This rated only 2.5 stars really, rounded up to 3 in view of the unlikeable protagonist whose eventual realisation of how horridly he has treated his two girlfriends is rather too little and too late. This is the story of Harry Radcliffe who was mentioned in 'Sleeping in Flame', an arrogant and conceited architect who has a mental breakdown then recovers and is engaged to build a museum to honour dogs by the progressive sultan of a fictional Middle Eastern country.

The story is a mishmash of various characters from other Carroll novels, odd stories the character overhears such as the story of the retreating German soldiers in WWII which has absolutely no bearing on the book's narrative, and weird magic things which don't really amount to anything. The inclusion of the subplot about the sultan's murderous brother and resulting civil war which prevents the museum being built in the Middle East adds some action, but some is pointless such as the protagonist having to go to the place where the museum would have been built only to be told he has to build it in Austria. There's a lot of stuff that is just plain daft even for a Carroll story such as the incredible shrinking car, and dog lovers may find one scene upsetting. Then certain characters turn out to be aspects of the protagonist and he is rebuilding the Tower of Babel. The book is well written as a work of literature but without being able to identify with or have sympathy for the characters, it comes across as quite a cold academic exercise.

( )

Harry Radcliffe es un brillante arquitecto premiado por sus trabajos, un hombre singular de agudo ingenio. Es al mismo tiempo un oportunista dispuesto a sacar partido de cualquier situación y de cualquier fémina que se cruce en su camino. A fin de cuentas, a los "genios" se les perdona todo. Ahora Harry se ve cortejado y perseguido por el acaudalado Sultán de Saru para que diseñe un edificio muy especial. Y es que el sultán tiene una pasión que se sitúa por encima de todo: los perros. De modo que, ante el temor de caer asesinado, desea erigir el monumento definitivo: un Museo del Perro de presupuesto astronómico.

I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible for [a: Jonathan Carroll|23704|Jonathan Carroll|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1222900262p2/23704.jpg] to write something that I won't enjoy.

I came upon [b: The Ghost in Love|2997253|The Ghost in Love|Jonathan Carroll|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1311993428s/2997253.jpg|3027737] like a starving person, devouring every word and finding myself ultimately unsatisfied by the end of the book. The dissatisfaction did not come from disappointment in the story, the characters, or the writing - it was instead a devastating realization that the book was done. From that moment on I've been looking for these books madly, reading them all as they cross my path and anticipating more with an eagerness that borders on madness.

So, having a few Carroll books that I've yet to read in my possession I asked the equally insane
I found Outside the Dog Museum to be a more straightforward Carroll book than I'm used to. It followed a more linear path than many of his other works, and in the end, made a bit more sense than I was expecting. As karen has stated before, Carroll's books tend to have somewhat weak endings. I thought that Outside the Dog Museum bucked that trend rather nicely, wrapping things up in a way that was appropriate for the story and not altogether unexpected.

This book was ultimately quite a beautiful experience, and I already know someone I'm eager to get to read it. Not necessarily lend the book to, as I'm rather proud of the first US edition that Jonas got me...

Also, how inappropriate is this cover? It looks a bit like [b: Atlas Shrugged|662|Atlas Shrugged|Ayn Rand|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405868167s/662.jpg|817219] in one edition or another. It doesn't even have a bull terrier on it. Did someone read this and thing a bull terrier was a bulldog somehow? ( )

This was such a great book! It has been so long since I've read a book by Jonathan Carroll that it was sheer delight to return to his captivating story-telling.

This book is part of a series, but I don't remember much of the previous books in this series since I read them so long ago. However, the contents of the previous books were not necessary to fully enjoy this story.

Carroll has this mischievous way of introducing surreal elements into his stories at times when the reader would least expect it. He also has this penchant for inserting a bull terrior into each of his books, and this novel was no exception with the character of Big Top.

The story was of Harry Radcliffe, a womanizing, egotistaical, famous architect who was given a rather strange assignment of building a Dog Museum for the Sultan of Saru. Saru is a middle eastern country, one that neither you nor I have heard of until Jonathan Carroll created it for this story.

I f you like conflict, you'll find it in this book. There is plenty of conflict between the Sultan and his brother as well as conflict between Harry's two women, Fanny and Calire. Well, I'll let you read the story for yourself.

Be prepared to meet lots of colorful characters (I wrote notes on them to keep them straight) and vociabulary words (which I also wrote down) in more than one language. Since part of the action takes place in Austria, you'll find a sprinkling of German words in the text. Nothing earth-shattering, but I looked them up because I am fairly familiar with German and love learning new words.

Some quotes from this book seemed particularly noteworthy to me. Here are a few.

"Both of us hated to cook. As a result, meals at the Radcliffe home were either vile, bizarre, or not at all."

"Whenever I’m reading, I mark words I don’t know, copy them down, and look them up the next time I’m near a dictionary."

"I gave the Radcliffe theory on horror films, which was, Society is so jaded that nothing normal entertains people anymore so we’ve moved to the next level down, which is to choke, maim, and electrocute."

"If this old nutbag stood on a corner in New York saying the things he said in his interview, people would take one look and steer around him PDQ. But here was Cthulhu leading a successful revolution against the government of Saru."

I'm ready to read more works by this author, but I want some time in between to digest what I just read. If you are unfamiliar with this author, try this book if you like intelligent works of character development with a sprinkling of fantasy. ( )

Carroll's stuff is always entertaining, but often leaves me wondering, "What was the purpose?". The plots are very odd and rather thin, and in this book I felt like that was more obvious because he kept slipping into little mini stories that really seemed needed in order to add some excitement to the main plot line. At 2.5 stars I'm thinking I'll probably not read much more of his stuff. Just don't have the time anymore. ( )