Customer Reviews

The Year of Past Things

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

 

 

Spooky but not scary, intriguing but uneven, Harper's New Orleans ghost story and psychological portrait of marriage defies easy classification. The story centers on the new marriage between chef Phil Randazzo, divorced, and anthropology professor Michelle Wickham, widowed. They each have children, and Phil's live with his ex-wife, who left him because he was a workaholic who couldn't connect emotionally.

Phil worries about this judgment and tries hard, maybe too hard, to care about the things his new family cares about. He particularly tries to make room for the grief they all feel over the death of husband and father, A.P. Savoie, a popular Cajun musician. If he feels irritation over a certain lack of discipline in the house and an overindulged cat, he suppresses it as best he can.

Michelle entered the marriage in hopes of remaking her life, "starting over." But lately she's been having vivid dreams of Adrien, her dead husband. The latest one ended with Phil's rotting head on a satin pillow.

With the couple stepping carefully and Michelle's children edgily eyeing the new spouse, the last thing they need is supernatural interference. It starts with small things, like the dreams and the cat passing through locked doors, but soon accelerates. On Thanksgiving Day, Phil sees a boy who isn't there, and Michelle recognizes his description as an adolescent version of Adrien. Shocked, she says nothing.

Attuned to his wife's preoccupation and evasion, it doesn't take Phil long to put it together. As the appearances increase in frequency and intensity, Michelle dwells increasingly in the emotions of the past, good and bad. She feels Adrien is trying to communicate with her and the children. Phil reacts like a jealous husband with no rival to challenge. He's not concerned with communicating; he wants Adrien gone from their lives and will do whatever it takes.

While the switching of viewpoints between Phil and Michelle works well, showing their divergent emotional states and unshared thoughts, the fraught by-play between them grows tedious and slows the narrative. While the ghost story is a mystery in itself - and a good one - this sometimes gets lost in the examination of the insecurities, hopes, misunderstandings and secrets of a marriage. But Harper's ("The Worst Day of My Life So Far") descriptions of New Orleans and Cajun culture lend color and flavor to the plot and a well-done ghost story, even one interrupted by relationships, is always a treat.

Ghost stories are my favorite and M.A. Harper's "The Year of Past Things" captures life in its setting of Chestnut Street in uptown New Orleans with vivid details. While a paranormal experience could happen anyplace, Harper is able to draw the reader into this family's saga with such adept knowledge of supernatural happenings that you feel like no other place on earth has summoned something quite like this haunting Southern story. A seemingly ordinary marriage between a fairly recent widow of a famous Cajun musician and an award-winning divorced chef-restauranteur, each with children, suddenly surges forth like a rollercoaster ride of unexplainable occurences ranging from an indoor cat coming and going through closed windows to bloody ectoplasms floating through bedrooms. From page one forward, common everyday events start to unfold as not-so-common afterall, via a teasing, and at times taunting, myriad of extraordinary clues about the disturbing unidentified apparition who is lurking around this new household, desperately trying to somehow be set free by circumstances beyond anybody's human control. Harper is masterful at crafting this original and unique mystery tale and takes clever advantage of highlighting key holidays with ghostly happenings that subsequently keep building in intensity, culminating with a shocking scene never to forget during a Mardi Gras parade. The results per chapter satisfy and mystify - and at times horrify - and there are spooky surprises for even the best guessers-of-endings. This seasoned writer has a remarkable sense of detail, taking time to explicitly describe even the smallest observations so beautifully that it is hard to lose the image from one's imagination long after the last page has been enjoyed. You are invited by the author to feel like you are there. Entertaining, thought-provoking, and flavored with a nice twist of evil-spirit-world, this intriguing book explores the complexities of love, new relationships with "past things" cropping up when least desired, the confounding nature of kids growing up with step-parents and step-siblings under the same haunted roof, and descriptive local life and lingo in colorful superstitious New Orleans where just about anything eerie can happen as a backdrop on any given day or . . . dark midnight; all within the chilling confines of a poignant suspended state of the supernatural. Exquisite writing and delectable delivery! An A+ creative novel by a five star writer.

Patty Lee, customer review

The newly formed Randazzo family has been living on a diet of change. By the time Chef Phil Randazzo, owner of a trendy New Orleans restaurant, marries the widow of deceased Cajun musician A.P. Savoie, the artist's following has achieved cult status. Savoie was tragically killed in an accident, leaving Michelle and her two children shocked and grieving. Now Michelle believes marriage to the affable Phil will restore some degree of security to the children's lives. Randazzo's first marriage, this impulsive adventure is mined with booby traps, most notably a teen-aged son and his contemplative, artistic younger sister. Given time, Phil is determined to win both children over.

Things would probably work out if only the dead would stay dead. Apparently, A.P. Savoie has no intention of remaining beyond the pale, appearing to Phil on the odd occasion, sending a message the new husband cannot fathom. Are these apparitions a warning or a menace? Circumstances go from bad to worse as the apparitions accelerate and the couple is frequently at odds, Michelle questioning the meaning of her past with Savoie and Phil wondering if his wife is really over her deceased husband.

The author sets a series of bizarre occurrences in New Orleans, an apt venue for a ghost story, a city renown for mystery, superstition, beloved saints and obscure voodoo practices. With the escalation of random dangerous events, each family member is at risk and it is imperative that Phil and Michelle put aside their differences to resolve the mystery of the apparitions. If Savoie is trying to communicate from beyond the grave, is he threatening his wife's happiness or trying to warn of imminent danger. The spirit world exists on another realm, not accessible to a frightened couple, who need help but don't know where to turn, abandoned by belief and wary of superstition.

