1 Stephen King's Danse Macabre (The Anatomy of Horror), Futura Publications, London 1989, p.365
2 A parallel study can be imagined, analyzing Kurt Vonnegut's "departure" from science-fiction. For one thing, whatever academic merit such a work could present, it would probably miss the whole point of Vonnegut's art, in talking about what it is not. For another, to speak about "departure" is to assume that the author "had once been there" in the first place, or at least that he aimed to - a hypothetical supposition, at best.
3 Interestingly, this kind of shift - from fear to paranoia - may be observed in the later writings of Stephen King himself, e.g. the novel Needful Things.
4 Publishers Weekly, January 27, 1992
5 This and all following excerpts, unless otherwise specified, are taken from: Publishers Weekly, January 27, 1992
6 Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations included in Part One are taken from: Jonathan Carroll, The Land of Laughs, The Viking Press, N.Y., 1980. For conservation of space, the following format will be employed: the abbreviation of the title, followed by the page number, as in: LL, p.126.
7 Moreover, it is a reversal of the Marshall France scheme, about whose life very little is known - and we may be led to think that it is only for the better.
8 Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice is a prominent example of the kind, quite astounding in the way it reveals unexpected meanings hidden in this celebrated children's tale.
9 The way their acquaintance, awkward and semi-hostile at first, develops into friendship and love, makes for a subject interesting in itself: Saxony, envious of Thomas' plans for writing the biography of Marshall France, forces her presence upon him, offering unwelcome assistance in research; as "real life" goes, Saxony keeps serving Thomas meals which he finds unpalatable - he in turn finds her attractive to a limited degree only; the sexual ingredient of their relationship seems to be powered by loneliness and tenderness rather than desire, and is secondary to its intellectual component. The adjective Thomas uses to describe Saxony's physique is "healthy" - and Saxony herself is nothing like the enchanting femme fatale of the novel, Anna France. As it is necessary to edit the material for this guide, we need to stop at this point, having signaled the issue.
10 (LL, p.38-40) With one exception, there is little preoccupation with mothers - as opposed to fathers - in this and later Carroll's novels, but parental intrusion on the most intimate aspects of their children's lives is one of the basic themes in The Land of Laughs, and will often resurface in more violent forms to become the substance of such novels as Sleeping in Flame and After Silence. Even in Laughs the theme will return, as Thomas recalls his teenage romance: one of his father's movies was on TV and in the heat of the rendez-vous "I kept hearing his voice behind me, and I even laughed once or twice because it felt strange screwing in front of my father." (LL, p.93) As if this were not enough, it is exactly on the following morning that Thomas learns from the TV news (while he and his girlfriend are eating scrambled eggs for breakfast) that his father has just dies in a plane crash...
11 Stephen King's Danse Macabre, p.210
12 ibid., p.305
13 There is very little in Carroll's novel, save for a few enthusiastic comments by Thomas, that would allow the readers to form a clear impression of Marshall France's writings; however, from the rare examples as the one which makes this chapter's motto we can conclude that his world is not exactly friendly itself.
14 (LL, p.53) This image, employing the technique of "objective correlative" works fine as a rendition of the character's emotional state - but given that we are entering the fairy-tale land, the personification of the safety bars should not escape our attention. As for the complexity of the whole novel, which allows for interpretation on any, however sophisticated, plane: even the red-and-white color may prove significant, as it will recur in specific moments that will be examined later, and could conceivably be dealt with on a psychoanalytic basis.
15 (LL, p.49) As "there is more" seems to become the key phrase in this guide, the reader will notice that "funny" and "magical" scenes are those that make up much of Carroll's book (as, apparently, France's) and that the quoted excerpt provides yet another hint at the violence which, it may be assumed, permeates the Land of Laughs.
16 (LL, p.66) Having uncovered in The Land of Laughs a number of literary references, we may notice how this description corresponds to the witch's edible house in the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.
