Carol Goodman - The Ghost Orchid

[sub_divided]

I also picked up "Lake of Dead Languages" on Tin's recommendation, but after a couple chapters I decided to read the book in the teaser chapter at end of the book, instead. This was "The Ghost Orchid."

I thought, based on the first chapter, that this was going to be a story about creative writing types living at an artists' retreat being snobby towards each other. I figured that Carol Goodman would be able to "write what she knew" and show what it is like to live in creativewritingland - the world of "MFA programs and writers' retreats." And in a way, the book is about this. But it is also a supernatural romance novel of exactly the kind that Bethesda looks down on Ellis for writing. XD

The conceit of the story is that everyone living at the retreat - three writers, a poet, and a landscape architect - is inspired by either Aurora (wife of a lumber magnate, and the person who founded the retreat in the 1800s), or the spiritualist who died under mysterious circumstances after a seance to revive Aurora's dead children. A chapter set in the present day, about Ellis writing her historical mystery, is proceeded by a chapter set in the 1800s, about the events leading up to and following Corinth's death.

At first I thought that these events were meant to *be* Ellis' novel, as she was writing it - especially because the first such chapter is not very well written, ahaha - but the further the novel goes, the more the two sets of events don't quite line up - for instance, something is revealed in the past but it's not shown how Ellis, in the present, would have found out about it. On reflection, the 19th century parts are probably supposed to either be what actually happened, or Ellis' book after she has finished with it sometime after the novel ends. Which means that the first chapter of her book is not badly written on purpose, alas.

...Or perhaps it was badly written on purpose, but Carol Goodman didn't bother to be absolutely internally consistent with her story. :p On the whole, I enjoyed this book. The infighting among writers carries the story in the beginning, the "twists" and backstory keep you reading in the middle, and by the end of the novel, the supernatural elements have gotten so crazy that you've forgotten about the minor problems of the first two parts. XD. However, I wished I'd kept better notes as the story went along, because this is a novel that shows its seams. I'm pretty sure that the plot twists are surprising, not just because they are unexpected, but also because there were a lot of false hints dropped, for instance. XD But, on the whole, the story is interesting enough to be worth reading anyway.

Here's my beginning-novel complaint:

An "allée" is a walkway lined with trees. Carol Goodman has used this word three times in the last three pages. The first two times were internal narration and for the third time, another character (not the narrator) said it out loud. AS IF HE WERE READING HER MIND. This kind of mind-reading is also a preoccupation of the narrator, and of the heroine in the narrator's book (we get snippets) (I'm guessing it's an earlier, unpublished/unpublishable work of Carol Goodman's, since it's not very polished). When Ellis talks about being unable to source quotations and just seems to know things she shouldn't have been able to know: that's not a characterization, that's bad writing. :p And it's bad writing that knows it is bad writing but would rather decorate the rip than fix the problem.

Overall you can really see where Carol has improved (from the historical novel), though. For one thing, when she writes in a first person all her problems with writing other people's thought processes go away. :p She can be quite perceptive about other people's /actions/, the things they are likely to say, especially within the context of the story (writer's retreat). But... not their thoughts. XD

More to come. But I am enjoying the look into creativewritingland and look forward to reading more put-downs of the narrator by older, sharper and more experienced writings.

Here's my middle-of-the-novel complaint:

I was with Carol Goodman when she revealed that the narrator's mother was a medium - I thought this was very well handled, especially since she showed a lot of restraint in not dropping this "juicy" tidbit earlier, when the readers are trying to figure out the main character/why they should care about the main character - but not when she revealed that Eliis' whole family were mediums, and she grew up in a town ruled by a Matriarchy, where everyone had a spiritual gift. I mean, wut the hell? XD The narrative lampshades this, but it's still not believable, you know?

And here's what I thought by the end:

Putting the earlier events of the book in context with the crazy shit that goes down at the end, minor issies like whether it is believable that a community of spiritualists exists in Upstate New York (and if it was going to exist anywhere, it would exist there, or in California) seem immaterial. XD Seriously, that's some craaaaaazy shit that goes on at the end. The book kind of tips over from being a literary novel, to being a romance, to being a mysetery, to being a horror novel.

What else can be said about this book? Well, it is full of Indians, for one thing. XD The main character and another writer are part-Indian, the 19th centurry spiritualist Corinth is half-Indian but feels much closer to her (Indian) mother, there are tons of pregnant Indian ghosts said to be running around, and Wanda, the maid, is a full Indian. There are also lots of references to (living!) Indian communities. I don't know enough tribal lore to know whether these portrayals are respectful, but the lack of erasure was nice.

ayalesca might appreciate the bitter - but charming! - one-time genius WASP writer who is wasting his talent, after a stunning debut novel about his mean grandfather, bumming around smoking pot and pretending to write. :p