Promise Not to Tell: A Novel

Book Description

Forty-one-year-old school nurse Kate Cypher has returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother who's afflicted with Alzheimer's. On the night she arrives, a young girl is murdered—a horrific crime that eerily mirrors another from Kate's childhood. Three decades earlier, her dirt-poor friend Del—shunned and derided by classmates as "Potato Girl"—was brutally slain. Del's killer was never found, while the victim has since achieved immortality in local legends and ghost stories. Now, as this new murder investigation draws Kate irresistibly in, her past and present collide in terrifying, unexpected ways. Because nothing is quite what it seems . . . and the grim specters of her youth are far from forgotten.

More than just a murder mystery, Jennifer McMahon's extraordinary debut novel, Promise Not to Tell, is a story of friendship and family, devotion and betrayal—tautly written, deeply insightful, beautifully evocative, and utterly unforgettable.

Customer Reviews:

Recommended.......2007-09-21

My wife read this first then passed it on to me. This was really a spooker all the up to the last paragraph. I loved the ending and the way she kept the story moving along. I finished this in record time. It was such a page turner. I hope she does more like this one.

Read this in one sitting..............2007-09-16

I really enjoyed this book and could not put it down. What a fantastic debut novel. I am really looking foward to more books from Jennifer McMahon. I was on the edge of my seat until the end. This is one of the top thrillers in my personal "favorites" list.

Good Young Adult Read, Too.......2007-09-05

Since this book was originally issued in trade paper edition, not hardcover, I doubt it will get the young adult professional book reviews it deserves. I would consider it a cross-over adult/young adult title. It has all the hallmarks of good young adult fiction; coming of age characters, contemporary issues (bullying, sexual abuse), and a highly engaging genre. To all the high school library media specialists reading this, don't skip this one for your paperback ghost story collection. It will fly off the shelves.

Good mystery/ghost story..........2007-09-05

In general, I thought this was a very good, well written, mystery/ghost story. My only complaint with it is the last chapter. I'm not sure I understand why the author decided to tell the last chapter in the third person, when the rest of the book was in the first person. I suppose she was trying to tie up all the loose ends, but I did find it a bit strange.

Interesting plot and storyline!.......2007-09-01

This book "hooked" me right from the beginning when a young girl's life ends in the woods in Vermont. It kind of reminded me of Blair Witch. Then a school nurse, Kate who lives in Washington state comes back to her hometown in Vermont to care for her mother. Kate learns of the murder of the young girl and it brings back memories 30 years ago when she was a 5th grader and knew a girl Del who was also murdered. Kate is still bothered by what really happened to her friend so many years ago and starts reconnecting with events and people from the past that ultimately leads to closure in the end. Written in both the past and present, it's a great story and very hard to put down! Quick read. I look forward to more from this author.

Average customer rating:

Creepy
Excellent, but somewhat confusing!
Stories within a story
the creepiest page turner...
First Rate Debut!

The Ghost Writer
John Harwood
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156032325

Amazon.com

The Cornish prayer: "From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!" is an appropriate invocation when reading The Ghost Writer, John Harwood's debut novel. It is a rousing good ghost story, with many twists and turns, rather like taking apart a Russian matryoshka nesting doll.

Gerard Freeman, at age ten, sneaks into his mother's room and unlocks a secret drawer, only to find a picture of a woman he has never seen before, but one that he will find again and again. His mother discovers him and gives him the beating of his life. Why this excessive reaction? She is a worried, paranoid, thin, and fretful type with an "anxious, haunted look." By tale's end, we know why.

Phyllis Freeman, Gerard's mother, was happiest when speaking fondly of Staplefield, her childhood home, where there were things they "didn't have in Mawson [Australia], chaffinches and mayflies and foxgloves and hawthorn, coopers and farriers and old Mr. Bartholomew who delivered fresh milk and eggs to their house with his horse and cart." It's the sort of childhood idyll that the timid and lonely Gerard believes in and longs for. He strikes up a correspondence with an English "penfriend," Alice Jessel, when he is 13 and a half, living in a desolate place with a frantic mother and a silent father. She is his age, her parents were killed in an accident and she has been crippled by it. She now lives in an institution, whose grounds she describes as much the way Staplefield looked. They go through young adulthood together, in letters only, thousands of miles apart, eventuallydeclaring their love for one another.

Interwoven with the narrative of Alice and Gerard's letters are real ghost stories, the creation of Gerard's great-grandmother, Viola. At first, they seem to be scary Victorian tales of the supernatural. Then, we see that they have a spooky way of mirroring, or preceding, events in real life, off the page. Gerard comes upon them, one by one, in mysterious ways, but clearly something, or someone, is leading him. The stories seem to implicate his mother in some nefarious goings-on, but the truth is far worse than Gerard imagines.

Any more would be telling too much. Turn on all the lights in the house when you settle down with this one, and plan to spend a long time reading because you will be lost in the story immediately. --Valerie Ryan

Book Description

In this tantalizing tale of Victorian ghost stories and family secrets, timid, solitary librarian Gerard Freeman lives for just two things: his elusive pen pal Alice and a story he found hidden in his mother's drawer years ago. Written by his great-grandmother Viola, it hints at his mother's role in a sinister crime. As he discovers more of Viola's chilling tales, he realizes that they might hold the key to finding Alice and unveiling his family's mystery-or will they bring him the untimely death they seem to foretell?

Harwood's astonishing, assured debut shows us just how dangerous family skeletons-and stories-can be.

Customer Reviews:

Creepy.......2007-09-28

The Ghost Writer is the story of Gerard, an over-protected boy, and later man, who begins a correspondence with Alice, a girl in England confined to a wheelchair after a car accident. The story takes us back and forth between Australia and England, as Gerard tries to piece together bits and pieces of family history, through a series of short stories by "VH." The story takes a macabre turn when murder and ghosts are introduced.

