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The spirit photographer : a novel / Jon Michael Varese.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Overlook Duckworth, 2018Copyright date: �2018Description: 312 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781468315875
  • 1468315870
  • 9780715653005
  • 0715653008
Subject(s): Genre/Form: LOC classification:
  • PS3622.A7418 S75 2018
Summary: "Boston, 1870. Photographer Edward Moody runs a booming business capturing the images of the spirits of the departed in his portraits. He lures grieving widows and mourning mothers into his studio with promises of catching the ghosts of their deceased loved ones with his camera. Despite the whispers around town that Moody is a fraud of the basest kind, no one has been able to expose him, and word of his gift has spread, earning him money, fame, and a growing list of illustrious clients. One day, while developing the negative from a sitting to capture the spirit of the young son of an abolitionist senator, Moody is shocked to see a different spectral figure develop before his eyes. Instead of the staged image of the boy he was expecting, the camera has seemingly captured the spirit of a beautiful young woman. Is it possible that the spirit photographer caught a real ghost? When Moody recognizes the woman in the photograph as the daughter of an escaped slave he knew long ago, he is compelled to travel from Boston to the Louisiana bayous to resolve their unfinished business--and perhaps save his soul. But more than one person is out to stop him"--From upper jacket flap.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Fiction Davis (Central) Library Fiction Collection Fiction Collection VARE Available T00806717
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Boston, 1870. Photographer Edward Moody runs a booming business capturing the images of the spirits of the departed in his portraits. He lures grieving widows and mourning mothers into his studio with promises of catching the ghosts of their deceased loved ones with his camera. Despite the whispers around town that Moody is a fraud of the basest kind, no one has been able to expose him, and word of his gift has spread, earning him money, fame, and a growing list of illustrious clients. One day, while developing the negative from a sitting to capture the spirit of the young son of an abolitionist senator, Moody is shocked to see a different spectral figure develop before his eyes. Instead of the staged image of the boy he was expecting, the camera has seemingly captured the spirit of a beautiful young woman. Is it possible that the spirit photographer caught a real ghost? When Moody recognizes the woman in the photograph as the daughter of an escaped slave he knew long ago, he is compelled to travel from Boston to the Louisiana bayous to resolve their unfinished business--and perhaps save his soul. But more than one person is out to stop him . . .With dramatic twists and redolent of the mood of the Southern Gothic, The Spirit Photographer conjures the Reconstruction era South, replete with fugitive hunters, voodoo healers, and other dangers lurking in the swamp. Jon Michael Varese's deftly plotted first novel is an intense tale of death and betrayal that shows us how undeniably the ghosts of the past remain with us, and how resolutely they refuse to be quieted.

Includes bibliographical references.

"Boston, 1870. Photographer Edward Moody runs a booming business capturing the images of the spirits of the departed in his portraits. He lures grieving widows and mourning mothers into his studio with promises of catching the ghosts of their deceased loved ones with his camera. Despite the whispers around town that Moody is a fraud of the basest kind, no one has been able to expose him, and word of his gift has spread, earning him money, fame, and a growing list of illustrious clients. One day, while developing the negative from a sitting to capture the spirit of the young son of an abolitionist senator, Moody is shocked to see a different spectral figure develop before his eyes. Instead of the staged image of the boy he was expecting, the camera has seemingly captured the spirit of a beautiful young woman. Is it possible that the spirit photographer caught a real ghost? When Moody recognizes the woman in the photograph as the daughter of an escaped slave he knew long ago, he is compelled to travel from Boston to the Louisiana bayous to resolve their unfinished business--and perhaps save his soul. But more than one person is out to stop him"--From upper jacket flap.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

[DEBUT] In 1870 Boston, Elizabeth Garrett's insistence that her abolitionist senator husband, James, accompany her to Edward Moody's studio to capture the image of their dead son in a "spirit photograph" sets in motion events that disrupt personal and professional lives. What appears on the photograph is an image not even Moody can explain: a young black woman, Isabelle, who had disappeared years earlier. While James employs desperate measures to conceal his past relationship with Isabelle to save his political career, Edward and his assistant, a former slave named Joseph Winter, head to New Orleans to learn what happened to her. As Edward and Joseph relentlessly search for Isabelle, the plot incorporates elements of magic realism and Southern gothic in a sometimes confusing tangle of memory, speculation, and suspicion. Edward is modeled after famed spirit photographer Edward Mumler, and the 1870 court case in which he was tried for fraud figures prominently here. An overarching question is the extent to which photography captures reality or alters perceptions. Verdict Readers seeking straightforward historical fiction may be taken aback by multiple narratives, overlapping reminiscences, and uncertain conclusions. However, they will find much to investigate and discuss in literary historian Varese's debut novel.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Mankato © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* In the aftermath of the Civil War, Boston photographer Edward Moody makes a living by reuniting the grief-stricken with their lost loved ones in spirit photos. Having built up an impressive clientele, Moody next sets his sights on famed Senator Garrett and his wife, who lost their young son. But something goes wrong during their sitting, and the spirit in their photo seems there for Moody instead. It's Isabelle, the love of his life and a freed black woman, who disappeared, leaving only a letter promising to return. Even more bewildering is the reaction of the Garretts, who seem equally haunted. Now Moody must retrace Isabelle's past with the help of his new assistant, Joseph, who, mysteriously, also knew her. In between the overlapping lives that Isabelle touched lies danger, and Moody and Joseph must face their own demons to find the woman who saved them. Varese's unique first novel is set deep in the secrets of the postwar years, when the chains of slavery have vanished but an equally sinister underside to society remains. An entertaining amalgam of history and fiction, gothic and ghost story, The Spirit Photographer is an addicting tale.--Shaw, Stacy Copyright 2018 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

A sprawling, intricately plotted debut novel that combines post-Civil War history with a kind of ghost story.The title character is one Edward Moody ((based on a real man named William Mumler), who worked for Civil War photographer Mathew Brady. Moody was devastated by the horrors he witnessed, and after the war he takes up spirit photography with great success. Clients sit for a photo portrait in Moody's Boston studio, and when the negative is developed, the image of a departed loved one somehow emerges in the background. Sen. James Garrett, a prominent abolitionist, reluctantly accompanies his wife, Elizabeth, for a sitting: She hopes to make a spiritual connection with their son, who died years before at age 3. Butshockinglythe image that surfaces behind the Garretts is that of a young woman of color named Isabelle, who, it turns out, was involved with both Moody and the senator. Moody is determined to find out what happened to Isabelle and launches a search; he is accompanied by Joseph Winter, an escaped slave-cum-Union Army veteran who has become his assistant and who also knew Isabelle. With the police on their heelsMoody is accused of being a charlatanthe two end up in the Louisiana bayou, where they begin to learn the truth about Isabelle and what she left behind. The writing is vivid, even lyrical at times, and the passages on Reconstructionencapsulated in the prickly friendship between Garrett and the more conservative Sen. Dovehouseare illuminating. The deep divide in the country circa 1870 is vaguely reminiscent of our own time. But the novel overheats, especially in the endless bayou section, and there are a few too many mystics and mediums on hand. Plus, the endless twists and turns become wearing.In part a meditation on belief, the book is mostly engaging despite being overlong and occasionally preposterous. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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