[4] Carroll wrote frequently about the Cuban immigrant experience in the United States, including in his only novel, Loosing My Espanish (2004).
[9] He would frequently fabricate his background to romantic partners and friends, variously claiming that he had attended or graduated from schools he was never admitted to, that he had worked as a sportswriter for a Detroit newspaper and written stories for The New Yorker, or that he had a child with a French woman, and that their child went on to attend the Juilliard School.
[12] Carroll was gay; he was married to entomologist Dennis vanEngelsdorp, and they lived in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Berwyn Heights, Maryland.
[9] Using the name Herman Carrillo, Carroll worked as an assistant professor of English at George Washington University.
[15] He was popular with his students, and believed he would receive academic tenure, but he left the faculty in 2013, after the university declined to renew his contract due to a lack of publishing activity.
Wendy Gimbel at The Washington Post wrote a lengthy review of the novel, saying this about Carroll's writing style: In this complexly structured novel, Oscar's narrative moves backward and forward, alternating between the present and historical time.
If one considers the present moment as a force field that holds together all the disparate elements in the book, a cohesive tale emerges from a seemingly disorderly series of scenes.As H.G.
[7] Carroll's family had varied reactions: his sister said that he was "very talented" but "always eccentric", though she added that their mother, who died in 2015, had been aware of his fabrications and was "really hurt by the whole façade".
[4][5] Similarly, while many friends and former students expressed resentment towards Carroll after learning of his deceit, vanEngelsdorp felt more ambivalent.
[20][22] On March 24, 2023, The New Yorker Radio Hour released an episode about the aftermath of Carroll's death, including interviews with his husband and family, as well as former mentor Helena Maria Viramontes.