Alternately creepy and sad, the story appears to have no ending--it quite literally leaves you on the edge of your seat. While the story itself is promising, a la Wilkie Collins and Diane Setterfield, the story is confusing at times; the author also spends a bit too much time describing things. In addition, Alice, though we don't meet her until the end, seems more "real" than Gerard does. But good writing overall.

Excellent, but somewhat confusing!.......2007-05-12

I am a sucker for a good ghost story and tore into this one the moment I bougth the book. The story is about Gerard, a lonely young man who has lived with his mother all his life. His only friend is a young lady who he had been writing to, a penpal. Her name is Alice Jessel and Gerard and Alice start out their long distance relationship very much the way any 2 young kids might. They share stories of their lives, Alice survived a car crash that killed both her parents and left her a paraplegic. Gerard's mother is not happy about the relationship between the two of them, but she respects her son's privacy. Eventually, Alice and Gerard are professing their love for one another and Gerard wants desperately to meet Alice face to face, but she refuses, stating that once she has healed from her injuries and is able to walk again, she will agree to meet him then. Gerard finds a book in his mother's room and it turns out to be a ghost story written by one of his ancesters. As he reads the stories, he starts seeing parallels between each of the stories and his own life. Once he reaches adulthood and his mother dies, things start to come together in a frightening way for Gerard and Alice. I need to stop here so I don't ruin the book for you.

This is the most "different" book I have read in a while. If you like your horror to be aggressive and in your face (Edward Lee, Graham Masterton), this is not the book for you. If you enjoy a cerebral, slower paced tale, that may or may not answer all your questions by the last page, then you will love it. This is so well written and the ending is fresh and horrifying, I just wish it was a little clearer. I had a difficult time keeping track of who was who. Maybe I have just become accustomed to stories that leave nothing to the imagination. Give this one a try and judge for yourself, it's definitely worth the price of the book.

Stories within a story.......2007-03-09

This book is like an onion with its many layers. As other reviewers have said, the story moves along quite well and is absolutely enthralling. As Gerard tries to piece together his family history, he occasionally stumbles across his great-grandmother's short stories and they are intriguing as well. (I admit it, I had a nightmare about the doll-child!) and it's fun to try to figure out how the stories fit into the *big picture*. And then you reach the last two chapters, and you end up scratching your head. Now I'll admit that I thought there was something fishy going on but I never expected The Grand Denouement with The Character at the End...not that there was actually a denouement, per se. At first, I was thought that I must be incredibly obtuse, that I had missed something. Fortunately I read other reviews from people who seem to feel the same way I do, that something was missing. I am the type of person who likes to have the answers at the end, wrapped up nicely with a bow. I really wish Mr. Harwood had added an epilogue that perhaps explained things a little better.
It's a fabulous book and I am very glad I read it. Caveat emptor, though, the book will leave you with more questions than answers.

the creepiest page turner..........2007-02-27

After starting this book, I found myself abandoning the tv, laundry, everything just to read a few more pages. I too, was confused at the ending though. I had to go back and reread the last 2 chapters a few times. It ends sort of abruptly but still, I would recommend this book for anyone who likes to look over their shoulder for the remainder of the night after finishing this. Also, the short stories written by Viola within the book are awesome as well.

First Rate Debut!.......2007-02-13

Not since "The Secret History" has a first novel impressed me as much as Mr. Harwood's. As an avid reader for whom time dedicated to reading is precious, I have little patience for authors and publishers who waste my time with poor storytelling. That is why I find these Amazon Reviews so valuable: they often help weed me out the unworthy.

The plot has already been desribed in some detail, so I would rather take a moment to opine on what I felt was the novel's weakest and strongest element.

The weakest would have to be the presence of Alice in the second half of the novel. Some may disagree, but I found puzzling Gerard's inability to catch on to the fact that there was something seriously wrong with the presence of Alice in his life by that point. Even after he arrives in London the second time he seems blissfully unaware that Alice is anything less than she says she is, but to the reader it is has become blatantly obvious. Perhaps it was just part of Gerard's nature, but I found it hard to believe he could that thick headed. Love is blind, but is it stupid? I will say, to Harwood's credit, that this defect does not drag down the climax of the novel as I feared it might.

The strongest element of this story, one which I have never seen before, is mixing original Victorian ghost stories (written by Harwood and "discovered" and "read" by Gerard) throughout the novel that eerily mirrors the events unfolding in Gerard's life. I cannot think of another novel that has employed such a device, and in Harwood's hands it works magnificently.

One final note, I know that some reviewers who felt puzzled or let down by the novel's last few pages. I can only that I did not have a problem understanding what was happening and why, despite the fact that the last few pages almost reads like a dream. Yes, the ending my feel a bit abrupt, but I felt at the end of the last setence the story had been told completely and as a reader I would have had no problem filling in the last few paragraphs myself. Perhaps Mr. Harwood realized this and decided so save himself the trouble. While I doubt Mr. Harwood's next novel will follow similar subject matter (a pity), I am looking forward to it in the same way as most of the other reviewers.

Average customer rating:

Interesting and varied account of Melancholia.
Brilliant Collection
An honest read...
Timeless truths
helpful, moving

Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression
Nell Casey
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Depression | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
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Speaking of Sadness: Depression, Disconnection, and the Meanings of Illness
The Beast: A Journey Through Depression

ASIN: 0060007826
Release Date: 2002-01-08

Amazon.com

"A reader on melancholy," the editor calls this book: a collection of 22 modern essays about depression by writers (several well known) who know their subject intimately. Some face depression as a sudden interruption of a previously gratifying life; others have never known life without it. Their words wrestle to express their vision, their gloom, their attempts to cope, their interactions, their isolation, and, often, their reactions to medications. Some attempt to analyze their depression; others just want you to know what it's like. Besides the essays by writers who have experienced depression firsthand, editor Nell Casey (also a writer of one of the chapters) includes a few essays by their spouses and siblings about what it was like to live with a person suffering from depression.

