‘Ghost Story’ by Peter Straub

“A nice exercise in genre writing. More literary than most. A few nice phrases, a reasonably constructed plot.” — Sears James, “Ghost Story”

While I was reading the first chapter of Ghost Story by Peter Straub, I was reminded of an old comedy sketch — “Slowly I turned, step by step…” — and I thought that was a good description for my experience reading this book. (You can check out the Three Stooges’ version of that skit here.)

In the beginning, “slowly I turned, step by step” referred to how quickly (or not) I became involved in the book. This turned out to be a mistake on my part. I was misled by the first chapter. Straub begins near the end, but I didn’t know that. I assumed I was reading about what a creepy guy in a van was about to do to a little girl he’d picked up. I don’t enjoy reading stories about children being hurt, so I had to force myself to the end of the chapter. I’m glad I did, because this book was all kinds of scary awesome.

As I became more involved in the book, I thought “slowly I turned, step by step” applied to the way Straub built his story, layer by layer. Like I said, he begins near the end, then he picks up somewhere before the middle, and we learn about the beginning gradually through flashbacks, which are the ghost stories told by the Chowder Society. At the same time we’re trying to get to the beginning of the story, events are occurring that are pulling us toward a frightening climax. The elaborate structure of the story makes for a very busy reading experience, especially when it’s nearly 600 pages long and you need get to the end to make sure the evil things are dead so you can sleep. Throughout the sometimes excruciating buildup, Straub tosses in teasers that keep the reader turning pages, such as on p. 54, that Elmer Scales “could not possibly have foreseen or understood what he would be doing with that shotgun in two months’ time,” or Ricky Hawthorne’s thought on p. 81: “Something’s going to happen to this whole town.”

Fred Astaire played Ricky Hawthorne in a 1981 movie version of "Ghost Story." This photo isn't from the movie.

Even when I wasn’t sure that I wanted to read Ghost Story, I was immediately captivated by Straub’s skillful description and ability to set an eerie tone in the first chapter. I loved how he described Dr. Jaffrey’s “birdlike run” as he searches for the bridge. (p.122). Characters were vividly drawn, and my favorite was the ill-fated Elmer Scales, the bad-poetry-writing farmer with protruding ears, who declares on p. 254, “…come from Mars boy maybe you do but we’ll see how you glow when you get a load of shot in you.”

I faced my issue with children again when it came to Fenny.  In Sears’ story he reminded me of an old Cary Grant movie I’d just seen in which a family adopts an angry, handicapped orphan boy. In Room for One More, Jimmy-John ends up getting a Boy Scout award. He does not become a flesh-eating ghost/zombie/vampire. When Fenny made that transformation, I stopped worrying about him.

I think the best way to sum up my thoughts on Ghost Story would be to say that two-thirds into the book I stopped taking notes, because I knew I wouldn’t forget.