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American Ghost: A Novel Hardcover – October 9, 2012

by
Janis Owens (Author)
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Janis Owens (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 78 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Scribner; First Edition edition (October 9, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1451674635
  • ISBN-13: 978-1451674637
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,025,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsWell, then!
By Angelia Menchan on October 15, 2012
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I am done with one of my favorite books this years. It is filled with things I love, the south, Florida, flawed people, humor, love gone awry and HISTORY. There is so much about America and Florida's fractured history in these less than 300 pages that will make you go whoa. At the center of the Story is Jolie Hoyt who is poorer than po and of mixed heritage and lineage though her family screams, we ARE white. Then there is Sam Lense a Jewish anthropology student from the University of Florida via Miami who is at work on uncovering information about a lynching in 1938 in Hendrix, FL where Jolie resides. Well, I tell you what the story is so layered, I had to slow myself down, even picking up a recipe for yellow rice and pork along the way. I cannot tell you how this story touched me, you will have to read and see for yourself...AMERICAN GHOST is literature y'all, I kid you not~

Angelia Vernon Menchan
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5.0 out of 5 starsTalking to ghosts.
By Amelia Gremelspacher TOP 1000 REVIEWER on October 27, 2012
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This book really snuck up on me. I hadn't read any coverage on it. I picked it up as an Amazon recommendation based on other books I had read. The story is a tale of ghosts who follow the lives of Jolie and her lover Sam in A tiny town in Florida. The town was the site of an infamous lynching in the 1930's, but had escaped the more notorious Roosewood attention.
Everyone in the book is "ethnic", not a white Christian. Sam has come to town to find out about his great grandfather and locate his grave. Sam is Jewish, a rare sighting in the back country of Florida. But he has told the town he is researching the roots of local Indians. Jolie is a Hoyt. Her grandmother says they are little Black Dutch. This is a name that comes to light to hide a variety of backgrounds, be they converted Jews in Spain, part black, part Indian.
The novel unwinds with the ghosts lingering on the edges of the stories. Soon we see that all of our characters have been tainted by this past. The ghosts are in fact the pasts that each person bears. The writing is subtle. Each word is well considered. The author never uses sensationalism or coyly palms a secret in the name of plot alone. The characters are complex and hugely satisfying. This is a lovely pearl of a book, and I hope people read it.
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5.0 out of 5 starsJanis Owens Creates a Chilling Tale That Does Not Disappoint
By TheAssemblagist on October 11, 2012
Format: Hardcover
Janis Owens new novel truly represents her strongest, most compelling work to date. Her characters and their surroundings -- their foibles, their pride and their emotions -- come to life in every sentence, every paragraph. A proud moment for the South as another southern woman comes forth with a fascinating novel that gives us such depth, such rich detail that we can see these people as well as we see our family sitting across from us at the kitchen table.
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5.0 out of 5 starsGreat Southern story
By Rosewood on November 8, 2012
Format: Hardcover
The basis of this story is very similar to an event that occurred in 1926 in the small town in South Florida where I live. The people, the phrases, the habits and food are so familiar to me...living in this little town and having a mother from Alabama....moving to Miami....I was able to really relate to these characters.
Mostly, though, because it was told from within such an insular society that the perspective gave this mystery and love story it's unique flavor.
I enjoyed it so much, and have ordered the author's earlier trilogy from the library.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA Masterpiece
By Frank A. Green on November 6, 2012
Format: Kindle Edition
The only thing that could be better about this great novel is the copy editing that is disgusting for the taint it leaves on an otherwise masterpiece. I hope the subsequent printings correct the egregious errors.
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5.0 out of 5 starsCustom & Deceit
By P. Collins on December 5, 2012
Format: Hardcover
This review of AMERICAN GHOST by JANIS OWENS is written by Burton Cox
The places, people, and events of a book are only as real as a writer can and will make them. "American Ghost" comes alive on the fundament of Janis Owens's devised Florida Panhandle towns and swampy river delta. She hacks into the wild pines and lets the turpentine flow, revelation's pungent aroma crisping a languid atmosphere. Owens time-travels older and contemporary Florida, her candid camera focused on scenes from which several generations have turned their eyes.
Two young people meeting by chance are soon bound up in mutual, awkward fascination, then ripped away from each other at least in part by the hidden agenda of one of them. In a broader way, many lives are torn by the unseen force of silence, a long-hidden agenda of denial and ignorance. Secret sins never acknowledged, punished, or forgiven keep the locals in a miasma of deceit, chained to complicity. Over this backdrop, primed in pure-n-tee meanness and framed in enduring perfidy, Ms. Owens paints a rocking chronicle of lost and found love, misplaced purpose, damaged ideals, repaired values, and a slew of reckonings, mostly settled, not in some foolish fairy-tale way, but in nitty-gritty real world negotiations.
Take the ghost tour. You'll be sadder and wiser, yes, but just when you can't stand the tension any longer, you'll laugh. Buy this book now! Better still, buy two - it's the holidays and this is a fine gift.
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5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent
By CL on December 8, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Janis Owens knows the region she's writing about it. I grew up in a small town mentioned in this book and the dialogue is pitch-perfect, as are the characters. Excellent writing and research wrapped up in a interesting mystery.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsAmerican Ghost

Janis Owens isn't afraid to tackle socially uncomfortable subjects. She does a great job in handling the stories with tact, truth and honesty.

Published 2 months ago by Donna Caldwell
4.0 out of 5 starsA good book.

Read it for our book club review loved the story and was about Florida which made it interesting.

Published 2 months ago by Patricia V. Mcclintock
1.0 out of 5 starsOne Star

Boring!!

Published 5 months ago by Kay McAdams
5.0 out of 5 starsCaptivating!

An intriguing story that kept me guessing along the way. The horrors of lynchings and secrets of the swamps come to life in the expert unraveling of events as told in this story... Read more

Published 6 months ago by debshopper
5.0 out of 5 starsWonderful character development

Relevant culturally. Wonderful character development, well researched and very enjoyable. A message of importance in a delightful story . Read more

Published 7 months ago by Patricia Berna
4.0 out of 5 stars... look into the backwoods of Florida during a very sad time in...

Based on a true story - this book fiction gives you a look into the backwoods of Florida during a very sad time in American History.

Published 12 months ago by JK from FLA
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

A hauntingly powerful disclosure of cultural secrets.

Published 13 months ago by Sharon
5.0 out of 5 starsThank you Ms. Owens.

As a native Floridian whose family land was deeded to us by the Spanish, and who still live in my native environs, I can tell you this book rings true. Read more

Published 14 months ago by V.L. Mason
3.0 out of 5 starsGood for historical research, not so much for pleasure reading.

Janis Owen’s American Ghost is not a novel that reflects America’s past time of riveting ghost tales. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Stephanie
4.0 out of 5 starsA uniquely crafted novel!

American Ghost by Janis Owens was a very entertaining novel. The narrative follows our main character, Jolie from a small town in Florida. Read more

Published 16 months ago by suddy

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