The writers' descriptions of "dwelling in depression's dark wood" (William Styron) are disturbing and haunting, laden with vivid imagery. "My heart pumped dread," writes Lesley Dormen. David Karp describes his depression as sometimes a "grief knot" in his throat, sometimes chest pain like a heart attack, sometimes "an awful heaviness" in his eyes and head. From her teenage years, Darcey Steinke would wrap herself in an old comforter and lie in a fetal position on top of her shoes in the closet (her brother called this her "poodle bed"). Nancy Mairs describes being institutionalized: "Lock [a woman] into a drab and dirty space with dozens of other wayward souls, make sure that she is never alone, feed her oatmeal and bananas until her bowels are starched solid, drug her to the eyeballs so that she can scarcely read or speak, and threaten to shoot bolts of electricity through her brain." If you want to know depression from the inside, from thoroughly gifted writers, you'll find it here. --Joan Price

Book Description

Unholy Ghost is a unique collection of essays about depression that, in the spirit of William Styron's Darkness Visible, finds vivid expression for an elusive illness suffered by more than one in five Americans today. Unlike any other memoir of depression, however, Unholy Ghost includes many voices and depicts the most complete portrait of the illness. Lauren Slater eloquently describes her own perilous experience as a pregnant woman on antidepressant medication. Susanna Kaysen, writing for the first time about depression since Girl, Interrupted, criticizes herself and others for making too much of the illness. Larry McMurtry recounts the despair that descended after his quadruple bypass surgery. Meri Danquah describes the challenges of racism and depression. Ann Beattie sees melancholy as a consequence of her writing life. And Donald Hall lovingly remembers the "moody seesaw" of his relationship with his wife, Jane Kenyon.

The collection also includes an illuminating series of companion pieces. Russell Banks's and Chase Twichell's essays represent husbandand-wife perspectives on depression; Rose Styron's contribution about her husband's struggle with melancholy is paired with an excerpt from William Styron's Darkness Visible; and the book's editor, Nell Casey, juxtaposes her own essay about seeing her sister through her depression with Maud Casey's account of this experience. These companion pieces portray the complicated bond -- a constant grasp for mutual understandingforged by depressives and their family members.

With an introduction by Kay Redfield Jamison, Unholy Ghost allows the bewildering experience of depression to be adequately and beautifully rendered. The twenty-two stories that make up this book will offer solace and enlightenment to all readers.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting and varied account of Melancholia........2007-08-05

Sometimes a full book of ones personal account of depression or other illness can be too much. This book shares one chapter from each of the authors about their experience centering around their serious depression or someone close to them. I have read the full book by William Styron.. "Darkness Visible" That was excellent... ive found no other more complete account of Melancholia or more descriptive than his. Granted though, each persons depression is at least a bit different. There is one chapter in Unholy Ghost from Darkness Visible.

Brilliant Collection.......2007-06-20

"Unholy Ghost" is a collection of essays by a wide range of writers on the topic of depression. I read the book, an essay here and there, between novels or late at night when I was up with my baby boy. The sorts of depression explored in the book range from chronic clinical depression, to melancholy, to the sort of depression that follows some life event, like heart surgery or the end of a novel. Several of the essays are particularly good, "Bodies in the Basement," by Russel Banks, "Ghosts in the House," by Donald Hall, "A Delicious Placebo," by Virginia Heffernan. But really, nearly all of the essays are good. They are free of platitudes. Each deals seriously with the subject, without being overly dramatic. It surprises me that the book was a bestseller. Many of the essays are not easy. Nor are they necessarily confessional. But I suspect its popularity speaks to the universal nature of the condition. I do not think I will spend a lot of time reading this sort of book, but the personal essay does give insight into an individual consciousness in a way that differs from fiction. Though I do not believe the consciousness of the personal essay is entirely without motivation, it is a different sort of motivation than that endured by the consciousness of a character driven by plot. I am not sure entirely what I am talking about right now, but it is something this collection of essays brought to mind.

An honest read..........2006-07-28

You can't get more honest then this - straight from the heart and uncompromising and without fluff are the stories of people and their day-to-day struggles with depression and the tremendous pain that is endured through the battle of and for their lives.

Timeless truths.......2006-06-26

Helped me to realize what depression really is, not the clinical diagnosis. Picked it up and read it without putting it down, then re-read it again. Passed it along to another who's suffered for years.

helpful, moving.......2005-07-21

A fine collection, thought-provoking, encouraging, often beautifully written . . . and it's important to know that depression can take many forms. I have recommended this book many times.

Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa (Longman African Writers Series)

Average customer rating:

If you wonder where Lorraine Hansberry's character Beneatha

Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa (Longman African Writers Series)
Ama Ata Aidoo
Manufacturer: Longman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0582276020

Customer Reviews:

If you wonder where Lorraine Hansberry's character Beneatha.......2001-05-16

Younger would go from Chicago if she did choose to marry her African boyfriend after college. Well then you've found the work you're looking for. The Dilemma of a Ghost is profoundly deep in the sense that it is based in the world of newly independent post-colonial black Africa in collision with the world of the black African-American. If you are interested in such things as ideology and culture then you could definitely enjoy the conflicting and sometimes tragically comical images of these characters' choices. The woman and the man and their in-laws make the story traditional in its setting, but the influence of white U.S. culture on the bride and the whole academic and intellectual elitism of the modern Africa juxtaposed upon the flesh of traditional Africa are bared here. And the results like the finale of A Raisin in the Sun are hardly bearable to the human desire for pleasant resolution. But all are very realistic and spawn considerable thought instead of the usual types of forgettable works that are usually praise as classics. If you are interested in the practicalities of love and real people the plot line will satisfy you desire for drama. And also you can glimpse into the mind of an early commentary on African female thought about syndrom of the African man who wants to be in a capitalist and so-called educated world and its lack of practicality in the real situation at the time. The black U.S. fantasy about back to africa fairy tale paradise and stereotypes of primitivism which are encountered by the U.S. black woman, who is white in culture according to her inlaws. Overall the content is very challenging and still thought provoking today in our examination of the on-going encounter between black and white and colonialism and indigeneous vs. capitalism.

