A Fine and Private Place
A Fine And Unforgettable Place - Peter Beagle s debut novel from 1960 is a wonderful concept: an old man, a recluse who shacks out in a cemetery, who in turn has discussions with a talking raven, and can see and talk with ghosts. Then we have Michael and Laura falling in love in this same cemetery - a doomed love as they re both already dead.Throw in Mrs Klapper who comes to visit her dearly departed husband, and you have the strangest little collection of lost souls that you could imagine.Examining the dialogue between these characters, it all seems pretty harmless, even tame stuff, if you like. And yet the images of these characters float around in your head for long after the final page.It s real cutesy, but underneath you can sense some real home truths floating across these cold headstones.I wouldn t go mad about the book, but somehow it s comforting to know that it will always be there in my collection.
Sad, funny, romantic, philosophical... a gem - It s very difficult to put Peter Beagle into any type of category. Yes, he writes fantasy, but he also writes more than that. I suppose you could say he writes an Anglo-Saxon magical realism. At least, that s the closest comparison I can give for this, his first novel. The title comes from a couplet in an Andrew Marvell poem: The grave s a fine and private place/ But none, I think, do there embrace... Beagle begs to differ: people do embrace there, at least, they try.The story, such as it is, focuses on Jonathan Rebeck, a man who has retreated from the outside world to live in a large cemetery in New York. He survives by drinking from the tap behind his mausoleum and is fed by a wisecracking raven. Rebeck has a special talent: he can see and talk to the dead. In fact, he keeps hoping that he *is* dead. Of course, he is very much alive, and wishing to be dead is a waste of that gift, and the book is about how he gradually comes to realise that it is better to live life, with all its pain and frustration, than try and share death. He is helped along his journey by Michael and Laura, two newly deceased people who are still becoming accustomed to their lack of life. Beagle is eloquent about ghosts and about how it s really the living who haunt the dead, not the other way around. In fact, much of the book is taken up with philosophical discussion of death, life, love and various other things. Some of the language is a little dated, along with the characters, but the ideas remain as fresh as ever.Buy it. Read it. Read it over again. Like any Beagle novel, it s one to be treasured.
A romantic ghost story (for people who don t like romance) - This is a very beautiful, and at times a bit too touching story of a couple who meet in a cemetery - after death. I am not a romance reader (my way to this book went through Beagle s excellent fantasy novels) and was surprised at how much I enjoyed this one. It s a quiet book, but one that stays in your thoughts for a long time.