{"id":4241,"date":"2022-01-10T22:17:49","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T22:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/?page_id=4241"},"modified":"2023-03-22T00:46:27","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T07:46:27","slug":"review-of-the-petting-zoo-by-susanna-sonnenberg-jim-carroll-book-review-catholicboy-com","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/book-reviews\/review-of-the-petting-zoo-by-susanna-sonnenberg-jim-carroll-book-review-catholicboy-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Petting Zoo by Susanna Sonnenberg – Jim Carroll Book Review – CatholicBoy.com"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n
\n
\nHome<\/a> > Research<\/a> > Book Reviews<\/a> > Review of The Petting Zoo<\/i> by Susanna Sonnenberg<\/span><\/p>\n

The Petting Zoo<\/i><\/h2>\n

Review by Susanna Sonnenberg
\nSFGate.com<\/i> 26 December 2010<\/span><\/p>\n

Billy Wolfram is a famous artist, a mega-star of the important art world in New York City, and he has been since he was 19 years old. He’s represented, protected, subsidized, talked about and given free rein, everything an artist could desire. In fact, nothing has really ever gone wrong in his career, until the moment “The Petting Zoo” opens.\n<\/p>\n

In Jim Carroll’s posthumous novel, Billy undergoes a hallucinatory breakdown after looking at Vel\u00c3\u00a1zquez paintings in the Met, and proceeds to tumble down the rabbit hole – in this case, the Met steps – and into Central Park, where he hops a fence and finds himself in the petting zoo, “a remnant of a bygone architectural age – the Candy Land school, circa Cold War 1950s.” A talking raven tries to help.<\/p>\n

Part lukewarm satire, part existential crisis, this novel throws together a million things from what must have been Carroll’s fast-working brain. He writes so well in the first pages about the torment of a brain that cannot rest, a genius that cannot shut off, that I settled in for a smart and entertaining ride, but once Billy scuffles with the cops and spends a few days in a mental ward, where the crazies serve to remind the protagonist he’s not that badly off, he returns to his loft where his adoring assistant Marta waits for him, and he holes up in his room to reflect on his life. At this point “The Petting Zoo” stalls out.\n<\/p>\n

Carroll, author of the celebrated “Basketball Diaries,” poet and musician, died at age 60 while “putting the finishing touches” on “The Petting Zoo,” according to the jacket copy. Patti Smith’s introductory note to the reader says he died on Sept. 11, 2009, a piece of information used, I’m sorry to say, to make the untimely death seem tragic and portentous and to imbue the novel with these characteristics as well. With such a burden of context, the novel must show true, great purpose, something Carroll didn’t have time to oversee.<\/p>\n

The novel has its discrete pleasures. It progresses in a series of episodes, some thoughtfully conceived and executed, such as the story of the origin of Billy’s sexual dysfunction, which began in adolescence when his mother interrupted him masturbating with a piece of veal to tell him Kennedy had been shot. You wouldn’t think a writer would care to touch Portnoy’s infamous escapade, but Carroll makes it his own with lively description and comic internal musing.<\/p>\n

Another dead-on portrait is of Max, Billy’s cynical art benefactor\/father figure, whose worldly ways and surprisingly heartfelt love for the artist transform Billy’s isolation, letting the real artist emerge. The author gives artists’ block its due, too. When Billy wonders what the talking raven wants with him, the bird says, “It’s quite simple really … I have come to fill you with sublime terror. I will leave you in bliss or in madness, but it is time you moved on to another level. You are stagnating, in both your life and work.” Readers prone to the grand pronouncements of teenage malaise may love the ramblings, the absolutes and the metaphor-laden urban tale, but what do they add up to?\n<\/p>\n

The novel speeds up and slows down, speeds up and slows down, maybe to mimic the bipolar musings that unravel in the minds of many artists. Carroll’s eye wanders, his attention drifts, just as Billy’s does, and each time I was hopeful the novel was on track, it gently ran out of steam. Billy and his creator meditate on the nature of art and commerce, love and sex, civilization and the wreck of the human heart, often conducted in dialogue with random city creatures – a cabbie or the talking raven – but I wished Carroll was still here to tighten up these bubbling pages, to wrestle all that aching talent under control.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2010 Hearst Communications Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

