alone? It is not, in my opinion, acceptable to tell me that a stand-alone isn't really a stand-alone because it's practically incoherent unless I'm intimately familiar with the author in question. That's absurd.)Point is, I read this. I started here. It was an ARC. I didn't like it. Here's why:Let's start with the plot. That is, what plot? Certainly not the plot implied by the synopsis for this book. Because that plot sounded like an exciting slipstream adventure story, whereas the actual book was....not even remotely close to that. The first third of the story is drawn-out dream sequence that is initially framed to look like real life. The most mundane real life possible. For a second, I thought I'd gotten the wrong book, and that the wrong book I'd gotten was a boring contemporary drama about domestic and community relationship issues. Nope. That's just the actual beginning of this book. Which slowly spirals into a surreal dream sequence filled with nonsensical symbolism, riddles that are never explained, what-could-have-been-awesome sci-fi concepts that are never explored past shallow mentions, and, worst of all, a continual focus on the characters' boring lives.The second part of the book, unfortunately, doesn't get much better. In fact, in many ways, it's worse. Because once the story starts explaining what's actually going on with the plot, it walks right over the cliff into a huge disappointment. All the interesting concepts that could have made for an exciting adventure are glossed over for conversations in living rooms, conversations in diners, more conversations in living rooms, the SAME conversation in a diner AGAIN...and, to make matters worse, a bunch of seemingly random occurrences are always happening in every scene, but they have no rhyme or reason and are never explored to any satisfactory extent. The entire plot of this book basically boils down to a bunch of people arguing and occasionally reminding themselves that the world might be ending. In the background. While they argue. Throwing in some applied phlebotinum where it's convenient to in order to make "neat" things happen so the story doesn't come to a complete stand still does not constitute an actual plot.Overall, this story was a confusing mess of boring characters, largely unexplained science fiction concepts that are tossed in at random, and a combination of bad story structuring and awful pacing.But surely the characters weren't that bad?If only. A hundred pages into this book, I felt absolutely nothing for any of the characters. They were practically flat and mostly corralled into nice, neat stereotypes for what appeared to be the sake of convenience. Instead of actually showing us the characters' personalities through choices and action, as one would expect, this book spends an inordinate amount of time telling backstory through inane anecdotes as an "alternative" to actual character development. Which drove me nuts. The constant stops and stars of the plot only served to slow it down more, and the backstory tidbits did nothing for me in the context of the current story--they also did nothing to connect me to the characters.All the characters in this book might as well have been cardboard for all the depth they had...except the talking chair. I did like the talking chair.Finally, let's talk about the style this story was written. There's no other way for me to put it: I hated the writing style of this book. I've never actually hated a writing style before. I've thought some were odd, off, or not particularly great. But I have never downright hated a writing style.Until now.The narration reads like a children's picture book combined with the vocabulary of a PhD recipient. It is the most awkward, contradictory style I have ever seen--and it drove me crazy on every page. Mix that in with the absurd and ever-stilted dialogue from the super-flat characters, and this book was a nightmare to read.Start to finish, I could not stand Bathing the Lion. But I do give it a few points for the underlying premise and the imaginative concepts always in the background (but, unfortunately, never brought to light)._____... DisclosureI received a free copy of this title form the publisher via Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      There were so many different stories and unconnected details...it felt like a hodgepodge of all our experiences scrunched together without any kind of filter to keep the stories separate. There was no through line; I can't make sense of it. Page 231The author has stolen the words right out of my mouth. I don't think I could have summarize my thoughts as succinctly or as precisely. The story of five individuals who all share the same dreams and visions begin and come to understand that perhaps their commonality lies in the fact they are not entirely human. Their collective group is being called back, but to where and for what, they are unsure and the effects may reverberate throughout the galaxy.Cue the twilight zone theme music because that is exactly how I felt throughout the book. The beginning few chapters started off normal enough, but when the science fiction portion of the book kicked in, it also kicked it off into a strange and what-the-heck is going on land. I'm still not quite sure what the book was about, or the point for that matter, but what I do feel is that somehow I'm missing the bigger picture. With that being said, the book was neither bad nor good, just confusing and I can't help but wish there was a version of Bathing the Lion for Dummies.
