The Ghost in Love: A Novel [Hardcover]

Jonathan Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2008

“I envy anyone who has yet to enjoy the sexy, eerie, and addictive novels of Jonathan Carroll. They are delicious treats—with devilish tricks inside them.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

 

Neil Gaiman has written: “Jonathan Carroll has the magic. He’ll lend you his eyes, and you’ll never see the world in quite the same way ever again.”

Welcome to the luminous and marvelously inventive world of The Ghost in Love. A man falls in the snow, hits his head on a curb, and dies. But something strange occurs: the man doesn’t die, and the ghost that’s been sent to take his soul to the afterlife is flabbergasted. Going immediately to its boss, the ghost asks, what should I do now? The boss says, we don’t know how this happened but we’re working on it. We want you to stay with this man to help us figure out what’s going on.

The ghost agrees unhappily; it is a ghost, not a nursemaid. But a funny thing happens—the ghost falls madly in love with the man’s girlfriend, and things naturally get complicated. Soon afterward, the man discovers he did not die when he was “supposed” to because for the first time in their history, human beings have decided to take their fates back from the gods. It’s a wonderful change, but one that comes at a price.

The Ghost in Love is about what happens to us when we discover that we have become the masters of our own fate. No excuses, no outside forces or gods to blame—the responsibility is all our own. It’s also about love, ghosts that happen to be gourmet cooks, talking dogs, and picnicking in the rain with yourself at twenty different ages.

Stephen King has said that “Jonathan Carroll is as scary as Hitchcock, when he isn’t being as funny as Jim Carrey.” Jonathan Lethem sees Carroll as the “master of sunlit surrealism.” However one regards this beguiling original, two facts are indisputable: It’s tough being a ghost on an empty stomach. And The Ghost in Love is a triumphant return.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Death is not the end but rather the start of a series of madcap and sometimes moving adventures for characters in this spry novel about the un-afterlife. Events begin on a wintry day in Connecticut when Ben Gould slips and hits his head on a curb. He should have died, but owing to a virus in heaven's computer system, Ben's body lives on. Soon, Ben and others in his life—including his talking dog, Pilot, and his own ghost (named Ling)—find themselves endowed with extraordinary and unpredictable talents, including time traveling, the ability to hobnob with multiple incarnations of their younger selves, and a capacity to see otherwise invisible forces of fate manifested in bizarre physical forms. Carroll (Glass Soup) tethers the series of loopy incidents that ensues and their shaggy-dog explanation to incisive and poignant observations about the wondrous possibilities of everyday life that are the hallmark of his flippant style of fantasy. Carroll fans will best appreciate this jeu d'esprit. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Ben Gould was supposed to die, but he didn't, and now he can talk to his dog, Pilot, and Ling, the ghost that's been sent to take his soul to the afterlife. This perspective-changing novel, which follows Carroll's (www.jonathancarroll.com) The Wooden Sea, explores what can happen when we choose to take control of our own fate. Actor/two-time Audie Award nominee Ray Porter does a good job of drawing in listeners. Recommended for most public libraries. [Audio clip available through www.blackstoneaudio.com; the Farrar hc received a starred review, LJ 9/1/08.—Ed.]—Donna Bachowski, Orange Cty. Lib. Syst., FL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374161860
• ISBN-13: 978-0374161866
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #871,291 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Biography,free downloadable stories, screenplays, daily blog and other relevant information available at

www.jonathancarroll.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars you are different then you were 10 minutes ago..., October 8, 2008

By 

A. Boston (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Ghost in Love: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

...and when you read this work of art, my title will make sense to you. ;)

To begin, this book is amazing. It's completely out of this world while taking place in modern day reality, if that's possible! Wildly inventive with enough regular life mixed in to make it perfect.

Its reminiscent of a couple of other things that I love and not in a copy cat kind of way. Johnathan Carroll has a similar writing style to Neil Gaiman, with a very whimsical prose and they're both beyond creative. At times it reminded me of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger with the time travel and love aspects. Also of the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for the "what is going on?!" kind of feel, like you're totally just chasing yourself in circles. If any of these interest you, I think you'd love this book.

There was so much story in 308 pages, that it's impossible to categorize. I won't go over what it's about because it can be read in the Amazon description or in another review. I will say, it was much different then I expected from the short synopsis that I read. But don't mistake 'different' for bad. This book was enlightening, amazing, funny, and thought provoking. A lot of the time I found myself exclaiming outloud -- tons of "what?!?!" or "you've got to be kidding" coming out of my mouth without my realizing it until my boyfriend would ask from another room what was wrong. It had feelings of The Time Traveler's Wife in that a couple times I was just so entirely confused I had to put down the book and work it out in my head. Sometimes It was so close to over my head, but then I would be able to grasp it. Most of the time I can speed read thru books, but this one I wanted to savor, and I took my time with it, not reading more then 50 pages at a time. It's main themes are love, learning to live with all parts of yourself both good and bad, and taking control of your own destiny.

UPDATE 12/08: I let my best friend and my mom borrow this book and neither of them liked it. My best friend isn't so keen on fantastical stuff mixed into reality so that's definitely why it didn't work for her. She particularly hated one of the creatures in the book, which I think is what really ruined it for her. My mom usually reads kids fantasy books(Harry Potter, Twilight series, Erragon), so it was too far out for her as well. I like stories that make me think, analyze and that I have to really have a super imagination for.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How could I have missed this guy!, January 5, 2009

By 

G. Clifton "bookmobile man" (Ferrum, Va USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ghost in Love: A Novel (Hardcover)

What a delight to find a new author. What's even better is finding out he's been writing for years and there are all of these undiscovered countries to explore. I dislike too much information in reviews and on book jackets. (And besides, you can find out as much as, or more than you want, from other reviews.) So let me just say that if you enjoy traveling with the likes of Kurt Vonnegut(Breakfast of Champions) Tom Robbins(on his mellow days, something like Jitterbug Perfume) or even Richard Bach (Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah) you may LOVE Jonathan Carroll. I think at the very least you will enjoy traveling with him in the world of THE GHOST IN LOVE.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Trip You Won't Want to Leave When the Journey is Through, August 13, 2010

By 

D. Rowland (a Cool Dry Place) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ghost in Love: A Novel (Paperback)

Ben Gould's ghost Ling loves to cook. She makes gourmet meals and talks to his dog, who talks back. Ben, who should have died when he fell and hit his head, didn't. So his ghost, who was supposed to clean up his affairs after his death, couldn't do her job. The Angel of Death was confused, didn't know what to do, so he tasked her with the job of hanging around Ben and reporting back.

Ben has recently broken up with German Landis, a woman he loves dearly, but strange things have been going on in his life and he can't have her around. He's been seeing through Danielle Voyle's eyes, reading her thoughts. She's another who should have died, but didn't. He goes to her apartment, but she can't see him. His ghost goes too, neither can see her. And now all of a sudden he can talk to his dog too and finds out the dog was a former girlfriend who died in a past life. Ben's got problems.

And that's just the beginning of this excellent book that will take you on a journey like you've never been on before. How do I describe Jonathan Carroll's writing. He's sort of a literary Dean Koontz with a dash of Jodi Picoult and Barbara Kingsolver thrown in with maybe a touch of a good poet for good measure. Just read this phrase, "Dogs howled, whored growled, beggars scowled." Wow, that's writing you can wrap your brain around, especially when you know it's part of the description of a bad part of town.

Jonathan Carroll's imagination will take you on a trip you won't want to leave when the journey is through and at journey's end, you're going to find yourself doing a lot of introspective thinking.