17 This, of course, is a simplified distinction. Many of the sections will work on more than one level simultaneously, and we also need to keep in mind that, in the case of first person narration, before the descriptions are passed on to the readers they are filtered through the character's mind and thus serve to reflect his or her emotional state. Where possible, we are trying to account for the latter function in this analysis.
18 There is more. Although "the crack in the sky" is the strongest suggestion here, the passage in question also echoes Thomas and Saxony's journey to Galen in the way it symbolizes their isolation from the outside world: there were no cars on the highway and now even the plane is gone, having left its slowly vanishing trace. On the whole, it seems an appropriate moment to point out how carefully composed and complex The Land of Laughs is.
19 Thomas will remain this innocent until the end of his Galen days.
20 (LL, p.79) Note also the violent, almost sadistic imagery this fragment evokes. As much as France was a famed children's writer, he also appears to have been a strong father figure. This ascetic, no-nonsense side of his personality finds further confirmation in the description of his study: a bare room with a wooden floor and a large oak desk with a not-too-comfortable swivel chair tucked into the leg hole; apart from this only a notepad and a fountain pen: no masks, no mascots, no bric-a-brac that other rooms in the house seem crammed with.
21 Emphasis added.
22 Anyone who would raise his hand now to point that the border of sheer impossibility has already been traversed, in one acrobatic step, a few paragraphs ago - remember: in this novel we are led to believe.
23 The "reversal" we mentioned at the barbecue scene.
24 (LL, p.194) For further analysis of the free will concept in The Land of Laughs, and other ideas related to the figure of Marshall France as the creator of the Galen world, refer to Chapter Three in Part One of this guide.
25 It is "somewhere where you travel" then!
26 Remember Lucente the undertaker?
27 Notice also the tomatoes, which Marshall France thoroughly disliked.
28 This is Thomas' as well as the critic's point of view. As for the readers, they still have more than one option to consider. Apart from assuming that Thomas, having fallen victim to an obsession, is becoming feeble-minded (which Carroll himself suggests in the Franz Rottensteiner interview), some of the readers may choose to believe Anna's rational explanation of the phenomenon (yet another Carroll's subterfuge): questioned by Thomas, she reveals that Sharon Lee's face was an inspiration for France to draw the picture of Krang; it is possible then that Thomas, in an intuitive flash, simply recognized the similarity which France had years before conjured. Later on Thomas will of course find out that what happened at the Lees' dinner table was another instance of France's world cracking at the seams.
29 (LL, p.154) From now on this kind of realization will be appearing somewhere in the pages of practically all of Jonathan Carroll's novels, providing one of the most significant clues to their interpretation.
30 Page 178 of The Land of Laughs brings the following rendition of guilt, so perfect in its simplicity it is worth quoting, if only in a footnote. Sitting at the breakfast table, they are discussing their relationship. Thomas, although remorseful, is too confused emotionally to decide upon leaving Anna and pressures Saxony to make the decision for him, which she naturally refuses. Their argument leaves the matter open and Thomas, ready to assume responsibility, finds himself too weak to bear its burden: "I balled up my napkin and looked at it in my fist. Saxony loved using real linen napkins at every meal. She hand-washed and ironed them once a week. She had bought two green, two powder-blue, two brick-colored ones that she rotated constantly. I felt like a piece of shit."
31 All bull-terriers in Galen are people. The two of them we get to know in the novel are Nails and Petals: in fact Gert and Wilma Inkler, whom France, by means of writing it, changed into dogs as punishment for mistreating their children, which he found the most deplorable of sins. France was convinced that, within the fairy-tale world, changing an animal into a human being was the highest reward possible and conversely, turning a person into a dog constituted the most severe form of penalty for the worst of crimes. Thomas accidentally discovers the truth about Nails and this is what forces Anna to reveal the whole of Galen mystery to him. Generally, the motif of dogs (whether ordinary or not) as agents of the unknown will often return in Carroll's novels, most notably in Outside the Dog Museum.
