The Panic Hand

by Jonathan Carroll

Hardcover, 1996

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Genres

Publication

St Martin's Press (1996), Edition: 1st U.S. ed, 295 pages

Description

Compared frequently to Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carroll is, in the worlds of Pat Conroy, an absolute original. The Panic Hand assembles in one volume the shorter works of this master, including the World Fantasy Award-winning tale Friend's Best Man and the short novels Uh-Oh and Black Cocktail.

User reviews

LibraryThing member ChrisRiesbeck

An early collection of Carroll's short stories, many from venues like Omni, F&SF and Weird Tales, but others original to the (original) German collection or non-fantastic outlets. The longest stories, such as Uh-Oh City and Black Cocktail, work best, as they tend to be in that crazy cosmology that

Carroll creates in his novels, where God exists in the world, but not in any form that you expect. Still, one of my favorites is the very short Mr. Fiddlehead, that ends just when any other author would be starting, and by ending so is the perfect horror short. Given how almost all the stories are about death, regret, and failed marriages, it's surprising that this is not a depressing collection. What should be the saddest story, the non-fantastic The Fall Collection, about a man dying of a painful cancer, is one of the most joyous. Not all stories work, but probably what didn't work for me will be someone else's favorite. Recommended.

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