The Marriage of Sticks

When a woman marries an older man and moves to a quiet Hudson Valley community, ghosts from the past and future begin to haunt her world, and she quickly finds herself in a world that has somehow unmade itself. 15,000 first printing.

Amazon.com Review

Jonathan Carroll is a writer other writers envy. He's been described as a "cult favorite" whose works go out of print too quickly in the USA, despite his popularity in Europe and the admiration of reviewers. It may be because Carroll uses fantastic elements, but doesn't write genre fantasy; his books are often haunting, even frightening, but they're not horror novels. He puzzles you, surprises you, and always makes you think about how what he's saying might apply to your life. In The Marriage of Sticks, Miranda Romanac is a thirtysomething dealer in rarities who loves her work and lifestyle, but feels unfulfilled. As her friend Zoe says, you don't expect anything better to happen because you've lived too long and seen too much to have any more hope. I'm luckier than you. I don't think life's very friendly either, but I know we can control hope. You can turn it on and off like a spigot. I try to keep mine on full blast. Miranda struggles to change her life after upsetting revelations at a high school reunion. She has an affair with a married man who leaves his wife and children for her. She lives with ghosts of her past and future, with what might have been and could be. She's forced to face the consequences of her actions and the effect she has on others' lives by being who she is. Finally, she learns "to live without everything" and be content. --Nona Vero

From Publishers Weekly

In the first half of Carroll's new fantasy (after Bones of the Moon), there is little to prepare readers for the surrealism of the second half. Over one hundred pages of aged protagonist Miranda Romanac's memoirs of quotidian high school and yuppie romance drag by. Although there are wonderful insights and poetic phrases, the whole is drowned in eldersprache: actual scenes are far outweighed by a distancing voice heavy with reflection. Then, in the midst of Miranda's passionate adulterous affair with a New York art dealer, very strange things start to happen. Miranda's lover suddenly dies. Apparitions haunt and bloody her in the house given to her by Frances Hatch, a former mistress of Kazantzakis and Giacometti. Alternate worlds open before her, and Frances helps Miranda navigate: they have an ancient connection, it turns out. The writing abruptly shifts in the second half, becoming poetic and magical, dense with a wonderful strangeness reminiscent of Fellini and urgent with inklings of horrors around the corner. Miranda must discover the awful truth of what she is, while weird ancients watch and guide. Carroll often startles with the deftness of his insights, both personal and metaphysical, and there are many lines that, for their poetry, one wants to cut out and frame. But this book is alarmingly full of shoehorns and ad hoc explanations. It feels as if Carroll drafted part one at a gallop, then crafted part two as an improvisation, reincorporating and reinterpreting the opening material as fantastic: too many rabbits from too many hats. But for all the overweening cleverness, beauty and wisdom reside here. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Miranda Romanac's life changes forever when she falls in love with a married man and moves with him into an old house near the Hudson River. As ghosts of the past begin to intrude upon her life, she soon realizes that her visions come not from a world beyond but from myriad past selves. The author of Bones of the Moon evokes an eerie world of hidden meanings in this compelling tale of a woman's journey to the edge of reality. Carroll writes with a stark elegance that infuses the everyday world with a hint of surrealism and a taste of the unreal. Highly recommended for fantasy and general fiction collections. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

An old woman looks back on the decisive events of her life. They began at a 15-year high-school reunion in the 1980s, when she learned that the boyfriend she was eager to see again was dead. Soon after, she met an older married man who reminded her of her dead classmate. The affair they launched eventually fractured his marriage, and the couple went to live in the Hudson River Valley cottage owned by a very aged client of hers who was an intimate of a who's who of twentieth-century artists. The place is lovely but haunted by ghosts from its owner's and its new inhabitants' pasts--and futures. Things get really spooky after the man's sudden death, and the woman learns that she is a reincarnated spirit and an emotional vampire. Only freely giving her life away will end a generations-old career of selfishness. Carroll realizes characters and settings superbly and propels the story forward compellingly. The ending is rather puzzling, though. The woman has apparently succeeded, but precisely how isn't explained. Ray Olson

From Kirkus Reviews

New fantasy from the author of Kissing the Beehive (1998), etc. New York City rare-book dealer Miranda Romanac, heading for LAX and her flight home, glimpses an old woman in a wheelchair on the freewayand thinks the woman might be herself. Soon after, at a class reunion in Connecticut, Miranda is shocked to learn that her old high school flame, James Stillman, died three years ago in a car crash. When she embarks on an ecstatic affair with charming art expert Hugh Oakley (married with children), she sees James Stillman's ghost on the street. Hugh's wife finds out about the affairHugh is a serial adulterer, she saysbut the relationship continues. The two move into an old house on the Hudsona house that swarms with confusing ghosts. Miranda learns she's pregnant, but when Hugh comes home that night, he dies of a heart attack before she can tell him. At this point, an adult ghost of James Stillman appears. Fate, says James, is fixed, but Miranda somehow can change things. She was, in fact, supposed to have helped straighten out young bad boy James's life; and Hugh, furthermore, was meant to go back to his wife and avoid the coronary. Soon, Miranda finds herself trapped in the house, forced to relive dozens of interconnected lives, feeling the hostility of those she's maltreated. Why? Well, she's a vampire, feeding on the essences of other people's lives while giving nothing in return. Now, though, she has a chance to change matters. Intriguing, up to a point, but the concept won't wash (Miranda's no more selfish or self-centered than anyone else), and the question of whos really in charge remains unanswered. Upshot: a problematic parable. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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