32 (LL, p.222) Although we don't find out what "it" is, it may be interesting to point out that the creatures which have begun to haunt Galen are not vampires, werewolves or aliens: they are the characters, however weird, from Marshall France's books for children.
33 Thomas never really doubts his own sanity, but he is afraid other people might, which is why he chooses to keep all of his discoveries secret from Saxony.
34 (LL, p.125) Anna is clearly being sarcastic here, but is it Marlowe's "Doctor" she is alluding to? Still, the gesture she makes doesn't leave any doubt as to what kind of regard she has for Thomas' efforts.
35 Despite some physical and psychological semblances, we cannot argue that Thomas Abbey is Jonathan Carroll's porte parole. Rather, given Carroll's own reclusive tendencies (remember: has always resisted a biography), we might suspect the author's identification with the character of France and thus, quite literally, understand The Land of Laughs as a "fair warning."
36 Emphasis added.
37 The issues that The Land of Laughs raises expand well beyond any reasonable volume of this work, but we can at least indicate them. As for the "religious" content of the novel it is interesting to analyze Thomas' role in the Church of Marshall France, as from an intruder he becomes an anointed priest himself, helping to raise Galen from the "state of disgrace." How does the disintegration of France's creative powers compare, in this context, to the process of secularization of the Western culture?
38 Furthermore, the problem of free will raises another question: that of responsibility, especially in the case of Thomas who, unlike the Galeners, is capable of making his own decisions and therefore must himself resolve his many obligations - to Anna, as her father's biographer, to Saxony as her friend and lover and to his father, as his next of kin.
39 (LL, p.222) If we wished to employ a psychoanalytic approach to this passage we would notice that the "hat" stands for the mind, the psyche in Freudian symbolism and that there is a torturous penalty ("boiling in oil") for "getting it dirty" - which is exactly what is happening to Thomas at the time.
40 The word entropy seems best to characterize these processes.
41 Anna claims he died of heart attack (like her father) but Saxony finds out that he actually fell on the underground railway tracks. Supposedly, there were no witnesses to this accident, and it is suggested that Anna may have been responsible for her lover's death. A very similar accident of dubious nature will provide the starting point for Carroll's next novel, Voice of Our Shadow.
42 After her boyfriend's death Anna became, according to her own words, "very existential" - compare this with the remark about the nature of Galen's world which Thomas makes having found out the truth: "An existentialist's delight, eh?" (LL, p.184)
43 It is strikingly ironical to notice how Anna's sexual liberation contrasts with her confinement to her father's fancy and her utter inability to face the world of reality.
44 (LL, p.217) Note that the surreal title of France's novel, The Night Races into Anna, is a somewhat frivolous reference to the rivalry going on between Thomas and Richard. This is the novel which France had written with the purpose of comforting his daughter and which, we have assumed, began the process of creating the universe of Galen.
45 Possibly, New York City was to Anna what Galen is to Thomas: fascinating, but deceitful and eventually depraving.
46 Eating eggs has its own associations, too: with sex and upcoming disaster. Apart from this scene, they appear when Thomas, after a romantic night with his girlfriend, hears about his father's death, and are served for breakfast by Saxony, just as she is about to reveal that she knows about Thomas' involvement with Anna.
47 Voice of our Shadow, Futura Publications, London 1991 (henceforward: VS), p.5
48 (VS, pp.7-8) Notice how this unhealthy, uninhibited fascination mirrors that of Thomas Abbey with Marshall France and then his daughter, especially in the "impossibly far" bit.
49 (VS, p.64) At another time, when Joe confesses to having a dark streak in his past, Paul reassures him by quoting from Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray: "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it." (VS, p.60)
50 As in The Land of Laughs, there were enough hints to warn a discerning reader well before the hard-core magic begins to take its toll. The Tates invited Joe to dinner which Paul prepared and which consisted of all the meals that Lennox had detested since childhood. On another occasion, having revealed to Paul a part of the skeleton that lurks in the closet of his past (without actually going into details) Joseph is struck by a "terrible stillness in [Paul's] eyes and on his lips" (VS, p.61) and returns home to be haunted by a dream of his departed brother Ross.
