“You and Hugh were not supposed to stay together. He was fated to go back to his wife and have that little boy with her. You two were supposed to have a quick, red-hot affair. You were supposed to end up writing postcards from exotic places telling him how much you missed him. But none of it happened. You were able to change things. You changed fate. Again.

The above paragraph came just past the halfway point in Jonathan Carroll’s The Marriage of Sticks, the second book in his Crane’s View Trilogy. I had reviewed the first and third books of the trilogy a while back, and I’ve been planning to read and review this second book for quite some time. Better late than never.

Fate appears to be a recurring topic in most of Carroll’s novels I’ve come across. The Marriage of Sticks is no different. The story revolves around Miranda Romanac, a thirty-something, successful book collector and dealer who doesn’t have much of a love life. Hoping to reconnect with a former love interest and relive her youth, she decides to attend her high-school reunion. Nevertheless, once she realizes that her previous flame is no longer alive, her life becomes a whirlwind of strange and otherworldly occurrences.

Miranda’s life takes a turn for the better when she encounters the captivating and charming Hugh Oakley. Still, things are not always as they seem, and she is led down a path where she tries to reshape her destiny repeatedly. Miranda’s connection with Hugh exposes her to various life scenarios, and she must figure out which one is the right path for her and everyone else in her life.

Carroll’s combination of surrealism and magical realism creates yet another thought-provoking page-turner, showcasing the transformative power of the imagination. The book was a pleasure to read, with a seamless flow, but towards the end, in the last fifty pages, the story felt disjointed and almost ruined the overall experience. I will openly acknowledge that Jonathan Carroll is one of my all-time favorite authors, and his strengths and weaknesses were fully showcased in The Marriage of Sticks. I’m glad that I have finished the entire Crane’s View Trilogy and looking forward to reading my next Jonathan Carroll novel on my bookshelf, Bathing the Lion. He is a much needed voice in fantasy literature and deserves to be read widely.