Helpful Score: 3
This is the second book I have read from this author, and it is definently the better of the two. This book is about an older man that lives in a cemetary because life in the outside world just became too much for him. He finds that he can talk to the spirits of the dead and a few animals as well. He has a raven friend that helps to survive by bringing him food and news. This is the set-up for the book. The story begins with a new arrival to the cemetary who can't get used to the fact that not only is he dead, but that eventually, his spirit will just cease to really exist. The old man tries to help him get acclimated to the his new "life", while getting used to the fact that he might not like his life alone so much after all, when he meets a Jewish lady that has just lost her husband. The new male ghost also meets a new female ghost that he finds himself falling for. It's a sweet book, and a good read. It has fantasy aspects, but it's not violent or crude, just a nice read. I would recommend it to someone.
Helpful Score: 1
A fine line exists between the living who act dead and the dead who want to live.
I enjoyed this book for the most part. It was an easy read and kept me interested until the ending. The last 50 pages or seemed a bit odd and given the tone of the book up until that point, the ending was a bit too "happily ever after". However, I would still suggest reading this book as it has a pretty neat twist on the whole idea of the afterlife.
"The funny thing is this. Before that spring and ever afterward I used to pride myself on being sensitive and understanding far beyond the range of most people. I marked out the lost and toungueless for my own, and I used to think, I understand them. I know what it is to do a pitiful evil bercause of knowing oneself unloved. I may be unloved myself, but boy, am I empathetic. Sometimes I even wrote about it.
"But for that little while," she said, "I forgot all about the emotionally undernourished. I became arrogant. I was loved, I was one of the haves, and one of the secrets of being a have is not wasting your time on empathy. I gorged myself on being loved until it came out of my ears, and when it was over I didn't realize it for a time because I was living off my fat. Proving - "
"But for that little while," she said, "I forgot all about the emotionally undernourished. I became arrogant. I was loved, I was one of the haves, and one of the secrets of being a have is not wasting your time on empathy. I gorged myself on being loved until it came out of my ears, and when it was over I didn't realize it for a time because I was living off my fat. Proving - "
