This is the story of two marriages, united in space by the fact that each couple lived in the same house, and narrated by the ghost of the husband in one of the couples. Iiii just don't know what to do with this. I never quite felt like I had a handle on what Norman was trying to do here. I guess it was a set of characters studies--and marriage studies, I suppose. But I didn't feel like I learned or discovered or affirmed anything about marriage by reading it. I didn't much care for the characters (and the dialogue hit my ear with a clang that became fairly irritating by the end). Somehow I still feel like I want to read more of Norman, but this one just didn't work for me. ( )

A "friendly" ghost story and a love story all in one. I loved this for its quirkiness and readability and for depicting the lifestyle I secretly want to live: an intellectual true-love partnership in a old, well-worn, story-rich farmhouse in VT. In the "present" of the story, the house is inhabited by Muriel, a translator and NH University professor, her private investigator husband Zach, and the ghost of novelist Simon Inescort. Set in the 90s before technology took off, the most advanced thing in the house is an alarm system that keeps registering Simon's unseen presence in the house's library. He inadvertently triggers it at least once a week, despite trying to be very careful. He is an entirely benevolent presence, whose death at age 48 took him and his widow, artist Lorca Pell completely by surprise. This has a little feel of "Our Town" to it for the small VT town plays an important role too, and Simon in his state of "ongoingness" feels nothing but appreciation for the life he lived. Lorca sold the house to the young couple after his death, retaining rights to his cabin and and his grave on a small corner of the property. The house, dating back to 1845, where "every nook and cranny archives time" (164) came with a "ghost clause" (which may or may not be a thing), that stipulates the owner would have to buy it back if there was the presence of a malevolent spirit. Simon is not that. He is observer (and reader and tree-trimmer and cat teaser) only with good intent. Events happen in the town - a missing child case that Zach works on, a book release for Muriel, new life, new chances, all under the watchful eye of Simon. There are literary gems here - Simon was a writer after all and he quotes liberally from (real) writers and poets, but the most pervasive feeling is wonder at life's moments. One blurb calls this "lapidary prose" and truly both the author and main character have polished these moments into shining gems. ( )

Norman's books are normally subtle, but this one just didn't seem to go anywhere. He has a lot to say about two different marriages, but it was sometimes hard to remember which was which and who was who. There is an end, but no conclusion.

The narrator was doing pretty well with VT pronunciations until he said
'bar' for Barre. Sigh. The primary town is Calais (he got that one right) which is near Marshfield and that is a town I went to a lot because of one restaurant. I gasped and laughed out loud when the very place was mentioned in the book - Rainbow Sweets!! Oh Bill, I miss you and your crazy patter about the Gastronomic Wasteland! ( )

I loved this book. It was gentle and intelligent. Thoughtful and slightly titillating. The lovely parenthesis poems were phenomenal. Very touching.

The story was also several stories combined into 250 pages. We have Muriel and Zackary's story. We have Simon and Lorca's story. And we have the disappearance of an 11 year old child's story. Lastly, we have the house's story. Combined, its beautiful.
I'll most definitely pi k up more of this authir. ( )

This is a novel I wanted to like, but I never really got fully engaged with it. I didn't dislike it. It's just that the entire time I was reading I felt as if I were on a periphery of some sort, not able to really meet and understand the characters. Everyone is this book is careful not to reveal too much of themselves, even to those they love most. We're told the relationships the novel explores are strong, but the distancing among the cast kept me from really ever believing that. A ghost story, a mystery involving a missing girl, and Japanese erotic poetry give the novel opportunities to engage (or at least catch the attention of) readers, but they never really do. ( )