The Year of Past Things

Rating:
Summary: A New Orleans ghost story
Review:

The newly formed Randazzo family has been living on a diet of change. By the time Chef Phil Randazzo, owner of a trendy New Orleans restaurant, marries the widow of deceased Cajun musician A.P. Savoie, the artist's following has achieved cult status. Savoie was tragically killed in an accident, leaving Michelle and her two children shocked and grieving. Now Michelle believes marriage to the affable Phil will restore some degree of security to the children's lives. Randazzo's first marriage, this impulsive adventure is mined with booby traps, most notably a teen-aged son and his contemplative, artistic younger sister. Given time, Phil is determined to win both children over.

Things would probably work out if only the dead would stay dead. Apparently, A.P. Savoie has no intention of remaining beyond the pale, appearing to Phil on the odd occasion, sending a message the new husband cannot fathom. Are these apparitions a warning or a menace? Circumstances go from bad to worse as the apparitions accelerate and the couple is frequently at odds, Michelle questioning the meaning of her past with Savoie and Phil wondering if his wife is really over her deceased husband.

The author sets a series of bizarre occurrences in New Orleans, an apt venue for a ghost story, a city renown for mystery, superstition, beloved saints and obscure voodoo practices. With the escalation of random dangerous events, each family member is at risk and it is imperative that Phil and Michelle put aside their differences to resolve the mystery of the apparitions. If Savoie is trying to communicate from beyond the grave, is he threatening his wife's happiness or trying to warn of imminent danger. The spirit world exists on another realm, not accessible to a frightened couple, who need help but don't know where to turn, abandoned by belief and wary of superstition.

Each family member narrowly escapes violence, fearful that the threat is out of control; circumstances force them to share personal experiences, secret thoughts and buried fears in an effort to unravel Savoie's cryptic message from the other side. If Phil and Michelle can put aside their own feelings to protect the children and the everyone will trust the good intentions of their new step-father, the family may yet save themselves from further catastrophe. Desperate enough to try anything and sensing that time is short, Phil and Michelle turn to spiritualists, prayer, priests and exorcism.

This modern-day ghost story is as much a tale of acceptance and adjustment as it is an adventure into the unknown. M.A. Harper, in the Acknowledgments, confides that she cut her teeth on ghost stories, heard them whispered at parties all her life, as much a part of New Orleans as its music and ritualistic celebrations. New Orleans city coexists with the past and the present, the shadows of the dead never far away, either in loving memory or with malevolent intent. The Randazzo's fight the demons of the past to secure the present, reserving a place for a beloved, if flawed father in the hearts of his children. Luan Gaines/2005.




Rating:
Summary: Great Ghost Story
Review: Here is a book with everything: good food (prepared lovingly) troubled relationships (resolved nicely), romance, troubled teens and pre-, adventure, a cameo appearance by Anne Rice, New Orleans, adventure, and an ambiguous ghost. Loved it!
Merle Kessler

Rating:
Summary: "I mean, I'm not frightened at all of what he was"
Review: The Year of Past Things probably works better as a portrait of a couple trying to navigate through the murky emotional travails of their second marriage, rather than as a spooky, fog-filled ghost story. The story is an intricate tale of marital acceptance and change, and kudos goes to author M.A. Harper's for her decision to use the storm-drenched backdrop of New Orleans - the city certainly lends a sense of mystery and a tension-fuelled atmosphere to the story. But The Year of Past Things is often unwieldy and convoluted, with the themes of marital discord, spiritual enlightenment, memory, and mortality, all vying for literary and intellectual attention.

The story focuses on the recently married Phillip Randazzo and Michelle Wickham. They're an attractive and successful New Orleans couple who have bought to their relationship children from other marriages. Both are flourishing in their respective careers - Phil is a restaurateur who runs and owns Tasso, a trendy Louisiana eatery on Magazine Street, and Michelle is an anthropology professor, of late a widow, and the mother of six year-old Nicole and thirteen year old Cam.

Michelle, however, remains haunted by her first marriage, to A.P. Savoie, a Cajun artist and musician who was her high school sweetheart and the only true love of her life. Their lives were full of violence, drug abuse, and alcoholism, but their marriage managed to survive, until a drunk driver accidentally killed Savoie. Michelle readily admits to Cam that Phillip will never be able to replace Savoie, but she met Phil at such a low point in her life, when she was lonely and miserable and needed a relationship, that she sort of just "teamed up" with Phil. But Michelle is having problems letting go of Savoie and cannot readily embrace Phil. And Phil is steadily becoming jealous of the dead man, and is beginning to resent Michelle.

The past and present inexorably collide when Savoie's spirit begins to manifest itself from varying stages in his tormented past life. Both Michelle and Phil are forced to confront not only the possible existence of the spiritual world, but also their own shortcomings as potential long-term partners. Harper, to her credit employs Savoie's ghost judiciously, often as disparate, disconnected images that appear for just one moment. Phil sees him first and tries to explain him away as a stressful mental apparition. But Savoie's messages and warnings begin to appear in the unlikeliest of places - on television, and on one of Cam's video games. As the plot progresses, these warning signs from beyond the grave hint that Phil, Michelle, and the kids might be in some kind of danger.

There's no doubt that Ms. Harper is a competent writer, and she certainly knows how to write realistic, enlightening dialogue; her ability to portray fully rounded and three dimensional characters is also admirable, but so often the author gets sidetracked by weak descriptions of the natural world, and preoccupied with the depictions of her characters domestic habits. Harper packs so much into her story - she even admits that the manuscript had to be constantly tweaked - that the result is a narrative that is somewhat long-winded and overwrought.

Much of the action is set against the backdrop of Mardi gras, which adds an ethereal, eerie-like quality to the proceedings. In one inventive scene, even author Anne Rice makes a kind of celebrity appearance when Phil asks for her advice while jogging on a street corner. Generally though, The Year of Past Things reads more like a made-for-network television supernatural thriller, rather than a bonafide and legitimate piece of literary fiction. Mike Leonard February 05.


Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Ghost Story Set in New Orleans
Review: This New Orleans ghost story by M. A. Harper never achieves the promise of its title and premise - not even of its setting. Phil Randazzo, the chef-owner of one of New Orleans premier restaurants, is newly married to Michelle, the widow of a well-known jazz musician, A.P. Savoie, who died three years before in a car accident. Phil's two stepchildren, teenager Cam and much younger Nicole, have largely accepted him as their new father even though they remain haunted by their family tragedy. The haunting goes from psychological to real when Michelle starts dreaming vividly of Savoie and Phil encounters a young boy in a football jersey on the staircase of their house. Disturbing things, perhaps connected to a Zippo lighter, start happening in the house as Savoie gains strength. The presence of Savoie threatens to tear apart Phil and Michelle's marriage, and removing the ghost becomes critical to their survival.

Unfortunately, Harper's prose is clunky despite the lyricism of the title, and her storytelling is equally awkward. Except for Savoie himself, the characterizations never click and remain one breath away from life. Sadly, Harper never seems to give herself up fully to her story, although when she does, she shows real promise. The scene where Phil and Michelle see a psychic surprisingly is one of the best in the novel, primarily because of its fresh take on psychics and because the events unfold with a naturalness not found elsewhere. There are a few scary scenes, especially near the end, that keep the reader hooked. Harper has some good, strong moments, but they fail to carry the novel.

I really wanted to like this book; however, with its bland, awkward language and storytelling, The Year of Things Past is a disappointment.