Each family member narrowly escapes violence, fearful that the threat is out of control; circumstances force them to share personal experiences, secret thoughts and buried fears in an effort to unravel Savoie's cryptic message from the other side. If Phil and Michelle can put aside their own feelings to protect the children and the everyone will trust the good intentions of their new step-father, the family may yet save themselves from further catastrophe. Desperate enough to try anything and sensing that time is short, Phil and Michelle turn to spiritualists, prayer, priests and exorcism.

This modern-day ghost story is as much a tale of acceptance and adjustment as it is an adventure into the unknown. M.A. Harper, in the Acknowledgments, confides that she cut her teeth on ghost stories, heard them whispered at parties all her life, as much a part of New Orleans as its music and ritualistic celebrations. New Orleans city coexists with the past and the present, the shadows of the dead never far away, either in loving memory or with malevolent intent. The Randazzo's fight the demons of the past to secure the present, reserving a place for a beloved, if flawed father in the hearts of his children. Luan Gaines/2005.

I own everything Peter Straub and Neal Stephenson have ever written, so demand that all imaginative fiction I pick up similarly engages the brain. I don't do well with "speculative" thrillers featuring cloned Nazis or cloned Jesus or clones of any persuasion, written in middle-school prose about cardboard characters. But M. A. Harper has produced a keeper, the saga of a "guy's-guy" chef and football fan, married to a Tulane Anthropology professor whose dead first husband seems hellbent now on repo, both her body and soul. Mix in endangered kids, a genuine psychic, and apparitions so subtle they have to be real, and you get a page turner that'll keep you up past 4 a.m. as doomed Chef Phil tries to avert this big deadly dose of fate headed right up his nose. Ms. Harper's characters are people we know and even her ghost rings true. A muscular performance from an author who is probably also an experiencer.

Take a New Orleans setting, add a ghost story, and tell of a late musician husband who haunts everyday objects such as the TV and you have an intriguing story based on the desires of a ghostly invader in M.A. Harper's riveting book, The Year Of Past Things. More casual ghost stories focus on the horror: it's to M.A. Harper's credit that the focus here is as much on mystery and psychological tension as on terror.

This New Orleans ghost story by M. A. Harper never achieves the promise of its title and premise - not even of its setting. Phil Randazzo, the chef-owner of one of New Orleans premier restaurants, is newly married to Michelle, the widow of a well-known jazz musician, A.P. Savoie, who died three years before in a car accident. Phil's two stepchildren, teenager Cam and much younger Nicole, have largely accepted him as their new father even though they remain haunted by their family tragedy. The haunting goes from psychological to real when Michelle starts dreaming vividly of Savoie and Phil encounters a young boy in a football jersey on the staircase of their house. Disturbing things, perhaps connected to a Zippo lighter, start happening in the house as Savoie gains strength. The presence of Savoie threatens to tear apart Phil and Michelle's marriage, and removing the ghost becomes critical to their survival.

Unfortunately, Harper's prose is clunky despite the lyricism of the title, and her storytelling is equally awkward. Except for Savoie himself, the characterizations never click and remain one breath away from life. Sadly, Harper never seems to give herself up fully to her story, although when she does, she shows real promise. The scene where Phil and Michelle see a psychic surprisingly is one of the best in the novel, primarily because of its fresh take on psychics and because the events unfold with a naturalness not found elsewhere. There are a few scary scenes, especially near the end, that keep the reader hooked. Harper has some good, strong moments, but they fail to carry the novel.

I really wanted to like this book; however, with its bland, awkward language and storytelling, The Year of Things Past is a disappointment.

Here is a book with everything: good food (prepared lovingly) troubled relationships (resolved nicely), romance, troubled teens and pre-, adventure, a cameo appearance by Anne Rice, New Orleans, adventure, and an ambiguous ghost. Loved it!
Merle Kessler

This novel is not quite what I expected. I was expecting a ghost story set in New Orleans. What I got was something else. I'm not exactly sure how to describe this book. The ending was really not at all what I expected, so in that regard I was pleasantly surprised. While it was not the page turner it was purported to be, it was a good solid read. I was a little disappointed by the characterizations - by the end of the novel I still did not feel as if I knew these people. Although that may be what the author intended since the people involved really didn't seem to know each other very well either. This may have been the whole point. Anyway, I will probably read another novel by this author as this was a decent read, but definitely not a ghost story in the normal since of the words.

Adrien died 3 years ago. He died but he didn't actually leave.
The reasons are not immediately apparent, but his presence is.
This creates a situation that is not comfortable for Adrien's widow Michelle and her new husband Phillip. Perhaps, not even safe. Things happen in the household that range from curious, to chilling. Complicating matters is the fact that Michelle is more than a little bit still in love with Adrien. Their son Cam has never come to terms with the death of his father. Nichole, the younger child is troubled as well.

Phillip is trying to be understanding, but when the things that go bump in the night become more substantial and in fact detrimental to not only his marriage but his health and safety. Or does it?

Phillips brother, Father Dominic is not only an important factor to the story, but someone that I would like to know. In fact I found most of the characters to be compelling and likable. There is one in every crowd, they say and in this story it was... well, I will let you come to your own conclusions.

Terrific writing and characters but somehow, this book got away from the author. It's not "really" a ghost story -- there is some ghost-stuff but it's really about choices made and divorce and re-marriage and relationships.

When the characters are focused on, it's just terrific -- there really is no need for the ghost stuff; it could have been an excellent novel about a new blended family. Phil is the husband and Michelle is his new wife. They are really in love and yet by the last 60 pages, they are fighting, separating, regreting they met, etc. And there are two or three climaxes -- an exorcism (really...? Yeah), the disappearance/almost death of a child, and a final encounter with a ghost...and it all just crumbles.

But for about 300 pages of the 360 pages, it's a great read. There's a better story in here--and you'll find it--but it's a bit distracting with the ex-husband ghost stuff.