Rating: 
Summary: beautiful and haunting
Review: I enjoy Jonathan Carroll's style, characters, and elements of magical realism, and this book lived up to everything I've come to expect of him. White Apples was a beautifully written story with a very interesting philosophy and a deeply moving conclusion.
Rating: 
Summary: Prepare to be willingly sucked in
Review: I just put the book down five minutes ago and am still awestruck at the scope of the world it left in my mind. Never have I read a book with such a unique and different view of the afterlife. Beautiful, captivating story. I read it in a matter of days.
I did not, however, understand why Vincent needed blood if he was dead. If he had no pulse, his heart didn't pump.
I am willing to overlook that in the face of how well written the book was. Bravo, Carroll.
Rating:
Summary: a bit different from his other novels
Review: I'm a total Carroll junkie and have read all of his books. This one struck me as quite different -- less dependence on the usual devices of elevators that take you to different places and more emphasis on dealing with the big questions, life and death. Carroll combines several mystic/religious traditions in defining his own cosmology of Chaos versus the Mosaic of life, all while creating his usual memorable characters and compelling love stories. In some ways this book was more satisfying, or perhaps more optimistic -- love conquers for a change. The idea of the unborn son having the power to save the world is a nice tie in -- in short, Carroll journeys farther from the "normal" path (not that anything is ever normal in a Carroll book!) and takes us on a memorable ride. Carroll remains one of the most innovative writers of our time -- don't miss his other books either!
Rating:
Summary: Not for everyone, but
Review: If you're reading this, it's likely that it is for you. Jonathan Carroll is hard to categorize, and this book is relatively typical of his style and theme. The book's protagonist doesn't realize that he's dead (I'm not giving anything away -- it's on the back cover), and White Apples follows the series of revelations and transformations he's about to undergo as a result of the chain of events his growing "enlightenment" provokes. The main complaint that people have about this novel is that it seems incomplete or fails to give the reader a tidy package at its conclusion: don't be put off by those criticisms, rather embrace them. Carroll doesn't write easy fiction with simple answers. If you like to ruminate about characters and themes after you finish reading, then this novel (and other Carroll novels) is for you. White Apples comes with a reader's guide at the end that would be especially handy if you're part of a group or if you like to get an idea of what others make of the novel. I've become increasingly disenchanted with mainstream fiction and the predictability of many authors ... if this description fits you as well, it's probably time to start reading the likes of Jonathan Carroll, China Mieville, A.M. Homes, George Saunders, and the other writers who show that fiction can still be surprising.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant-- another LA reader checks in
Review: It is interesting that the other reader from Los Angeles who so disliked WHITE APPLES here wrote virtually the same review of the book some months ago, although this one has been toned down some. That review was so nasty and personal that none other than Amazon.com (apparently)removed it. I say this only because the wording was virtually the same and it's hard to forget such unnecessary meanness in this open forum.
So my only advice/question to LA#1 is if you so dislike Carroll's work now, why do you continue to read it? Treasure the books of his you liked and leave it at that. As has been said before both here and in other places, WHITE APPLES is different from other work by Carroll. But to derisively call it New Age'y is to miss the book's point completely. If you didn't like the novel (I happened to love it and think it might be his best), fine, but the kind of review you have written, or rather screed, is both unproductive and unnecessary to say the least.
Rating: 
Summary: not vintage carroll
Review: It made me long for his earlier work. If you liked Marriage of sticks and the wooden sea you will probably love this. If, on the other hand, you believe as I do that Carroll wrote his best novels years ago with land of laughs, bones of the moon, after silence, etc. this will probably dissapoint you. I wanted to like it so bad, but by the middle I felt I had no desire to keep on reading it and returned the book. I hope it reaches you, reader, and that you may enjoy it much more than I possibly could.
Rating:
Summary: He's Done It Again
Review: It's for all the people who have ever asked "What happens when we die?" It's for those who believe that Chaos doesn't reign supreme. It's for all the fathers who have ever felt a connection with their unborn sons. It's for anyone who has ever fallen in love so hard they ended up broken. WHITE APLLES is a book for everyone. By far his strongest work to date, Jonathan manages, once again, to delight his readers with fantastic tales of life and death and everything in between. The insight that this wonderfully articulate author lends on everything from love to death and from the animals in the local zoo to the happenings in the neighborhood barber shop will leave his readers mystified and begging for more. Carroll's loyal fan base will not be disappointed by this much anticipated novel. Those readers who are experiencing Jonathan's work for the first time (poor things!) will find themselves searching the shelves of used bookstores everywhere, hoping beyond all hope, to find all the wonderful stories they have missed.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointed
Review: It's not well written or interesting. I'm glad I took it out from the library instead of buying it.
Rating:
Summary: SciFi.com says
Review: Jonathan Carroll brings his uniquely compassionate perspective and off-kilter storytelling skills to this ancient, resonant theme, and the result is utterly enthralling. Not only does Carroll fashion two main characters-the star-crossed lovers Vincent and Isabelle-who are more real and empathy-inducing than 99 percent of fictional constructs, but he goes on to invent a radically novel version of what death entails, bypassing any kind of Judeo-Christian mythology in favor of a blend of New Age physics, Far Eastern concepts and Gurdjieffian mysticism. And none of this is didactically presented, but rather embodied in a surreal, fast-paced adventure story... Anyone who appreciates the flux and play of the mystery that is real life will find this book unputdownable.
Rating:
Summary: Love Him or Hate Him
Review: Jonathan Carroll has long been a favourite "eye-brow raiser" of mine, most of his books have moved me, one or two have not but then again is that not the nature of individualism ? We cannot please everybody all the time , we cannot connect with everybody all of the time.
In his latest novel the main character is a person that you do not warm immediately to, if at all, as with other Carroll novels but that is the nature of the story it seems.The main character is a womaniser and you have to force yourself to like him to feel for his predicament and yet all that surrounds him is pure Carroll magic.
It is the nature and duty of an intellectually stimulating writer,like Carroll, to investigate all corners of the human condition and to report those findings from the point of view of as many different characters as possible, from 'nice' people to 'not nice people' to allow as many of us readers to be stimulated both intellectually and artistically.Carroll does this and does this bravely by moving direction with a new type of character and a slightly different story angle.
This book left me in stunned and breathless, not since Suskinds 'Perfume' have I felt so in awe of a writers imagination and 'personal eye'.
I can never play Scrabble in the same mind ever again!
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