Ghosts of Bergen County by Dana Cann
My rating: 4/5 cats
Collective burden, defined as the aggregate, internalized guilt and complicity of a group of people, is the wellspring from which spirits arise.
this is the kind of book that if you saw a background character on The Leftovers reading, you would think, “hey, nice detail!”
it’s nothing like the show in its treatment of the theme, but both concern loss and grief and the survivor’s guilt-fueled self-destruction/self-erasure that can fill the gaps left in the lives of those experiencing profound loss, when they isolate themselves from the possibly comforting influence of their fellow-sufferers and instead fall into depression, drugs, work, sleep – any desperate attempt to either numb or prolong their suffering.
but this book isn’t the bleak parade that that makes it sound like.
and it’s the kind of book whose appeal is based in its accumulation; as the separate storylines begin to stick together to make one giant snowball, so it’s hard to find an entry point here that isn’t just going to fall flat on the page if i start discussing it episode by episode: ferko plays softball, jen visits her father, mary beth goes to the library. they are small events, but they matter. and in between these small events, ghosts appear, mysteries are solved, lives are changed.
it took a while to draw me in – the first part of the novel was very businessy-boring and i wasn’t connecting with any of the characters, but once the plot started rolling, i was impressed. the writing is lovely – not flashy, but evocative, and the characters grew on me after that slow introductory portion. especially mr. yoder. ♥
my only complaint is that i wish there had been a little more overlap/tying threads together because i’d assumed that View Spoiler »
apart from that, i thought this was a very strong debut in that quiet, assured way which proves you don’t need fireworks to tell a good story with emotional resonance.
