Customer Reviews

Some Other Place. The Right Place.

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

My favorite ghost story is SOME OTHER PLACE, THE RIGHT PLACE. It is sexy, funny, sad, and wise. The story is about a college girl who happens reads a newspaper story about high school boy who, under hypnosis, has been channeling a ghost -- the ghost of her grandfather! She and the boy begin an odyssey, visiting all the ghost towns where the ghost used to live. Naturally the boy falls in love with the girl -- but she falls in love with the ghost who emerges in the boy when he is under hypnosis, so this becomes one strange love triangle. This book and THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE ARKANSAS OZARKS by the same author are the two books I most often give away to my friends.

I completely agree with the other reviewers. This is the most fascinating book I've ever read. Mr. Harington is an unsung genius. He should be picked by Oprah and then he might get the kudos he richly deserves. His writing is so beautiful, stories so imaginative,etc. etc. etc. Hard to believe one person could write so well.

There are two subjects that particularly fascinate. One is "things para-normal" and the other is "sexuality." Harington's book explores both with such stunning originality and skill that I can hardly finish the book!

Let me explain. Usually when I'm reading I will dog-ear a page that I know I will want to return to some day. In this case, I have marked so many pages and individualy sections--even sentences--and I continue to return to many of them so frequently, that after three months I still haven't finished it! Oh, yes, I have actually read all the pages, including the last, but there remains so much wonder in this story and the telling of it that I really can't (if you'll excuse the cliche) put it down.

I cannot imagine how, or from what source, the author received his inspiration or research for this book. And how can he know that much about what goes on inside the human head, whether it be the characters' heads or our own?

I don't want to overdo it, and I know nothing else about the author except the fact of this book, but I am in awe of his insights and ability to express them in this way. The title, alone, is absolutely brilliant!

I first picked up this book at a drug store in Ocean City, Maryland in 1974. I had no idea who Donald Harington was -- I just liked the picture on the cover. It seemed to be a nice thick romance-type book -- perfect for a week's reading at the beach. My eighteen-year-old self read right through the novel, and it was unlike anything I had ever read before. I had never forgotten it, and when I ran across my battered coverless copy when cleaning out my attic, I decided to try and find a nice clean copy of it. It is still in print, and rightly so. I ordered the entire Harington catalogue -- this wonderfully imaginative author has been writing fascinating gems since the early 1960s, and he is still turning out excellent prose. If you have never discovered him, do so at once.

This novel is the story of Diana Stoving, a young woman, newly graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, who is blithely driving her new Porsche to Philadelphia with a fellow graduate when they have car trouble. Pulling over in a one-horse town, they are forced to wait for a part to arrive so that the car can be repaired. The friend, eager to make a date in Philadelphia, goes on by bus. Our heroine waits with her car, and while idly flipping through the local newspaper comes across an article about a local teacher who is doing age-regression experiments by putting his students under hypnosis. The teacher is trying to prove the existence of past lives, a la "The Search for Bridey Murphy." Suddenly Diana realizes that one of the students, a high school senior named Day Whittacker, is channeling the memories of (or even was once, in a former life) Diana's long-dead grandfather. This grandfather had kidnapped Diana when she was only four years old and was shot to death by police in front of her.

Thus begins a fascinating search for the truth of Day's real identity, Diana's purpose in life, and how Daniel, the deceased grandfather, binds together these two young people. The novel is a wonderful love story. But it's also a story about identity, the nature of time, how death and eternity might work, why memory and family are important, and what it means to be alive. It's also sexy as all get-out.

I loved this novel when I was eighteen and I love it more than thirty years later. I recommend not only this book, but all of Harington's novels. If you are looking for a well-written, imaginative read, I cannot be too enthusiastic about this talented author. Book groups take note: This book is something very different which would appeal to both men and women readers.

I read this book way back in the seventies when it first came out. It was one of my all time favorites. Now that I know it is still in print, I am going to order it and read it again.

