The Ghost in Love | ||||||||
Jonathan Carroll | ||||||||
Narrated by Ray Porter, unabridged | ||||||||
Blackstone Audiobooks, 9 hours, 11 minutes | ||||||||
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A review by Nicki Gerlach
This novel starts with Ben Gould, a young man who falls and hits his head on the ice, and is supposed to die,
but doesn't. Ben's ghost -- who is supposed to help Ben transition into the afterlife, and clean up any of his
unfinished business -- is therefore somewhat stranded, and the Angel of Death isn't being particularly helpful; he
tells the ghost just to hang out until they can figure out the "glitch" that resulted in Ben's non-death.
Ben, in the meantime, doesn't realize that anything's gone wrong. Sure, he's broken up with his girlfriend German,
and spends most of his days regretting that decision, but it's not until strange powers and occurrences start
manifesting around him that he begins to suspect that there's really something wrong. The stranger things get,
the more apparent it becomes that in order to really survive death, Ben is going to have to take a hard look at
his life -- and himself.
The Ghost in Love walks a very fine line between being deeply profound and entirely pretentious,
and which way you think it tips will depend on whether you like a hefty dose of philosophy in your books,
and the relative importance you put on philosophy versus story in your reading. Because make no mistake, this
is not a sci-fi/fantasy novel with some philosophical underpinnings; this is a philosophical novel dressed up
in paranormal clothing.
Personally, it has been several days since I finished it, and I still can't decide quite how I feel about it. There
were times when I was listening when I was struck by the truth of a point that Jonathan Carroll was making, and the
simplicity of the language and the elegance of the writing with which that point was made. Other times, though,
I'd draw back from the story, particularly when another bizarre paranormal element was introduced in service of
some Deep Truth about the Nature of the Self, and think to myself: "Really? I mean, really?"
It probably didn't help that the storytelling is supremely non-linear; even forgoing the time-traveling bits,
the narrative jumps back and forth through Ben and German's relationship with only the barest of sign posts to
let the reader know what's going on. Carroll also reveals the workings of his story very, very slowly, creating
confusion which may or may not have been intentional -- for instance, I was halfway through the book before I
realized that Ben's ghost is not Ben's ghost in the traditional sense, but rather a separate (and female)
entity. The title is also somewhat misleading: we're told the ghost is in love with German, but that aspect
barely comes into play, and was certainly never the focus of the story.
The audiobook production was clean and well done; Ray Porter's voice is, for the most part, easy to listen to,
although his voice for the ghost was overly whiney, and almost certainly contributed to my dislike for that character.
Overall, this book has left me with a welter of conflicting emotions and opinions. It was interesting, but I
was never absorbed in the story to the point where I would be dying to listen to more. I vacillated between
being impressed by the clarity of its message and point of view, and being amused by the aura of "this novel
is filled with Deep Thoughts" that it radiated. It's well written, but strangely plotted. I can't quite
say that I really liked it, nor did I really dislike it, but I am still thinking about it... so it must have
done something right.
Nicki Gerlach is a mad scientist by day and an avid reader the rest of the time. More of her book reviews can be found at her blog, fyreflybooks.wordpress.com/. |
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