Zuckerman Bound : The Ghost Writer, Zuckerman Unbound, the Anatomy Lesson, Epilogue : The Prague Orgy

Average customer rating:

Not quite three stars ( from a MAJOR Philip Roth fan)
Terrific

Zuckerman Bound : The Ghost Writer, Zuckerman Unbound, the Anatomy Lesson, Epilogue : The Prague Orgy
Philip Roth
Manufacturer: Farrar Straus & Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Counterlife
I Married a Communist
Our Gang
Reading Myself and Others
The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography

ASIN: 0374518998

Book Description

With "The Prague Orgy," a new novella-length epilogue which takes the novelist Nathan Zuckerman on a quixotic journey to Prague to rescue from oblivion the stories of an unknown Jewish writer, Philip Roth concludes one of his major works of literature.

Customer Reviews:

Not quite three stars ( from a MAJOR Philip Roth fan).......2004-10-20

I have read eight other books by Roth, and would give them all four or five stars each. I kept each one, because I always keep books I loved.

"ZB" is the only Roth book I gave away after finishing. I just did not care for this trilogy and epilogue. If you have never read anything by Roth, do not start here -- you will get the wrong impression of this author. Read "Portnoy's Complaint," and "Goodbye Columbus" if you've never read anything by Roth. If you've already read "PC" and "GC," then I can also wholeheartedly recommend "The Professor of Desire," "Operation Shylock," "The Facts" (non-fiction), "When She Was Good," "The Counterlife," and "Deception."

Terrific.......2000-07-12

When I was a teenager (around 1970 or so), I read a couple of P Roth novels (Portnoy's Complaint and Goodbye Columbus, I think). They didn't make a huge impression (unlike, e.g., Tolkein's Lord of the Rings), except that I remember them as enjoyable. Roth was then off my radar for almost 30 years.

At some point, I bought his "trilogy & epilogue" from a remainder table ($2.98, according to the sticker still affixed), and eventually got to it. Here's all you need to kmow about my recommendation: halfway through this book, I was trolling through Amazon, trying to decide which Roth book to pick up next. Why I dropped him in 1970, I don't know -- it must have been the ... oh, never mind.

Book Description

A behind-the-scenes look at people who make presidents talk.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting if a little overblown.......2000-05-04

"James Humes is over the top!" exclaims the introdcution (written by Humes pal and British MP Jonathon Aiken). Indeed he is. This book reflects that sentiment in both the positive and negative aspects, though on balance it is highly entertaining. Humes has many good stories to tell and tells them well. He does, however, give off the feel that there might be SOME exaggeration going on. Still, the book is quick and enjoyable to read.

Interesting memoirs........1997-06-24

The author, "lawyer, legislator, diplomat, author, historian, actor, professor, and White House speechwriter", recipient of the Order of the British Empire and dance-partner with Queen Elizabeth, seems to have been everywhere and met everyone, most notably the several U.S. Presidents for who whom he wrote speeches.
Humes' chatty narrative style, marred only by a few regrettable typos, painlessly shares some remarkable insights into high politics and diplomacy, with such highlights as; Nixon's candidate for "Deep Throat", and the real reason Ford pardoned Nixon.
Not incidentally, Humes is today a professional speaker whose tips on public speaking would be well worth the price of admission here to anyone who speaks publicly.
Very entertaining.
(The numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

Ghost Town: Tales of Manhattan Then and Now (Writer and the City)

Average customer rating:

Three tales of Manhattan then and now
Three stories about living and dying in the City

Ghost Town: Tales of Manhattan Then and Now (Writer and the City)
Patrick McGrath
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1596912286
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Book Description

One of our most celebrated writers tackles one of our most celebrated cities.

Customer Reviews:

Three tales of Manhattan then and now.......2007-01-31

The first story called The Year of the Gibbet takes the reader back to 1776 when King George's ships came to conquer Manhattan. It is the sad tale of a boy of ten whose mother becomes a traitor with the British in order to sustain her children.
The second story is that of Julius in the 1850s who falls in love with a girl below his rank, a fact which will lead his father to take an unpardonable measure. Love denied can make us mad indeed.
In the third story Danny Silver is the narrator's patient whose psychological problem originated in a suffocating maternal relationship. He observed the suffering of a woman he hired for sex, Kim Lee, was affected by it and launched himself in a reckless trajectory with her. The 9/11 terror attacks were so destructive on Danny's psyche that not only did he buy sex but bought a sort of emotional intimacy with a woman who was even more damaged than himself and mistook the comfort it gave him for love.
A stunning trio of tales, they are sly and thought-provoking because the author evokes the insanity and violence underlying the surface of everyday life.

Three stories about living and dying in the City.......2005-10-06

GHOST TOWN is part of Bloomsbury's Writer in the City series, in which a writer provides a story that captures the essence of a certain city. In this volume, Patrick McGrath takes on Manhattan and gives us three stories set at different times in the city's history, all of which concern a death. The way we die holds a mirror to how we live and each story provides a vivid picture of the age and the city.

"The Year of the Gibbet" takes place during a cholera epidemic. While waiting to succumb to the disease, Edmund reflects on the death of his mother and the role he played in it as a young boy. After the Battle of Long Island, in which the American forces narrowly escaped certain defeat under the cover of a providential storm, Edmund's mother gets involved in a plot to blow up the British ships holding New York harbor. Edmund's inability to lie spontaneously when he and his mother are questioned by British officers dooms her and she is hung as a traitor. Poor Edmund can never forgive himself for his guilelessness, even as his own time runs out.

"Julius" brings us to the Gilded Age. Julius is a puzzling disappointment to his father, a successful businessman. The boy's artistic personality inspires his sisters to rescue him by sending him to art school. The impressionable Julius is immediately smitten by his first nude model, a connection wholly inappropriate for a young man of his standing, and Julius's father seeks to put an end to it. The model disappears and Julius, devastated, loses his sanity. He is convinced that the model, Annie, has fallen victim to a sordid plot involving his art teacher and his father. When he lashes out in his own act of violence, he is confined in an asylum for decades. Upon his return to the house where he grew up, the world has passed him by but the truth of his experiences reverberates in the family legend: it is wrong to deny love.