There are many reviews of this book, so why write one more? The thing I noticed that made me put pen to paper, metaphorically speaking, is first noticing that there are only five star reviews and one star reviews, nothing in between. The second is noting the dates of the reviews. All of the five star reviews are from at least 2 or 3, most 9 or more years ago and all of the one star reviews are from only a few days ago. So I felt the need to add a recent Five star to balance things out. Was this an easy read as I first thought it would be? No. Comical in parts, romance, sexual situations, historical, psychological, paranormal, yes all of these. BUT, there was no gratuitous sex, the two main characters were 18 and 22 so I saw no problem with anything that happened between them. The things other reviewers made mention of concerning incest, yes it happened and it happens still today. It's a sad thing and a hard thing to read about but ignoring it won't make it go away. This isn't the first and probably won't be the last book to deal with it. The other main character was dead and telling his story from the afterlife, a story of things that happened 100 years ago when things were mighty different, so who are we to judge. And if he wants to have a little fun NOW, well more power to him. This book took me out of my comfort zone in a lot of ways which is a good thing, one whole " movement", there were four in all, was written in poetry. Poetry is not my thing and when I got to this part I nearly said "well dang" and skipped the whole movement. I'm so glad I didn't. It did tell part of the story, and after I got into the rythmn of it, it told it beautifully. The later part of the story played mind games, are they or aren't they, I won't I tell any spoilers because I hate when reviews do that, but the book becomes a sort of gordian knot that weaves in and around itself but the end is fully satisfying, almost, explaining the title of the book. As other five star reviewers have said, this is one I will reread again, after it settles awhile though.

This is the most captivating and charming book I have ever read. I've cover-to-covered it twice, and the next time I go on vacation I'll take it as my text. It's not your average ghost story, full of spooks and ha'nts and specters white as flour, but it will keep you spellbound and breathless. Bravo, G!

I first read Harrington's book when it came out in the '70s and thoroughly enjoyed it then. I recently reread it and enjoyed it even more than before. With the help of the computer, I've been able to pinpoint the important places in the story which were "shaded". Excellent read.

Tedious. Immature. Self-indulgent. Self-referential. It has been a long time since I read a novel I disliked as much as this one. I read this book because I was not familiar with Harington and the reviews here were highly complimentary. What a disappointment. Written in four "movements," the novel opens with an omniscient third person narrator telling the story of Diana Stoving, a rich girl from Little Rock just graduated from Sarah Lawrence, who has car trouble while driving through New Jersey. In the waiting room of the repair shop, she reads an article in a local paper about a high school student who, under hypnosis, appears to regress into a "past life," that of one Daniel Lyam Montross. Diana is intrigued, because that is her grandfather's name, and she meets the boy, Day Whittaker, just graduated from high school, and (rather implausibly) they soon set out on a road trip to revisit some of the places where Daniel once lived, now ghost towns all. Of course, before they go, Diana has Day's high school teacher - who discovered Day's past life - implant a post-hypnotic suggestion allowing her to put Day "under" merely by saying "Go to sleep, Day." The second "movement" is written by Day in the first person, and the third is a book of poems "dictated" to Diana by Daniel (not particularly good poems, in my opinion). The last, and most annoying section, is written by Daniel and introduces the author, Harrington, known only as "G," who finds Diana and decides to tell her story. The book is replete with immature accounts of sexual acts between Diana and Day, Diana and Day regressed to Daniel, and Diana and a bunch of hippies, plus Daniel's accounts of his own sexual experiences with numerous women, including his mentally disabled older sister, in his past life. The characters are never developed to the point of becoming real, believable people. What passes for wisdom in this book are trite thoughts like "privies have two holes because love means being willing to defecate together." It is hard for me to believe this book even got published, and I cannot see what anyone finds in it that is worthwhile. A major waste of time.

I quit reading this. I couldn't get past the pre-teen and incest sexual episodes. Disturbing. I think I found this under the Editor's picks for under $2.99.