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 Ivanhoe by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book The Housemaid's Daughter by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Fantastic Stories Presents the Weird Tales Super Pack #2 by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book La meraviglia della vita by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book No Moss or the Career of a Rolling Stone by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Guzmán de Alfarache y la novela moderna by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Воскресение by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Ivanhoe: A Romance by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Full House by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Queen of This Realm by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book The Attachment - A Sexy Femdom Cuckold Short Story from Steam Books by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book The Faith of Our Fathers by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Sexual Frustration by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Eh ! Placide. Eh! Généreux ! by Rick Whitaker
Cover of the book Taxman 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