    • 5/5
      I love Jonathan Carroll books. I was given this one for Christmas but kept it on my bedside table, savoring the anticipation of reading it until mid-January. I had to – because once I open the cover and enter a world full of incredible things that shouldn’t happen but do, seemingly ordinary people who have extraordinary things happening to them and worlds within worlds that seem impossible to imagine but even more impossible to forget…I just can’t stop until I finish. And I hate finishing a Jonathan Carroll book.In “Bathing the Lion” he again creates a cast of characters that are instantly recognizable but completely unlike anyone we know in our daily lives. These characters are so human, such wonderful examples of the flaws, fragility, overpowering strength and incredible love people are cursed and blessed with. “Bathing the Lion” celebrates that which makes each person unique and alongside of that, both celebrates and raises an eyebrow at what life throws at people.“There’s always a “but” in any triumph. The nasty little bone in the delicious piece of fish, the dangerous slick spot on the just-waxed gleaming floor, the “no” hiding under “yes’s” bed, waiting for the right moment to spring out and bite you.”Carroll has a way of describing life in ways that make the reader (me) want to shout, “That’s exactly it!” With prose that is neither flowery nor sparse – he unspools thoughts and feelings in a way that feels like he’s reached into our minds and just clarified what we all feel.“We’re often wrong at predicting who or what will transform us. Encountering certain people, books, music, places or ideas…at just the right time can immediately make our lives happier, richer, more beautiful, resonant or meaningful. When it happens, we feel a kind of instant love for them, both deep and abiding. Now and then it can be something as trifling as a children’s book, a returned telephone call, or a night at a seaside bar in Mykonos.”“…smells are unlike any other memories. They remain with us fully a hundred percent on some remote desert island of the mind where they keep the lowest profile. If they’re not shaken awake by something, they lie silent and still like sleeping dogs under the table. But once roused, they return as completely as the moment we first encountered them.”And in a passage that truly feels as if he crawled inside my own head - “Lists made life make more sense to him. He’d tried to find his Vedran by listing the objects in his apartment. When he saw things written down on paper in tidy columns it gave him the feeling that it was possible to tame some of life’s chaos, which was much better than just letting it buzz crazily around you like house flies.” I love lists – but never could I have explained myself in such a perfect way.“Bathing the Lion” is a story of humans and more than humans. Men and woman who have led otherworldly lives – yet are defined by and find the most fulfillment in their experiences on Earth. They experience what it is like to be human – sometimes with the knowledge of what is beyond humanity – and of what experiences are utterly and amazingly human. Most specifically, love. Love of life. Of other living things. Love of another person so powerful that the gain of it can utterly transform one, and that the loss of it can utterly destroy one. “Lola was unaware of it but this was her one great, genuine talent in life – loving people. The image of her man with the Italian book in his meaty hands looking so damned serious made her smile when they lay in bed at night holding hands, knowing “forever” was no longer a word either of them owned in any language. In Lola’s increasing dependence on him, Bill learned how to be generous, thoughtful and fully present in the limited days they had together. Perhaps that was the greatest achievement of her life: without trying, she taught her husband to be a much better person.”I love Jonathan Carroll books. I love that reading them is a delightful, magical, heart-wrenching, awe-inspiring experience that leaves me with a greater appreciation for who we are, what we can be and for what absolutely, positively could never happen but sometimes does.
    • 4/5
      Bathing the Lion is one of those novels that is practically impossible to describe. The plot is fairly nebulous, slippery when trying to explain it and very fluid. There is very little explanation about the life of a mechanic, their origins, or any other aspect of their backstory. Readers only get as much information as is necessary to explain certain scenes and nothing more. The characters themselves are varied but surprisingly developed even before they start remembering bits of their past. This helps maintain a reader’s interest when things start getting a bit odd. If anything, it is best to go into the story with an open mind and heart and just experience it as it unfolds.In spite of not being able to adequately describe it, Bathing the Lion is a weird and wonderful novel. One cannot read it quickly because it is rather intricate, no matter how much one wants to rush through the wonderful sentences and astute observations about mankind. There are some fantastic statements about life and love, and those readers who keep track of favorite passages will find much to savor. The story itself gets a little quirky, with its dreams and flips, but each new scene adds another layer to the story which is worth any confusion a reader might have. The ending itself is rather abrupt, but upon reflection, it ends beautifully with hope, peace, and serenity. The scientific fantasy element of Bathing the Lion may turn off some potential readers, and the abrupt shifts in time may discourage others. Those who persevere though will find a delightful, quirky novel that truly captures what it means to be human.