Alan Lightman is a rarity: a theoretical physicist and a serious contender in the world of literary fiction, with four novels under his belt and a shortlisting in the prestigious US National Book Awards for The Diagnosis.
His latest novel walks a fascinating line between the possibility of paranormal events and their consequences. David, a sensitive, introverted fellow on the brink of middle age, is living in a quiet American town. After a series of failures in relationships and jobs, he ends up working in a mortuary. One day in the 鈥渟lumber room鈥�, where bodies are laid out in their caskets prior to burial, he sees something out of the corner of his eye. Quite what, David is never capable of articulating, even to himself: 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a week, but I still have that awful image in my mind. It burns鈥� But where are the words to describe it?鈥�
The treatment of paranormal events in fiction, excluding works of fantasy, raises questions of objective, rational propriety, similar to those in journalism, history and scientific inquiry. Willing the suspension of disbelief goes only so far: even in great literature and drama, certain events are interesting only if they are more or less credible. We accept the ghost of Hamlet鈥檚 father because it can, we suspect, be interpreted as a figment of Hamlet鈥檚 imagination, prompted by conscience and grief.
Advertisement
Of abiding interest, however, is how people behave when they think that someone has been the recipient of a paranormal event. Here, David鈥檚 experience leaves him shaken, nauseous, obsessed. It prompts him, and an ever-widening constituency of workmates, friends and strangers, to increasing speculation, surmise and theory.
There are eager questions from the bereaved, intrusions by sensation-seeking journalists, meditations by philosophers and theologians, and experimental probes by loony amateurs. But perhaps the most fascinating are the imaginative embellishments that multiply as the tale passes from mouth to mouth.
Lightman employs his story brilliantly to explore issues of realism, imagination, time, many-worlds theories and metaphysics, while teasing the reader with the book鈥檚 central secret: exactly what did David witness? It would be giving too much away to divulge David鈥檚 final shot at defining his strange encounter; suffice to say it has more to do with an unusual moment of daylight insight than with spooks in the dark.
Ghost
Pantheon
