The Ghost at the TableThe Ghost at the Table
a Novel
Title rated 2.95 out of 5 stars, based on 22 ratings(22 ratings)
Book, 2006
Current format, Book, 2006, 1st ed, All copies in use.Book, 2006
Current format, Book, 2006, 1st ed, All copies in use. Offered in 0 more formatsThanksgiving at the New England home of the second of three sisters marks a reunion between the three Fiske sisters and their long-estranged father, in a portrait of the unraveling of a family.
Thanksgiving at the New England home of the second of three sisters marks a reunion between the three Fiske sisters--including Cynthia, the youngest, an author writing a book about Mark Twain's daughters--and their long-estranged father, in a portrait of the unraveling of a family, set against the famous nineteenth-century author's own family dysfunction.
Strikingly different since childhood and leading very dissimilar lives now, sisters Frances and Cynthia have nevertheless managed to remain "devoted" - so long as they stay on opposite coasts. But with the reappearance of their elderly, long-estranged father they find themselves reunited for a cold, snowy Thanksgiving week - a reunion that awakens sleeping tensions and old sorrows.
Frances envisions a happy family holiday with her husband and daughters in her lovely old New England farmhouse. Cynthia, a writer of historical fiction, doesn't understand how Frances can ignore the past their father's presence revives, a past that includes suspicions about their mother's death twenty-five years earlier. Adding to her uneasiness is her research for a book on Mark Twain's daughters, whose lives she thinks eerily mirror her own and Frances's.
As Thanksgiving day arrives, with a houseful of guests looking forward to dinner, the sisters continue to struggle with different versions of their shared past, until a warning issued by Cynthia's friend Carita, that "families are toxic" and "blood is bloody," proves prophetically true.
The Ghost at the Table reveals what happens when one person tries to rewrite another's history, and explores the mystery of why families try to stay together even when it may be in their best interests to stay apart.
Strikingly different since childhood and leading dissimilar lives now, sisters Frances and Cynthia have managed to remain "devoted"—as long as they stay on opposite coasts. When Frances arranges to host Thanksgiving at her idyllic New England farmhouse, she envisions a happy family reunion, one that will include the sisters' long-estranged father. Cynthia, however, doesn't understand how Frances can ignore the past their father's presence revives, a past that includes suspicions about their mother's death twenty-five years earlier.
As Thanksgiving Day arrives, with a houseful of guests looking forward to dinner, the sisters continue to struggle with different versions of a shared past, their conflict escalating to a dramatic, suspenseful climax.
Thanksgiving at the New England home of the second of three sisters marks a reunion between the three Fiske sisters--including Cynthia, the youngest, an author writing a book about Mark Twain's daughters--and their long-estranged father, in a portrait of the unraveling of a family, set against the famous nineteenth-century author's own family dysfunction.
Strikingly different since childhood and leading very dissimilar lives now, sisters Frances and Cynthia have nevertheless managed to remain "devoted" - so long as they stay on opposite coasts. But with the reappearance of their elderly, long-estranged father they find themselves reunited for a cold, snowy Thanksgiving week - a reunion that awakens sleeping tensions and old sorrows.
Frances envisions a happy family holiday with her husband and daughters in her lovely old New England farmhouse. Cynthia, a writer of historical fiction, doesn't understand how Frances can ignore the past their father's presence revives, a past that includes suspicions about their mother's death twenty-five years earlier. Adding to her uneasiness is her research for a book on Mark Twain's daughters, whose lives she thinks eerily mirror her own and Frances's.
As Thanksgiving day arrives, with a houseful of guests looking forward to dinner, the sisters continue to struggle with different versions of their shared past, until a warning issued by Cynthia's friend Carita, that "families are toxic" and "blood is bloody," proves prophetically true.
The Ghost at the Table reveals what happens when one person tries to rewrite another's history, and explores the mystery of why families try to stay together even when it may be in their best interests to stay apart.
Strikingly different since childhood and leading dissimilar lives now, sisters Frances and Cynthia have managed to remain "devoted"—as long as they stay on opposite coasts. When Frances arranges to host Thanksgiving at her idyllic New England farmhouse, she envisions a happy family reunion, one that will include the sisters' long-estranged father. Cynthia, however, doesn't understand how Frances can ignore the past their father's presence revives, a past that includes suspicions about their mother's death twenty-five years earlier.
As Thanksgiving Day arrives, with a houseful of guests looking forward to dinner, the sisters continue to struggle with different versions of a shared past, their conflict escalating to a dramatic, suspenseful climax.
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- Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2006.
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