51 It seems a trivial offense, but we should keep the symbolism in mind. Every time a fountain pen (or food, or sometimes a movie) is mentioned in a Jonathan Carroll's novel, we're getting to the heart of the matter.
52 "Little Boy" is the name of a character whom Paul Tate used to impersonate during his magical performances.
53 Emphasis added.
54 Matching two deaths on the railway tracks: Joe's brother's in Voice of our Shadow and Anna France's lover's in The Land of Laughs.
55 Think of a glass that may sometimes break when placed too close to a high-volume speaker.
56 Which explains the meaning of the novel's motto.
57 What is more, Jonathan Carroll will repeatedly use Bones of the Moon as a point of reference sui generis, a "model story" as it were, which will not only be mentioned in three of his four later novels, but in some cases even... summarized. As the "Operation" stage will give way to that of "Destruction" in After Silence, we will be able to observe how the characters' (and the author's?) attitude to this story changes from unconditional belief and respect to downright ridicule.
58 In Bones of the Moon the two worlds - the real and that of Cullen's dreams - are separated by a technical manoeuvre and thus made more distinct. It is only at the end of the novel that they actually merge, when the nightmarish monster assumes the material shape of a teenager Alvin Williams, Cullen's neighbor and an escaped murderer who kills her friend and threatens the life of her daughter. All the same, an equivalent dichotomy and a similar process of convergence are present in all other Carroll's novels, which has so far been shown in the example of The Land of Laughs and Voice of our Shadow.
59 Bones of the Moon (henceforward: BM), Arbor House, New York, 1988, p.8
60 If Cullen, the perfect woman that she is, feels that her life is somehow lacking, her Ronduan history provides an explanation as good as any other: inhabiting the dreamworld as a child she came close to finding the five Bones and becoming the ruler who would bring deliverance to the land troubled by violence and greed. As it was, she failed to complete her quest when, for want of courage, she could not obtain the fifth Bone (which resulted in deaths of many friendly creatures, we learn) and now it is up to her son Pepsi to accomplish the task.
61 (BM, p.208) The technicalities of the test itself are remarkable enough to be mentioned here. Two grotesquely huge, oily-black pistols are used but, contrary to our usual idea of a duel, the contestants do not shoot at each other: they put the pistols in their mouths and pull the triggers, essentially committing suicide. The logic and eerie fairness demands that this does not have to be done simultaneously: after one of them shoots himself, nothing happens until the other does the same. Only then is the outcome decided by some anonymous powers that control the land, about which Chili only says: "I do think they have something to do with the gods, or God, or whoever is in charge there." (BM, p.206)
62 As Ross Lennox in Voice of our Shadow, this evil creature is obviously endowed with the qualities of an artist (which, as we already know, in Carroll's world is often synonymous with God).
63 As has been said, literary allusions are on their way out of Carroll's novels, but Bones of the Moon still resorts to this technique at times to enhance certain meanings. For instance, Alvin Williams' remarks about the asylum he is in echo the atmosphere of the madhouse in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: "There are many big colour television sets here at the Institute which are turned on all day long. It is almost impossible to avoid the noise they make, no matter where you are or what you are doing." (BM, p.131) Elsewhere, one of Rondua's landmarks is referred to as "The Caves of Lem", which requires no explanation.
64 Bones of the Moon is Carroll's only novel whose spelling adheres to the British-English rules: colour vs. color, labour vs. labor, etc.
