Curiouser and Curiouser: The Ghost Writer by John Harwood

I came across mention of John Harwood's The Ghost Writer at a webpage discussing historical mysteries. The person recommending it described it as being good though not erudite or experimental book as were some of the other recommendations such as The Name of the Rose and An Instance of the Fingerpost. The commenter was correct.

It concerns Gerard Freeman, a rather meek librarian who lives in Australia. Dad died when Gerard was young but he is described as having more interest in model trains than of being a father and husband. Mom, originally from England, is paranoid and over-protective. This can perhaps be explained by the fact that her parents died when she was young. She and her sister were raised by an aunt and great aunt. Even as Gerard reaches adolescence, she becomes upset at the idea of her son deviating from his typical routine and (gasp!) walking through a new neighborhood. As a result Gerard is rather reclusive and socially awkward.

When he is a young boy Gerard goes snooping in his mother's bedroom and discovers an old photograph as well as a manuscript containing a story called "Seraphina" written by one "V.H." At 14 he acquires a pen pal, Alice, who lives in England and this greatly upsets his mother who seems intent on sheltering the boy from the outside world as much as possible. Alice was injured in an accident which claimed the lives of her parents and cannot walk. The pair confide in one another and make pledges of young love. As Gerard gets older, he becomes more inquisitive about his mother's childhood and her family and this reaches a peak when he is a young adult and she nearing the end. Even on her deathbed, Gerard's mother is reluctant to answer all of his questions and come clean on the secrets she's been hiding. Before her death she does reveal that her great aunt Viola wrote ghost stories like "Seraphina" and that "One came true."

Now a fully-fledged adult, Gerard saves money to afford a venture to England to investigate his mother's family, visit the house in which she grew up, and to finally meet Alice, his "invisible lover". In England, Gerard digs around to find out more about his mother's family and even receives word from an old family friend who gives him the keys to the old family home, now disused. For her part, Alice is always just out of reach. She is always in therapy or some such thing and misses Gerard's letters and emails guaranteeing that his requests to finally meet face-to-face cannot be fulfilled.

The answers to Gerard's questions come as he spends time poking around the old house in which his mother and her family lived.

The Ghost Writer is more of a multi-layered affair than my summary lets on. Gerard's description of his childhood give way to his pen pal/long distance relationship with Alice which Harwood gives over to an epistolary style. As his investigation in England moves forward, he discovers more letters and his aunt's diary which continue the style. Gerard also discovers more Victorian ghost stories written by "V.H." who turns out to be his great great aunt Viola. These Jane Austen-Turn of the Screw mash-ups hold their own as intriguing and very creepy stories in and of themselves. But they contribute to the sinsiter tone of the book as they depict events that Gerard's research proves to have happened. Overall, Harwood does a nice job of slowly ratcheting up the tension while keeping the menace lurking just out of our reach.

Thusly it was very disappointing to read the ending of the book. It was too short and felt hackneyed to me. A grand plan that was years in the making essentially goes Poof! in a couple of pages. Very unsatisfying. On the other hand, it did manage to emphasize was a pathetic figure Gerard is. As I read the book years go by – decades – and yet Gerard is still in love with Alice, or rather his idea of her. They have never met and he has never even seen a picture of her yet he is thoroughly committed to this idea that exists only in letters and e-mails called Alice. This felt wholly unrealistic. He wastes his whole life in pursuit of what is essentially a figment of his own imagination. Presumably Gerard's parents left him with mommy and daddy issues. So, while I felt the conceit here was almost absurd, I did get some satisfaction from Gerard's punishment.

Despite the ending, The Ghost Writer was enjoyable for its creepy mood (especially the parts with Gerard alone in the abandoned house) and a mystery that led me along by the nose. A good story for the Halloween season.