Although the least gothic in tone, readers may find that "Ground Zero" is the most affecting of the stories as it deals with 9/11 and shows our own age's ghost stories in the making. Danny Silver has been seeing the same psychiatrist for years. He has intimacy issues, so his doctor is immediately suspicious when he claims to have fallen in love with a prostitute he hired a few days after the planes hit the World Trade Center. The prostitute has issues of her own, not the least being her claim that she is being haunted by a former client, a man who left her bed on 9/11 and went directly to work on the 104th floor. Everyone in this triangle is wounded in some way but the psychiatrist's plight is the most heart-rending. She's too close to Danny and expresses her concern in a way that inevitably drives him further into his troubled relationship.

The stories in GHOST TOWN are marked by a shared sense of loss and distance. Readers familiar with Patrick McGrath's earlier works will recognize his interest in violence and madness, as well as his formidable talent.

Average customer rating:

Roth's 'Zuckerman Trilogy:' Part 1.
In the beginning
Roth at his best!
3 short stories - 2 are great
Another example of Philip Roth's exceptional talent

The Ghost Writer
Philip Roth
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Zuckerman Unbound
The Anatomy Lesson
The Counterlife
The Prague Orgy
Sabbath's Theater

ASIN: 0679748989
Release Date: 1995-08-01

Amazon.com

A middle-aged writer recalls his younger self. At 23, Nathan Zuckerman has had four stories published and a small, flattering Saturday Review up-and-coming-author profile (complete with a photo of him playing with his ex-girlfriend's cat), which he purports to scorn. As genuine and polite as he seems, Zuckerman has already hurt his family with his autobiographical art and ruined his relationship with adultery and honesty. Visiting his reclusive idol (famed for his "blend of sympathy and pitilessness") in the Berkshires, the writer watches himself watching himself and attempts to confront his work and life. Instead he finds himself turning reality into metafiction. A quote he happens upon from Henry James only complicates matters further: "We work in the dark--we do what we can--we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art." Events, however, have their revenge, weaving more out of control than even he can anticipate or ask for. Philip Roth is the master of the uncomfortable, and his alter ego a connoisseur of self-involvement, self-loathing, and self-examination. ("Virtuous reader, if you think that after intercourse all animals are sad, try masturbating on the daybed in E. I. Lonoff's study and see how you feel when it's over.")

Book Description

The Ghost Writer introduces Nathan Zuckerman in the 1950s, a budding writer infatuated with the Great Books, discovering the contradictory claims of literature and experience while an overnight guest in the secluded New England farmhouse of his idol, E. I. Lonoff.

At Lonoff's, Zuckerman meets Amy Bellette, a haunting young woman of indeterminate foreign background who turns out to be a former student of Lonoff's and who may also have been his mistress. Zuckerman, with his active, youthful imagination, wonders if she could be the paradigmatic victim of Nazi persecution. If she were, it might change his life.

The first volume of the trilogy and epilogue Zuckerman Bound, The Ghost Writer is about the tensions between literature and life, artistic truthfulness and conventional decency—and about those implacable practitioners who live with the consequences of sacrificing one for the other.

Customer Reviews:

Roth's 'Zuckerman Trilogy:' Part 1........2007-06-26

"We work in the dark--we do what we can--we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art." Henry James

Philip Roth's (1933) Ghost Writer (1979) is the first of nine novels to enlist Nathan Zuckerman as its central character. Zuckerman is Roth's fictional alter ego, who also appears as the narrator or protagonist in Zuckerman Unbound (1981), The Anatomy Lesson (1983)--which constitute "the Zuckerman trilogy," The Prague Orgy (1985), The Counterlife (1986), American Pastoral (1997), I Married a Communist (1998), The Human Stain (2000), and Exit Ghost (expected 2007). The Ghost Writer tells the story of Zuckerman, a budding 23-year-old writer, who spends the night in the Berkshires home of E.I. Lonoff, a reclusive author (who some critics have argued is a portrait of Bernard Malamud). In his attempts to master autobiographical writing, Zuckerman has already hurt his family with his self-involved stories, and damaged a relationship with infidelity. He seems uncomfortable with himself--almost to the point of self-loathing--as depicted in a photo with his ex-girlfriend's cat. Amy Bellette, a young woman with a mysterious European past, is also living with the Lonoffs. Zuckerman wonders if she is a former student, or Lonoff's femme fatale, or perhaps even Anne Frank, who has survived the Holocaust and is living in the US under an assumed name. The Ghost Writer offers fascinating insights into the a writer's passion for turning reality into fiction.

G. Merritt

In the beginning.......2007-05-10

Philip Roth has published steadily since the 1950's and attracts new readers all the time, who enter his world in media res. For those not as familiar as others, allow me to provide context: Nathan Zuckerman is a character who first showed up in Roth's fiction in the 1970's, and ever since has been considered the author's alter ego. In 1979, Roth published THE GHOST WRITER, which takes Zuckerman back to his days as a young up and coming writer of literary fiction in the 1950's. This is a terrific stand alone read, and it is also an excellent introduction to Zuckerman.

Roth knows how to tell a story. He knows where the bones of structure go, he knows how to order his information, deploy a flowing rhythm, adjust perspective and fashion a remarkable voice. He knows how to be funny ha-ha and how to be funny, hmmm. He is a writer of great economy who fits a lot of vision into a cleanly told story. In this book, the young worshipful Zuckerman arrives at the Berkshire retreat of his idol, the famous writer E.I. Lonoff, for an evening of literary conversation over dinner and drinks. Across the span of the evening, Zuckerman learns what a career of nothing but writing can do to a man and, more importantly, to his marriage. He recalls his own family issues that have sprung up now that he has begun to write stories that portray middle class Jewish Americans in the glare of reality. When it becomes late and Lonoff insists he stay the night, Zuckerman learns a lot more about Lonoff than was expected, and contemplates the mysterious graduate assistant who also stays, who inspires in the third movement of the book, an alternative history about Anne Frank. Several different variations of meaning are wrung out of the term "ghost writer" in the course of less than 24 hours.

