Ophelia's Ghost [Paperback]

Gary Lee Entsminger (Author), Susan Elizabeth Elliott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 18, 2008

Eva Hail, an anthropologist in her mid-30s, disappears from her campsite. She is researching the Anasazi abandonment of the 14th century, weaving together astronomy, ancient religions, and the Art of Memory. Eva's belongings are left behind, and there are no signs of violence. Joe Hill, a local tracker, is asked to look for her, aided only by her field notebook. Joe's daughter is playing Ophelia in Hamlet, which introduces the questions Shakespearean scholars have debated since 1598. Can we know if we've truly seen a ghost? Can witnesses or experiments validate reality? Joe is haunted by his memories: his father left before Joe was born; his mother, an herbal healer, died five years ago; his wife, a dancer, abandoned him. Set in 1958 in the American Southwest, Ophelia's Ghost explores key themes of this period: UFOs, the space race, Einstein's relativity, parallel universes, and structural anthropology. Joe's search to find Eva uncovers mysteries of the past, present, and future.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gary L. Entsminger is a writer, naturalist, and computer programmer. He has written nine programming books, over 100 scientific/technical articles, and computer software that helps scientists understand patterns of biodiversity and biogeography. He has a B.A. in English from Washington and Lee University. Susan E. Elliott is a writer and ecologist. She studied botany and French at Humboldt State University and has a Ph.D. in biology from Dartmouth College. Both authors are musicians and gardeners who practice their crafts in Colorado and Virginia. This is their first novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Pinyon Publishing (November 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982156103
• ISBN-13: 978-0982156100
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,808,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ophelia's Ghost: A magical mystery, January 8, 2009

By 

Stella Blue (Burlington, VT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ophelia's Ghost (Paperback)

An extraordinarily intelligent first novel by two accomplished writers, Ophelia's Ghost grabbed my attention from the prologue. Eva, an anthropologist conducting PhD research in the canyon country of the southwest, is missing. Has she been kidnapped? Abducted by intelligent life from another planet? Gone off with a would-be lover? Or, is she simply following her curiosity in a land inhospitable to most but in which she is entirely comfortable? Part fact, part pure fiction, this book is for all readers who are interested in a great story well-told. Joe Hill is not a professional tracker. But when asked by Eva's father, Doc, to look for Eva he can't refuse. The story unwinds in a captivating and easy fashion - we are on the edge of our seats wondering what happened to Eva, but sitting back enjoying the relationship between Joe and his daughter, Nina, and the cast of characters who could be our friends and family and feel that way by the end of the novel. Set in the late 1950s, we are introduced to the ways of the Anasazi as Joe tries to piece together where Eva might have gone, we learn of the United States' Government preoccupation with (and subjugation of information regarding) UFOs, and we see the world and philosophy of Shakespeare through the play Nina is starring in at the culmination of her college career. We are moved to laugh and to cry and, finally, to wonder.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligence and intrigue, December 13, 2008

By 

Avid Reader "Primrose" (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ophelia's Ghost (Paperback)

Mystery and mysticism; science vs. superstition. Who - or what - is in control of this fascinating mix? The moon! Which, in its unswerving waxing and waning, has for eons called the shots.

Explanation of such phenomena might verge on the arcane. But in this compelling first novel, Gary Lee Entsminger and Susan Elizabeth Elliott deftly probe ancient cultures (primarily that of the Anasazi who lived in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest) in counterpoint to contemporary scientific studies now underway in the same locale.

Not implausibly, ghosts appear. Are they harbingers of data yet unknown? If Shakespeare's Ophelia had faith in apparitions, why not we?

We are left to ponder.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrestrial mystery with cosmic clues, October 9, 2010

By 

Isabel Anders "Isabel Anders" (Sewanee, Tennessee) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ophelia's Ghost (Paperback)

I loved this book. But a warning if you take this journey, if you follow Ophelia's Ghost with mind and heart: It will not end neatly or simply--nor will you want it to. The journey ever goes on ...

Through the reader's entrance into a linear story, a "simple" search for a missing anthropologist opens up into labyrinths of soul-and-spirit probing venues ... uncovering a memory-evoked trail of human origins, a harking back to points of catastrophic change in directions of human destiny ... a search for the key to how the earth conjoins and mirrors the heavens--and how it all relates to our ability to love and creatively engage in our life here together.

From the book:

"What most people don't understand is that magic is actually about becoming very intimate with nature. Not the supernatural, but the within nature, understanding it. Magic is simply focusing hard enough on something, using our minds, wills, and emotions, to see a pattern. Without the seeing, we'd be wandering fools" (p. 209).

"Other worlds are all around us, close enough that we can touch them, and they can touch us but only when we are open to them ... " (p. 238).

This intelligent and intriguing novel surprises and delights through planting hints/clues from the likes of Shakespeare, Plato, Giordano Bruno, James Joyce, Albert Einstein--and is facilitated by the hermeticist authors' own ability both to celebrate life and to make cosmic connections along the way.

Isabel Anders has co-authored with Diane Marquart Moore the Father Malachi mystery Chant of Death. Isabel is also the author of Becoming Flame; Soul Moments; Awaiting the Child; and 40-Day Journey with Madeleine L'Engle, among other titles.
Becoming Flame: Uncommon Mother-Daughter WisdomChant of Death
She blogs on philosophy for BlogHer.com:
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