More Than You Know: A Novel [Hardcover]

Beth Gutcheon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 8, 2000

More Than You Know is a haunting novel that bridges two centuries, two mother-daughter relationships, and two tragic love stories. In a small town called Dundee on the coast of Maine, an old woman named Hannah Gray begins her story by saying "Somebody said 'true love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about, and few have seen.' I've seen both, and I don't know how to tell you which is worse." Hannah has a passionate and painful story of true love and loss: the story of a ghost that appeared in her life, and in the life of Conary Crocker, the wild and appealing boy who loved her. Interwoven with their love story is a story of a marriage that took place in Dundee a hundred years earlier. As the parallels and differences between the two families are revealed, the reader comes to understand that someone in the nineteenth-century story has become the very unquiet soul haunting the twentieth. But not until the end do we learn (as Hannah never can) what force of mischance and personality has led to so much damage, and no one knows if such damage is ever at an end.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's a rare author who can combine a humdinger of a ghost tale with a haunting story of young love, and do so with literary grace and finesse. Gutcheon does just that and she acquits herself beautifully in this poignant novel. What's more, she adroitly manages alternating narratives, set a century apart, raising the level of suspense as the characters in each period approach the cusp on which a life turns, in parallel events that will irrevocably define the future for all of them. The novel is essentially two stories of doomed love and its consequences for future generations. Narrator Hannah Gray is an elderly widow when she relates the circumstances of the summer when she fell in love with Conary Crocker, a charming young man from a poor family in Dundee on the coast of Maine. Brought to Dundee from Boston during the Depression by her abusive stepmother, Hannah learns about the fate of distant ancestral relatives of hers and Conary's, who lived on now-deserted Beal Island in the mid 1800s. The reader learns the horrifying details in the same small increments that Hannah does, via the alternating point of view of Claris Osgood, who in 1858 defies her parents and marries taciturn Danial Haskell, moving with him to the island where, too late, she discovers her new husband's narrow-minded religious fundamentalism and corrosively mean personality. The union, which produces two children, becomes increasingly rancorous and will end in murder. Meanwhile, in her own time, Hannah is terrified by the appearances of a wildly sobbing ghost with "gruesome burning eyes," who exudes almost palpable hatred. Tantalizing clues about the identity of the macabre specter, and the eventual tragedy it causes, hum through the narrative like a racing pulse. Gutcheon adds depth and texture through lovely descriptions of the Maine coast and the authentic vernacular of its residents, whom she depicts with real knowledge of life in a seacoast community. Her sophisticated prose and narrative skill mark this novel, her sixth (after Five Fortunes), as a breakthrough to a wide readership. Agent, Wendy Weil. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club featured alternate; 6-city author tour. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-Elderly Hannah Gray narrates this enthralling tale of events that occurred in her 17th summer when she accompanied her grim stepmother to a small village on the Maine coast. Their rented cottage was a converted schoolhouse that had been brought to the mainland from a nearby island. Hannah sees visions of a tormented, ghostlike figure in the house and she hears mysterious sounds emanating from the upper-floor rooms. She learns that a young woman was accused, tried, and acquitted of killing her father there 75 years earlier. Alternating chapters tell the sad story of Claris Osgood, the lonely daughter of a happy, talented, and prosperous family in the village in the 1800s. In search of independence, she insists on marrying a quiet, brooding man, and they move out to the island. Misfortune strikes Claris's family as they struggle in silent combat among themselves. While Hannah is trying to avoid spending time with her dour, disapproving stepmother, she roams the village and becomes friendly with a young man whose family has deep roots in the area. They visit the now-uninhabited island where they come face to face with the past. Teens will enjoy these parallel stories of love between people from different backgrounds and be saddened by the dual tragedies that strike them. Suspense keeps the plot moving at a rapid clip.
Penny Stevens, Centreville Regional Library, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (March 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688174035
• ISBN-13: 978-0688174033
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (92 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,421,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than I Expected, October 17, 2000

By 

Haley Parnham (NJ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: More Than You Know: A Novel (Hardcover)

Having read all of Beth Gutcheon's books, I wasn't prepared for the personal impact of her latest novel, MORE THAN YOU KNOW. This book has been on my shelf for quite some time, waiting for me to delve into it. I never should have waited so long. Hannah, elderly now, tells us about a summer long ago when she was just a girl and fell in love with Conary Crocker. It was the summer her stepmother rented the old schoolhouse in Dundee, Maine, the schoolhouse which had been on the island where a murder had taken place 50 years before. Artfully woven into a tapestry of intrigue, the stories become one as the tales unfold. Although I am a constant reader, I seldom stay up past my bedtime to read, but this book was the exception. Ms. Gutcheon has not only changed her style from previous novels, she has proven herself to be a master story teller. I've always enjoyed her work, but this was the first time I finished one of her books, closed it carefully, and sat quietly to contemplate what I'd read.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary and delightful, June 14, 2000

By 

Meg Brunner (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: More Than You Know: A Novel (Hardcover)

Hannah Gray, an elderly woman, returns to the house she summered in as a young woman and decides to tell us the story of the summer she spent falling in love and being terrorized by a ghost. Her story is separated by the story of a family who lived on the island across from Hannah's old summer house over 100 years prior to that fatefull summer. The love story is intense and unforgettable, the ghost story is scary as hell (the scene with the ghost in the rocking chair kept me awake the night after I read it!), and the connection between Hannah's ghost and the old island family that slowly emerges as the stories progress will totally surprise you. I could not put this down once I picked it up. It's FANTASTIC.

42 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Read!, April 21, 2000

By 

Nancy R. Katz "NancyK18" (NJ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: More Than You Know: A Novel (Hardcover)

I have just finished this book and have to congragulate the author Beth Gutcheon. A longtime reader of this author, I found More Than You Know totally different from her other books and applaud her ability to change both tone and style of this title. Paralleling two tragic stories, Ms.Guthecon allows her readers to glimpse life in small town Maine almost 100 years apart with an equally paralleling story. The reader not only comes to know the characters well but also the landscape of the island and town. The story, while sad, has wondrous moments of first love and devotion. Finally, I found the book fairly reminiscent of The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve, another very compelling and different read.