Roth at his best!.......2007-04-27

I was not completely taken in by Philip Roth's writing, until I read "The Ghost Writer", the first novel in the cycle about Nathan Zuckerman.

Nathan Zuckerman, one of the numerous Roth's literary alter egos (and probably the most important one), in the 1950's, 23 years old and freshly graduated from the University of Chicago, infatuated with novel writing, with several, apparently good, short stories published in the literary magazines, is looking for a role model. He arrives in the Berkshires, where, in seclusion, lives the great writer E. I. Lonoff (modeled on Bernard Malamud). The discussion with Lonoff is an inspiration for the young Nathan, who absorbs everything that goes on in the writer's house and all the tension between the people present: Lonoff, Lonoff's wife, a scion of a good Massachusetts family, and Amy Bellette, a mysterious, immigrant student of unknown past, who is staying in the Lonoff home doing some research.

Because of the snowstorm, Lonoff invites Zuckerman to stay overnight, which Nathan readily accepts. In Lonoff's study, too excited to sleep, he guiltily thinks about his family, hurt by his autobiographical novel; he ponders on his Jewishness, thinking of Anne Frank versus the Jewish community in New Jersey, where he (like Roth) grew up; he peeks into the room where the writer and Amy have a discussion. His imagination gives way and Nathan starts his creative vision, involving all his thoughts and leading to the unexpected conclusions.

I was haunted by this short fiction work and, for the first time, Roth absolutely captivated me with his great ability to write about the creative process in the young writer's mind. Of course, there are all the themes always present in Roth's prose, like the satirical view of the American Jews and the male obsession with sexuality. The novel is very melancholic from the beginning, set in a lonely house in the snow-covered Berkshires. Nathan's character is also very complex, he is essentially very conceited and at the same time unsure of himself; guiltless and full of guilt; funny and repulsive, misogynistic and longing for a real relationship with a woman (in other words, an alive man). The short time Nathan spends at Lonoff's home, and the condensed description of the events there, are the source and starting point of other stories, growing from them like branches. The novel, short as it is, is a full, complete work, perfect in its form and content.

3 short stories - 2 are great.......2007-03-06

This book is 4 chapters long, the last being a conclusion that is needed to make this a novel versus 3 stories that are tightly related, but yet could stand on their own. The first, and longest, chapter, is well done but didn't inspire me nor get me to not put the book down. Long on fictionalized literary interpretations of fictional work, it drone on a bit a times, while at others it hit high notes on parody of lit in many fashions.

I just came into Roth a few years ago and this is the 5 of his books I have read. The 2nd two chapters about Nathan and Amy I think are exceptional even for this author. The depth of the characters that speak volumes about people in general, not just these characters. Lanoff in the first chapter talked about his job as writer turning sentences around, I can only wonder how often Roth did in these parts where each work at times appears to laid on for exact purpose. Once this section was started, nothing got me to stop reading.

I mainly wanted to write this review to make sure people who pick up the "Ghost Writer" don't put it down. It's a short read, and by the last word you'll realize why it's also a read you'll be happy to have invested your time into. It may start off as a slightly academic read on the world writing, but in the end it is so much more.

Another example of Philip Roth's exceptional talent.......2006-09-06

I must confess - when I began reading this book, I was immediately taken aback from the depressive mood expressed through the character of the loner. Then, after awhile, the intensity of the emotions, the narrative style, the vivid and unmistakable human nature took charge and I was left with utmost admiration - admiration for the life the book took on and the life it gave me.

Like Patrimony, Ghost Writer delves deeper into the metamorphosis of human behavior over the course of a life time. Readers become aware (almost immediately) of the sadness of making the wrong choices, of getting sick, of dying. At the same time, reading in between the lines is a prerequisite for Mr. Roth. Take for example the wild affair the narrator has with the Scandinavian model. The force of words, the carefully constructed content of what transpired between those two is so powerful, that it almost certainly would arouse any reader.

I have really only one remark. Mr. Roth, you are one of my favorite writers and I thank you for taking the time to create such passionate and deeply moving literature as the one I found in Ghost Writer.

This book is highly recommended to all lovers of contemporary American literature.

-by Simon Cleveland

The Necronomicon : Selected Stories & Essays Concerning the Blasphemous Tome of the Mad Arab (Cthulhu Mythos Fiction Series)

Average customer rating:

Overly Complete is Feature, not Bug
The necronomicon
How ignorant some can be
Very colorful book but not for lightweights
A mixed bag

The Necronomicon : Selected Stories & Essays Concerning the Blasphemous Tome of the Mad Arab (Cthulhu Mythos Fiction Series)
Robert M. Price , Robert Silverberg , and John Brunner
Manufacturer: Chaosium
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1568820704

Book Description

Although skeptics claim that the Necronomicon is a fantastic tome created by H. P. Lovecraft, true seekers into the esoteric mysteries of the world know the truth: The Necronomicon is the blasphemous tome of forbidden knowledge written by the mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred. Even today, after attempts over the centuries to destroy any and all copies in any language, some few copies still exist, secreted away.

Within this book you will find stories about the Necronomicon, different versions of the Necronomicon, and two essays on this blasphemous tome.

Now you too may learn the true lore of Abdul Alhazred.

This book is part of an expanding collection of Cthulhu Mythos horror fiction and related topics. Call of Cthulhu fiction focuses on single entities, concepts, or authors significant to readers and fans of H.P. Lovecraft.

Customer Reviews:

Overly Complete is Feature, not Bug.......2005-11-13

To begin with, this is the NECRONOMICON published by Chaosium as part of their Mythos fiction line. It is, of course, a fictional work. This anthology does not purport to be anything BUT fiction, so if you are looking for a real grimoire of ancient evil, yeah, good luck with that.