65 For example, Ursula LeGuin's superb short story, The Rule of Names.
66 This is perhaps the most revealing of all Carroll's characters' names. "Walker" is, literally, "one who wanders", and this in turn is closely related to the notion of search (for identity: Walker indeed "wanders" - through more than thirty earthly incarnations - to finally find out about his self in the pages of this novel). "Easterling" connotes two linked ideas: that of rebirth (Easter, his reincarnations) and, by the token of the name's suffix, that of a "not fully developed form", as in fledgling or duckling.
67 Unlike Anna France in The Land of Laughs, but very much like Thomas Abbey.
68 Sleeping in Flame (henceforward: SF), Vintage Books, New York 1990, p.206
69 Venasque dies in Sleeping in Flame, but because the plots of this and later Carroll's novels are virtually simultaneous, he will appear twice more, assisting the horror movie director Phil Strayhorn and a famous architect Harry Radcliffe on their ways to sanity and self-reliance.
70 Which concept must remind the readers of Marshall France's creative powers. Reading Sleeping in Flame one may notice that, whatever little explanation The Land of Laughs provided as to the nature (the "technicalities") of such powers, this novel does not concern itself with it at all, simply taking for granted that which has been established before. This notion, of art as a driving force of life and of a blurred boundary between art and "reality" will be elaborated upon in Carroll's next novel, A Child Across the Sky.
71 The important difference between Easterling and Abbey is that the former does not want any of his father's magic: in fact he is happy to relinquish all of it and be able to lead a normal life.
72 But love it is, whatever the qualifiers - just as it was tragic, unrequited love that he felt for the girl (later - the queen) who, in her greed and plain stupidity, we learn, was incapable of nurturing such a feeling. There is a touching rendition of love's nature when the midget confesses the true intent of the puzzle he asked the queen: he would have told her his name himself (thus completely giving in to her control) had she only thought of asking him that. And when he finally took her son away it was not to punish her, or to keep a part of her to himself, but because he realized that that woman would not have made a responsible, loving mother for the child she gave birth to.
73 It is partly what makes these novels so appealing. Likewise, it cannot escape the readers' attention how unusual all of Carroll's characters are: brilliant, sensitive, thoughtful, entertaining, supportive, ambitious, financially successful artists, at times fabulously famous - in other words, dream-people most of us would like to know and have for friends. Some of the cynically minded readers may come to feel a little sickened by such doses of beauty, charm and splendor, but from a critic's point of view it is only important to notice that such are the leading characters in the wondrous Land of Laughs.
74 Outside the Dog Museum (henceforward: ODM), Futura Publications, London 1991, p.187
75 To give a characteristic example: in Sleeping in Flame we learn of an earthquake which shattered Los Angeles and in which Ingram York, Maris' homosexual brother, lost his best friend and lover. As Walker Easterling feels a tide of his father's magic rise in him, he tells Ingram to contact a man named Michael Billa - "they will get along well" Walker says, although he admits he has not heard that name before and doesn't know Ingram very well, either. The meeting and the further acquaintance of Ingram and Michael provide a starting point for Carroll's novella Black Cocktail (which, along with the short stories, falls outside the scope of this guide), and the earthquake itself returns in A Child Across the Sky and most notably in Outside the Dog Museum, as one of the events that directly led Harry Radcliffe to accept the offer to design and build the Dog Museum.
76 Killing not only himself but his dog: a big crime in a novel by Jonathan Carroll.
77 A Child Across the Sky (henceforward: CAS), A Legend Book, published by Arrow Books Ltd., London 1989, p.267
78 Including a neat one by Carroll himself, who includes in A Child Across the Sky a commendatory review of Strayhorn's first movie written supposedly by the famous and influential American film critic Pauline Kael.
79 And humor, as Outside the Dog Museum is really the first novel since The Land of Laughs to amuse the readers with self-conscious irony.
80 As Weber Gregston who abandoned Hollywood before he returned to directing to finish Strayhorn's movie, Radcliffe has become disenchanted with his trade: "I don't want to design buildings anymore because I can't see people in them. I see those big beautiful buildings but not one person inside. Line San Francisco in On the Beach, or an abandoned movie set." (ODM, p.83) And when both these artists, acclaimed geniuses in their respective professions, allow their creativity to flourish again, they are putting it (whether consciously or not) to uses which surpass by far the usual bounds of art.