The original article can be found here<\/a><\/p>\n

.
\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Home > Research > Book Reviews > Review of The Petting Zoo by Susanna Sonnenberg The Petting Zoo Review by Susanna Sonnenberg SFGate.com 26 December 2010 Billy Wolfram is a famous artist, a mega-star of the important art world in New York City, and he has been since he was 19 years old. He’s represented, … Continue reading Review of The Petting Zoo by Susanna Sonnenberg – Jim Carroll Book Review – CatholicBoy.com<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":3988,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"folder":[41],"class_list":["post-4241","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9VlUH-16p","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3988,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/book-reviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":4241,"position":0},"title":"Book Reviews","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Here you will find a few of the many reviews of Jim Carroll's books. Eventually I will add more, but for now you can check out the Bibliographies page for many others I have not yet added to the website. Reviews of The Petting Zoo (2010) View reader comments on\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4240,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/book-reviews\/review-of-the-petting-zoo-by-ed-voves-jim-carroll-book-review-catholicboy-com\/","url_meta":{"origin":4241,"position":1},"title":"Review of The Petting Zoo by Ed Voves – Jim Carroll Book Review – CatholicBoy.com","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Home > Research > Book Reviews > Review of The Petting Zoo by Ed Voves Critics' Picks: Best Books of 2010 Review of The Petting Zoo By Ed Voves California Literary Review 18 December 2010 The Petting Zoo is one of the most noteworthy novels of 2010. It achieves this\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9049,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/background\/petting-zoo-guide\/","url_meta":{"origin":4241,"position":2},"title":"Behind The Petting Zoo","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"March 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Childrens Zoo Post Card Originally this page provided links to a lot of books that might help a person trying to understand The Petting Zoo. Sadly the technology I used for this died and there was no way to save the content. I will try to reconstruct this . .\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/childrenzoopostcard.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/childrenzoopostcard.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/childrenzoopostcard.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3980,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/literary-works\/diaries-and-fiction-by-jim-carroll\/the-petting-zoo-by-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":4241,"position":3},"title":"The Petting Zoo: A Novel","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Petting Zoo: A NovelBy:\u00a0Jim CarrollPublished:\u00a02010Publisher:\u00a0VikingFormat:\u00a0HardcoverJacket Illustration:\u00a0Raymond PettibonBook design:\u00a0Alissa Amell When poet, musician, and diarist Jim Carroll passed away in September 2009, he was putting the finishing touches on a potent work of fiction. The Petting Zoo tells the story of Billy Wolfram, a 38-year-old artist who has become a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover Art: The Petting Zoo: A Novel - by Jim Carroll","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/PettingZooLarge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4242,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/book-reviews\/review-of-the-petting-zoo-by-nancy-rommelmann-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":4241,"position":4},"title":"Review of The Petting Zoo by Nancy Rommelmann","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Petting ZooReview by Nancy RommelmannThe Oregonian 18 December 2010 THE PETTING ZOOJim CarrollViking$25.95, 327 pages In 1978, Jim Carroll published \"The Basketball Diaries,\" his memoir of being a New York City teen in the mid-'60s, shooting hoops, shooting dope, turning tricks in public men's rooms, a beautiful Titian-haired Catholic\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4003,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/literary-works\/diaries-and-fiction-by-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":4241,"position":5},"title":"Diaries and Fiction by Jim Carroll","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Petting Zoo: A NovelPublished:\u00a0November 8, 2010By:\u00a0Jim CarrollPublisher:\u00a0VikingCarroll was putting the finishing touches on his first novel,\u00a0The Petting Zoo, when he passed away in 2009. Protagonist Billy Wolfram, a hot young artist in late 1980s NYC, suffers a psychological and spiritual breakdown while viewing the Met's Velasquez retrospective and desperately\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/PettingZooLarge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6023,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4241\/revisions\/6023"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=4241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}