Second, this is absolutely huge. There are 5 "Necronomicons" included, plus some pseudo-Necronomica added as commentary. I agree with previous posters that this is overkill. And truth be known, you will probably do as I did and read the first two and skip the rest, so chronology trumps merit in this case. I am surprised, though, that any reviewers complained about this "feature" - surely more material for the same price is a good thing, right? I am happy knowing that if I ever need a Necronomicon, I have 5 to choose from (or perhaps the reviewers are worried about a "Nine Gates"-esque dilemma?).

The fiction section of THE NECRONOMICON is quite enjoyable, beginning with Manly Wade Wellman's "The Parchment" and ending with Fed Chappell's "The Adder". These stories cover 185 pages, which would make a respectable book on their own. My favorite is by far "Settler's Wall", which is the mental equivalent of living in a world of rational numbers and then running into the number "pi".

Finally, THE NECRONOMICON opens and closes with pieces by editor Robert Price. I have labored through enough editor's introductions and story notes expounding his theories of higher criticism and his religious opinions that I have finally cracked and decided to become his arch-nemesis. However, I feel I must give him credit where it is due for his materful introduction discussing the Necronomicon, postmodernism, higher-criticism, and holy scriptures. Never before have I read such a clear and obvious testament of a cultist who has studied arcane texts to the point that his brains have turned to cottage cheese and run out his ears. Really, I think I was driven insane halfway through his twenty page postmodernist critique of the existence of the concept "book" (fortunately, the next ten pages drove me further to the point of being sane again. Who knew the mind is a moebius strip?). The scary thing is, that I'm not sure if Price meant it as a satire, a fictional account by a crazed cultist, or if he really believes this stuff? I think the ambiguity only adds to the genius.

So, congratulations Robert Price, you have compiled an outstanding anthology. And, if I may say so, you'd make a dam fine cultist.

The necronomicon.......2003-04-16

I have been a student of the five elements and ninjutsu since I was nineteen. I studied anything that revolved to the rising, or ARRA star. I encountered the Necronomicon when I was 25, and Heaven and Earth shook inside of me. I am not saying that it is true to the last detail, but I must admit that the conjuration of the Fire God was legitimate. I even went as far as to summmon
Zaghurim. All I am saying is that if one does not believe in magic, or the idea that if one wants something to happen strong enough it may come to pass, then do not read this book. For those among us who do believe that(whatever name one may call them by) there are beings known as watchers, angels, demons, spirits, then this is a book for those that believe in meditation moreso than those who follow the path of mantra. My experiences with this book have led me to believe that one's greatest thoughts can be manifested by summoning these spirits,
but everything that is great has a great price. "It is thy risk".

How ignorant some can be.......2002-12-23

First off this is a book that offers the chance of a lifetime. I myself have practiced these rituals and saw the truths that are in it. Though i doubt anyone will read this i ask you to even try the rituals with belief that it will work then tell me how wrong it is. I only tried a few rituals and have not found the courage to try more. Sometimes you can study something for so long before you realize how wrong or frightningly true it is!! But remember "Be careful what knowledge you seek, for in the end you still will not Know"

Very colorful book but not for lightweights.......2002-03-06

I noticed that this magnificent anthology has garned a few poor reviews. Having read it, I can see way. It may not be an entertaining collection for casual or half-hearted readers. Oh, they will enjoy the pastiche stories, but then find the "translated" passages of "ye booke by ye Arab" to be rough going. This is actually deliberate. If Lovecraft had a chance to review these translated passages, he might concur. The uninitiated should find these pages difficult, but the genuine fan will detect the clever nuggets of wit, rather pokerfaced, and many wil pass right by them. A solid, colorful book. I also enjoyed the description of Abdul Alhazred's demise. In Charles Mitchell's THE COMPLETE H.P. LOVECRAFT FILMOGRAPHY, he cleverly notes how the creature in the film "Sound of Horror" was based on the story of Alhazred's death. It is great that this collection included it. 4 out of 5 stars. Recommended!

A mixed bag.......2002-02-23

This collection offers the reader a very mixed bag. Pulling off an anthology like this is extremely difficult because the stories threaten to be repetitious, tedious, or both. Robert Price has only moderate success here.

The stories are remarkably varied; Price has taken a good cross-section of stories about the Necronomicon and has avoided the repetition problem for the most part. Despite this, some of the stories are quite predictable.

The strength of this collection indeed lies in its variety. When was the last time you read a Mythos story by John Brunner? His story is one of the best of the book. For that matter, Silverberg and Pohl are not well known for Mythos contributions, but they make contributions to this volume.

The real tedium in the collection comes in the versions of the Necronomicon. There's only so much archaically-written gobbledygook a reader can stand. After a page of it, the rest looks like more of the same. Thus, "The Sussex Manuscript" and Lin Carter's contribution are of little interest to the reader. Carter's repeats the same themes again and again, showing some creativity but soon losing the reader's interest.

Product Description

The supernatural is a traditional element in literature. Since the epic of Beowulf, there has been a continuing presence of the unearthly and weird in poetry, drama, and fiction. The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction, first published in 1917 during a period of renewed social and literary interest in the occult and spiritualism, offers readers an overview of some of the greatest known, as well as some forgotten yet eerily important, works of English literature. From the precursor of supernaturalism, the Gothic novel with its gloomy castles and cloisters, to the ghosts and madness and horrors written in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, this volume is a guide to a grotesquerie of tales. With chapters like The Devil and His Allies, The Supernatural in Folk-Tales, and Supernatural Science, the unearthly and the bizarre are met inside these pages in all their myriad guises. This is a book that will appeal to aficionados of fantastic and horror literature, offering new insight into the history of so many grand and delightfully macabre stories.

Customer Reviews:

The supernatural in literature.......2002-07-24

First of all the potential reader should know that this book was published in 1917, so the 'Modern' in the title refers to the latter part of the nineteenth century, and the earliest part of the twentieth century.

