Customer Reviews

Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn

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

 

 

I wasn't prepared for what an excellent book this was. I have long been a fan of Lafcadio Hearn's Japan-themed books, and was interested in learning more about him and about what brought him to the country so long ago. But I figured the rest of his story would hold little interest for me.

Jonathon Cott has proven me wrong. "Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn" shows a truly fascinating character, one who was eternally searching for somewhere to belong, one who's tastes and fashions were completely out of synch with the time he lived in, one who was chasing a dream so distant that he could only find it in the most remarkable of places, only to hold it for awhile and watch it slowly slip away.

Born of a Greek mother and an Irish father, Hearn was never accepted as a child. A half-breed, he was shunted from relative to relative until finally shipped off to the US to make his own way. There, his unique racial status allowed him access to both the white cities and the black ghettos, and his skills as a writer got him a job translating the forbidden culture for the newspapers. An acclaimed journalist, he accrued some degree of success until his then-illegal marriage to a black woman saw him fired, disgraced, and exiled to New Orleans. His mania for writing, his passion for "exotic" women, and his desire to go to the hidden corners of society to record and experience native folklore and traditions soon made him a pariah, and he was exiled again. After trying several tropical islands, hidden paradises and various adventures, an opportunity opened up for him to journey to the mysterious and unknown Japan. There he found acceptance, family, and his own peace at last.

What is truly remarkable about "Wandering Ghost" is that it is an auto-biography as much as a biography. It is filled with Hearn's writings; newspaper articles, personal letters, sketches on interesting characters and places, thoughts and reflections, a glimpse inside his head. Cott originally began with the idea of publishing some of Hearn's non-Japan related writing, but was overcome by the sheer bulk of it all and decided to sift through them and shape them into Hearn's story. Seeing all of this, I gained much more respect for Hearn as a writer as opposed to a mere chance observer of the fading Japanese culture.

I had expected Wandering Ghost to be a standard biography, but the number of long passages taken from Hearn's writings made me wonder what the author's intent was. At least half (or more) of the book is comprised of these lengthy passages from Hearn's newspaper work and other writings.

At times these quotes serve to move the book forward, but more often than not they bog it down, as in the inclusion of an entire newspaper story about a sensational murder -- some 13 pages that, while they served as a good illustration of Hearn's more florid prose style, served very little purpose biographically. The quoted passages are so numerous and at times so extraneous that it is frustrating to read this book as a biography. It's especially irksome when a five- or six-page lengthy quote is used when a one- or two-paragraph one would have easily sufficed.

Perhaps the problem is that I didn't pay sufficient attention to the publisher's description of Wandering Ghost as containing "generous selections" from Hearn's work, but even that did not prepare me for the amount of quoted material. Given the richness of the subject and wealth of material that Hearn left behind, it seems a shame that a more lucid biographical account of his life was not attempted.

I'm not exactly sure what to make of "Wandering Ghost" by Jonathan Cott. The book is torn between being a creative biography and an anthology of Hearn's writings. Either way, it serves a good introduction to Hearn. But there are problems. Hearn lived a fascinating life-time in Greece, Ireland, France, England, Cincinnati, New Orleans, the islands, then off to Japan. Sometimes Cott is content to leave the narrative for pages at a time for a quite from Hearn. Parts of Hearn's life pass by the blink of an eye. While Hearn aficionados will enjoy the book, they will also be frustrated, especially scholars on the trail of footnotes and sources. Drawing from letters and essays, this work may be best appreciated as an introduction to Hearn and will inspire new interest and appreciation for this haunting writer who linked East and West and had insights into many worlds. Hearn was also close to a diverse group of people (a former slave was his common life wife for example and he was married to a Japanese woman). While I appreciate the flowing narrative, I would have enjoyed a bit more insight and analysis into Hearn's life and work. Despite these quibbles, this book is a good introduction to one of the most fascinating writers of his times.