81 (ODM, p.208) Compare also the following excerpt from T. S. Eliot's The Rock:
"Much is your reading, but not the Word of GOD,
Much is your building, but not the House of GOD."
82 The revolution in Saru, born of hatred and fanaticism, masterminded by the fearful, cannibalistic Cthulu - a namesake of the sinister evil-being from H. P. Lovecraft's short story The Call of Cthulhu.
83 That is: Cullen herself, Weber Gregston, Walker Easterling and the shaman Venasque. The latter does not appear in Bones of the Moon, but we understand this diatribe concerns the Land of Laughs as a whole and therefore relates to all Carroll's novels.
84 One of the reasons Harry Radcliffe was chosen as the right person to attempt rebuilding the Tower of Babel, is that he was "a descendant of Nimrod, the King of Shinar, where the original Tower was built, and 'the first on earth to be a mighty man.' (...) Only his descendants are allowed to try building the Tower" (ODM, pp.210-11)
85 After Silence (henceforward: AS), Abacus, London 1993, p.96
86 Except maybe for Lily, whose peculiarities of character and moods render her somewhat less likable than we are used to, and probably a difficult person to share a life with. Max realizes this himself but mostly dismisses the thought: "Can you be interested in a woman while thinking she's nuts at the same time? I guess so." (AS, p.16)
87 Harry Radcliffe said once: "Any cat that behaves like a dog is welcome in my universe. Otherwise not." (ODM, p.153) The foreboding atmosphere of Mary Poe's anecdote is already half a world away from bizarre but usually less realistically dangerous events that would occur in the magical Land of Laughs.
88 Which is Datlow. Indeed, seeing the Meiers' misery Max feels "that low" - in other words, lousy.
89 First "Crowds and Power" (soon to lose its intimate charm and to become a vogue place for the most famous and the richest of Los Angelenos to meet), Mary Poe telling a suitably dreadful story, also Max's name - Fischer - rings the bell of symbolic possibilities, and now an "Elvis P." as the parents' ultimate nightmare... Only there is no art to this boy's rebellion. The significance of these names is just the most superficial of the novel's many qualities which allow critics to hail it as "the parable of our times."
90 The connection becomes even more obvious when Mary Poe and Max Fischer recollect their mutual classmate Bobby Hanley (Ross' friend), yet another misguided teenage gangster.
91 Inadvertently is a good guess, because knowing the fact before Max becomes aware of it spoils a lot of the novel's suspense. Were this a review and not an analysis, it would be necessary to make a point of the fact that After Silence often fails to engage the reader: predictability is one of art's mortal sins and when unintended it leads to yet worse an effect: the reader's embarrassment at being let into what the novel strains to make a great secret of and what he or she has known all along. Sadly - and this is the first time in Carroll's writing career - After Silence mostly fails to maintain the suspension of disbelief, too. Not only is the notion of "being the same person" obscure and extended beyond any rational discipline, but some of the novel's developments cannot be held logical even within its own structure of concepts. Such an allegation calls for immediate evidence (which hopefully justifies the length of this footnote): given the insight into the mystical link between himself and Lincoln, he considers it his task now to prepare his stepson for a life better, fuller than his own. But his life has not gone in any way bad: on the contrary, it has been quite satisfying all along, and when Lincoln reaches puberty and turns into a teenage gangster, what Max feels to be his failure as a father is in fact hardly relevant to all the parental efforts he put into bringing the boy up: it has much more to do with "the call of the wild" - the darker side of modern civilization, in other words - and Lincoln's friendship with Elvis. Moreover, the violent conclusion of the story (bloodshed, arson, suicide), as Lincoln falls into fury on discovering that Lily is not his natural mother and goes ahead to make one fatal mistake after another, is the direct consequence of his personality gone haywire: After Silence seems to make an unreasonable claim that, traumatic as it surely is, such a discovery must necessarily lead to the victim child committing such atrocities. Had Lincoln remained the "open and friendly" child that he used to be, however outraged by his discovery, he wouldn't have gone on a rampage with a smoking gun in his hand, as he does in the novel's final pages.
