The Ghost at the Table

Starred review from June 12, 2006
This taut psychological drama by Orange Prize–winner Berne (A Crime in the Neighborhood
) unfolds as San Francisco freelance writer Cynthia Fiske acquiesces to her maternal older sister, Frances, and attends the Thanksgiving family reunion Frances is hosting at her perfectly restored Colonial home in Concord, Mass. Cynthia believes her father, now 82, murdered their invalid mother with an overdose of pills when Cynthia was 13, and she has no wish to ever see him again. Within months after their mother died, their father packed Frances and Cynthia off to boarding school and married the much younger Ilse, a graduate student who worked as part-time tutor to Frances. But now he's suffered a stroke. Ilse is divorcing him, and the family is placing him in a home. Tension is high by the time the assorted guests, including Frances's complicated teenage daughters, her mysterious husband and the speech-impaired patriarch, are called to Frances's table, and it doesn't take much to fan the first flares of anger into the inevitable conflagration. Berne takes an inherently dramatic conflict—one sister's intention to obfuscate the hard truths of the past vs. another's determination to drag them under a spotlight —and ratchets up the stakes with astute observation and narrative cunning.

July 1, 2006
Family dysfunction gets a much-needed makeover in this solid, satisfying novel from Orange Prize winner Berne ("A Crime in the Neighborhood"). When Cynthia Fiske, a successful author, reluctantly agrees to visit one of her sisters, Frances, for Thanksgiving, the siblings resume their long-running argument over what really happened the night their mother died. Despite their best efforts, this disagreement permeates their conversations, lacing each word with passive-aggressive meaning and adding suspense to daily routines. Readers who like a measured pace will enjoy the tension that builds as Cynthia -s visit progresses, while those who appreciate a good metaphor will relish the parallel between Cynthia -s latest project -a history of Mark Twain -s daughters -and the Fiskes - own trauma. Amusing concrete symbols, e.g., a Jacuzzi-thawed turkey and one of the ugliest family heirlooms to grace the pages of contemporary fiction, add heft to the narrative, making it easy for the reader to see (and choose) sides. An original take on a frequently explored subject; recommended for medium to large fiction collections." -Leigh Anne Vrabel, Carnegie Lib. of Pittsburgh"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2007
Adult/High School-Sisters, living and dead, loom large in Berne's tale of family secrets unraveled. Cynthia Fiske writes a series of historical fiction for girls, depicting the lives of remarkable women through the eyes of their slightly less-remarkable sisters. An invitation to her own sister's house for Thanksgiving in New England coincides with her need to visit Mark Twain's home in Hartford to research a new novel on the writer's daughters, whose story of a charismatic father and three troubled siblings parallels the Fiskes' history. Complicating the usual holiday tensions is the presence of their elderly father, once brash and manipulative, now disabled and facing a divorce from his much-younger wife. As the family struggles with generations of dysfunction and unspoken secrets, including the mysterious death of their mother decades earlier, Cynthia rebels by sharing the most sordid details of the long-gone Clemens family. Although she is nearing middle age, her feelings of isolation and rejection that began in childhood have left her a perpetual adolescent in relation to her family. Much like the child narrator of Donna Tartt's "The Little Friend" (Knopf, 2002), Berne portrays a confusing, comic, even sinister family dynamic and eschews a pat, happy ending in favor of a very real, if provocative, choice that will appeal to teen fans of family dramas."Jenny Gasset, Orange County Public Library, CA"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2006
Berne (" A Crime in the Neighborhood," 1997) sets this unsettling novel in a picture-perfect colonial house in Concord, Massachusetts, during the Thanksgiving holidays. But the family that gathers there is riddled with secrets, jealousy, and guilt. The narrator, Cynthia, is single and a writer for a young-adult series called Sisters of History (or, as her colleague wryly refers to it, "hysterical fiction for young girls"). Her married sister, Frances, has inveigled Cynthia to visit, intent on fostering a reunion with their long-estranged father, now 82 and suffering paralysis from a stroke. Cynthia believes that her father is responsible for her invalid mother's death when Cynthia was only 13, while Frances has a very different take on the past. As the family gathers at the table, tense arguments ensue as bitter feelings and warring memories erupt in ugly fashion, ensuring a memorable holiday experience for all. Berne uses a number of skillful techniques, including an unreliable narrator and the dark connections between Cynthia's books and her personal life, to create a truly horrific atmosphere.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)