Secondly, the author omits mention of most of the ghost story authors from that period who are still popular today, e.g. J. S. Le Fanu (first ghostly tale published in 1838) and M. R. James (first collection of stories published in 1904). She also leaves out most of Victorian ladies whose ghost stories are still in print today, e.g. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, E. Nesbit, and Mrs. Riddell.

I would classify this book as an overview of the literature of supernatural fantasy and horror (including a Byronic poem about a vampire). The ghost story as defined and brought to its peak by Victorian and Edwardian authors, receives only brief mention in the chapter, "Modern Ghosts."

Scarborough begins with the Gothic Romance, of which she says: "The mysterious twilights of medievalism invited eyes tired of the noonday glare of Augustan formalism. The natural had become familiar to monotony, hence men craved the supernatural. And so the Gothic novel came into being."

'Gothic' is used to designate the eighteenth-century, pseudo-medieval novel of horror. The author begins with Horace Walpole's, "The Castle of Otranto"--if you are at all fond of Regency romances, you are bound to run across a heroine who is reading Walpole's tale of mad monks and haunted castles, or Mrs. Radcliffe's horrific "Mysteries of Udolpho." These novels depicting "decaying castles with treacherous stairways leading to mysterious rooms, halls of black marble, and vaults whose great rusty keys groan in the locks"--plus a heroine who wanders through spider-webbed corridors at midnight--did not have much staying power. According to Scarborough, Jane Austin finally gave this genre the kiss of death when she satirized their gloomy, overwrought style in "Northanger Abbey," which remained unpublished until after her death in 1818. "The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction" describes many gothic romance peculiarities in detail, while having a certain amount of gentle fun with them.

A chapter on European supernatural literature is followed by the aforementioned chapter on "Modern Ghosts." The author makes much of the effect Poe, Balzac, Hoffmann and other Romantic supernaturalists had on the nineteenth century English and American ghost story. Balzac in particular exerted a strong influence over Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English author of "The Haunters and the Haunted," and progenitor of that infamous opening sentence, "It was a dark and stormy night..." (yes, that Bulwer-Lytton). Other stories that the author selects for discussion depend more on the Romantic tradition of insanity, gruesome decline, and horrid death to spark them along, rather than a purely supernatural mechanism. (As a matter of fact, Scarborough even published a novel in which the heroine was driven mad by the wind.)

She also expends a great deal of print on Spiritualism (which was already on the decline when this book was written), and the mystical, folkloric pantheism of such writers as W.B. Yeats ("The Celtic Twilight") and Algernon Blackwood ("Ancient Sorceries").

Scarborough draws heavily upon Romanticism, Spiritualism, and folklore for her chapters on "The Devil and His Allies," "Supernatural Life (which contains an excellent exposition on the legend of the Wandering Jew)," and "The Supernatural in Folk-tales."

"Supernatural Science" is the only really dated chapter in this book, with its discussions of hypnotism, the Fourth Dimension, uncanny chemistry, and students who exchange eyeballs. Even here, the author provides interesting commentary on A. Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, Arthur Machen (whom she despises), and Ambrose Bierce, among other authors who were popular at the beginning of the twentieth century (and still are).

"The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction" should appeal to anyone who is interested in the evolution of fantasy and horror literature. Try "Elegant Nightmares: The English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to Blackwood" by Jack Sullivan or "Night Visitors: The Rise and Fall of the English Ghost Story" by Julia Briggs if your interest is more focused on literature that is entirely devoted to ghosts.

The Cook's Tour of English Fantasy.......2002-03-25

This is the latest in Lethe Press's series of reissues of works on the occult. 'The Supernatural In Modern English Fiction' was written in 1917 by Dorothy Scarborough. Given that the series has been uneven so far I did not have high expectations for this volume, and have only now discovered that it is a veritable treasure trove of books and literary history. It covers the period from Horace Walpole's 'Castle of Otranto' and other Gothic romances straight through to the author's own present times in the early 20th Century.

This makes for a literal cast of thousands. I was quite surprised to discover that horror and fantasy were a major part of the world's literary output from the very beginnings of popular literature. From Walpole, Maturin, and Shelley right through to Doyle, Machen, and Blackwood it was indeed a crowded stage. And Scarborough manages to present most of these efforts in a readable and well-organized fashion. Initially we are given a historical approach, but then the themes are taken up separately. Ghost stories, the demonic, the wandering Jew, rebirth, the afterlife, folk tales, and even 'scientific' monsters each get their turn in the sun.

As I've indicated Scarborough writes without any of the boring academic tone which often haunts this kind of material. This makes this volume an entertaining way to hunt down new reading material as well as a help in steering one's way through book stall accretions with a steady hand. Keep a pencil and a piece of paper handy while reading this book, you are bound to find things of interest.

My only regret is the lack of a bibliography. Scarborough is quite up front about this. In addition to the 3,000 or so titles that she drew upon for the book, there was an even larger additional number that she felt should be provided to the reader/researcher. There simply was no room at the inn. Unfortunately, to our loss, the bibliography promised as a second volume never materialized. There is, however, a good index, which will have to serve in it's stead.

The Beginning of Horror.......2001-12-20

Ever wonder where Horror Fiction came from? How has it progressed from the beginning Gothic story to the stuff it is made of today? This book will answer your questions.

A must have for the speculative fiction lover, this book covers every genre from the early gothic to the ghost stories of the 20th century. First published in 1917, Dorothy Scarbouough covers it all, the madness and the horror of the 18oo's.

I'm glad I discovered this book, it will remain a favorite for years to come.

Oooh, old horror tales..........2001-12-18

A very cool find... a friend gave me a copy as a birthday gift... so many different stories by authors I had never read... plus the author, Scarborough, has this cute concise way of writing. My fav chapter was on "The Devil and His Allies."

I rediscovered lost works..........2001-08-31

My bookshelves are filled with anthologies, the favorites being ones that contain some of the more obscure stories. What a pleasure to find this book! Scarborough lists some writers I have never heard of and set me scurrying online. She writes in a pleasant, easy style.

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