92 Another deus ex machina sort of miracle, as we know that Lily was rendered infertile by a pelvic disease which was why, determined to have a child, she kidnapped Lincoln in the first place.
93 As the much-feared "generation gap" has become a wild frontier dividing two warring camps across which no communication is possible, Max and Lily's daughter Greer is the only member of the family allowed access to Lincoln's room and it is from her that they learn about the boy's gun.
94 (AS, p.176) It is never explained, however, what exactly it was that he did wrong - Max himself seems at a loss to understand it, too: "There should have been something good left over from the years of support, careful guidance and love. But there wasn't" (AS, p.176) In fact, very little is revealed about the seven years that his narrative skips over - which does not help understand the novel but which is probably the writer's intentional device serving to accentuate the void that divides the confident, promising past from the devastating chaos and decay of the present time.
95 Having found out the truth Lincoln supposedly gets to understand the cosmic link between himself and Max which, among other things, enables him to read his father's mind. Consequently he can even know the credit card access code but it remains a mystery why, equipped with such ability, he still believes (against Max's knowledge) that the Meiers are his natural parents... unless we decide that no magic is at work this time and that all the mysticism Max attributes to his relationship with Lincoln is no more than a crazy construct of his obsessed, confused mind. Later events and the epilogue of the novel seem to call for just that interpretation.
96 "Nor did it matter that we have given him everything we could; we were kidnappers, criminals, monsters. The same words that raged through my head a decade ago when I discovered Lily's secret. And still did. And still did." (AS, p.215)
97 Whether Max genuinely believes all this is one thing: but assuming that he does it is still difficult to explain why "being the same person" with Lincoln makes the latter his "Guardian Angel" - another question that goes to undermine the coherence of the story.
98 Whatever Lincoln (and the law) have to say on the issue, it is unfair to deny Max justification altogether: having chosen to perpetuate the outcome of Lily's crime, he was also choosing love, tenderness and the support that only a family can give; the trouble is that he is using all the wrong arguments to rationalize his decision to stay by Lily's side and help her rear Lincoln as their son - the decision that was not taken on a strictly rational basis in the first place.
99 (AS, p.239) Discreet as this hint at perversity is, it sheds a shockingly different light on one of the book's key points, namely the "rat story." It is now not only Max that ought to worry about "what he has brought home" (as he did, uncovering Lily's grisly secret), but so should Lily, realizing all too late that her husband may not have been the perfect, caring father after all.
100 (AS, p.240) And yet, though these final words of the novel seem clear and unambiguous, we need to ask this question: if "there were no angels", i.e. no magic, no mystical connection, etc. - then why the passive voice in "I had been given one last chance..."? Who had given that chance to Max? What kind of chance was it? The (intentionally?) vague time qualifier "short hours ago" makes it hard to identify the relevant scene, though Max (probably) refers to the confrontation on the road to the airport, when he could (probably, again) have foreseen and prevented Lincoln's self-destructive act.
101 The phrase "childlike but not childish" is itself a perfect definition of Bones of the Moon.
102 Both these paraphrases, faithful to Max's cartoon, are just as faithful to the novel's sad, shocking denouement.
103 Times Literary Supplement, April 3, 1992
104 Also of the fact that, to the author's knowledge, this work is the first serious critical study of Jonathan Carroll's writing of that volume and scope, in either English or Polish language.
105 Having used a magic password that the Forgotten Machines required to allow Cullen James' party to proceed on their quest, the mother remarks: "It was the first magic I ever gave my son." (BM, p.59)