An Honest Ghost

a Novel

Fiction & Literature
Cover of the book An Honest Ghost by Rick Whitaker, Jaded Ibis Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Rick Whitaker ISBN: 9781937543518
Publisher: Jaded Ibis Press Publication: October 30, 2013
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Rick Whitaker
ISBN: 9781937543518
Publisher: Jaded Ibis Press
Publication: October 30, 2013
Imprint:
Language: English
Inspired by the task of unpacking his library, the narrator returns to writing an autobiographical novel about the sudden appearance his son, Joe, who at age nine shows up on the narrator’s doorstep for the first time. The narrator, unnerved by the prospect of sharing his life with his extremely precocious child, is nonetheless moved by Joe’s arrival. He has to change his own life by accepting the responsibility of fatherhood, a role he shares slightly with his young English boyfriend, David. Joe’s unpredictable mother, Eleanor Sullivan, seeks her own satisfactions. The domestic scene is affected when David introduces a new friend, Roy Hardeman, a strange gay cop who dies as mysteriously as he arrived. The heart of the novel is the ghostly, persistent, unreliable qualities of literary and personal memory, and the ways in which a narrative can hold onto, recapture, and transform memory. Rick Whitaker’s semi-autobiographical novel, An Honest Ghost, consists entirely of sentences appropriated from over 500 books. Whitaker limited himself to using 300 words per book (in accordance with Fair Use); never taking two sentences together; and never making any changes, even to punctuation. In the iBook version, touching a sentence brings up its original source: a book’s title, author, and page number. The experience of acknowledging each sentence as literary artifact, combined with the imagined accretion of books that built An Honest Ghost, deftly mirrors the burgeoning nostalgia in the narrator’s voice and, fittingly, in the careful reader’s heart.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Inspired by the task of unpacking his library, the narrator returns to writing an autobiographical novel about the sudden appearance his son, Joe, who at age nine shows up on the narrator’s doorstep for the first time. The narrator, unnerved by the prospect of sharing his life with his extremely precocious child, is nonetheless moved by Joe’s arrival. He has to change his own life by accepting the responsibility of fatherhood, a role he shares slightly with his young English boyfriend, David. Joe’s unpredictable mother, Eleanor Sullivan, seeks her own satisfactions. The domestic scene is affected when David introduces a new friend, Roy Hardeman, a strange gay cop who dies as mysteriously as he arrived. The heart of the novel is the ghostly, persistent, unreliable qualities of literary and personal memory, and the ways in which a narrative can hold onto, recapture, and transform memory. Rick Whitaker’s semi-autobiographical novel, An Honest Ghost, consists entirely of sentences appropriated from over 500 books. Whitaker limited himself to using 300 words per book (in accordance with Fair Use); never taking two sentences together; and never making any changes, even to punctuation. In the iBook version, touching a sentence brings up its original source: a book’s title, author, and page number. The experience of acknowledging each sentence as literary artifact, combined with the imagined accretion of books that built An Honest Ghost, deftly mirrors the burgeoning nostalgia in the narrator’s voice and, fittingly, in the careful reader’s heart.

More books from Fiction & Literature

Cover of the book Twin Pleasures by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book 101 Poems of the War in Afghanistan by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Apex Magazine: Issue 27 by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book The West Virginian by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Works of Thomas Cooke Middleton by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book The Fair God by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Il Lupo Rosso by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book On the Hillwilla Road by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Searching by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Enigma by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book The Truth About Lorin Jones by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book How I Survived a Tough World with New Age Poetry by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Brought Home by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book The Mayor’S Mustache by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book The Rescue: a Forest Lord Tale by Rick Whitaker
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy