Kind of an odd book. Boylen isn't that much older than me, but grew up in such a different world, it's hard to make sense of all the pieces of her memoir put together. I found myself questioning, “is this real?“ a lot. But she has a dry, Vonnegut-esque sense of humor, and there's an underlying poignancy that touched me very much. It's interesting as sort of a period piece and heartbreaking as a story about family.
In those days, my friends and I listened to everything--classical, traditional Irish, Javanese gamelan, cool jazz, Indian raga, Frank Zappa, Gregorian chants, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The only thing completely off our radar was disco, which we assumed appealed exclusively to the stupid. Inevitably, it's disco that people now associate with the era of my adolescence.
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pickGhostbusting! 👻 Wish I would have discovered this in October. Lots of interesting historical background on the supernatural craze of late 19th to mid 20th centuries.
I recall my grandmother saying at one time her family members went to some type of fortune teller/seer, which would have been within that period. Can‘t remember why, but in my mind it‘s connected to something about money hidden within the walls of the house.
pickMy view on the existence of ghosts or spirits is like my belief in God - I tend towards being agnostic in that there has been no definitive proof that God exists or doesn't exist, but like the ancient Romans believed about the gods of others, what's the harm in covering all bases just in case!
In a purely entertainment capacity, I thought this was pretty good. (continued)
My husband and I started our anniversary weekend by doing some ghost hunting at Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana. It is a beautiful, peaceful place, but I did not get much sleep. 👻
pickThis is a non-fiction retelling of what happened when an English housewife suddenly began experiencing poltergeist activity in her home. This happened at a time when mediums and seances were popular in the UK and just prior to the first stirrings of WW 2. A prominent psychic investigator decided to look into the case. Lots of clever deception with Freudian overtones makes an interesting study of human nature. Four stars
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