Charles de Lint has a long answer — ‘ Synchronicityís a funny thing. There I was in last monthís column, mentioning how this is one of my favourite books, and the next thing I know thereís a new reprint of it sitting in my P.O. box.
Now the fear I always have of going back to something I havenít reread in a long time is that it won’t measure up to the warm affection I carry for it in my memories. But happily, that wasn’t the case here. I didnít even mean to reread it. I simply thought Iíd try a few pages to see how it fared and the next thing I knew it was late at night and I was half-way through.
For those of you new to this classic, it tells the story of a druggist who gave up his profession and moved into a mausoleum in the Bronx’s Yorkchester Cemetery.
Jonathan Rebeck has lived there for nineteen years when the book opens, his only company a talking raven and the ghosts that haunt the cemetery for a few weeks after their burial. The ghosts start to lose their memories over those weeks and eventually theyíre gone. But until they go, Rebeck can see and speak with them.
Rebeck is more than content to stay hidden away from the outside world, but the arrival of a certain pair of ghosts, and a Jewish mourner seem set to change everything, and we have our story.
A Fine and Private Place is just as wonderful as I remembered it to be: beautifully written, the characters warmly drawn, the pages filled with conversations that range the gamut of the human condition. In these days of everything coming in quick sound bites, at a faster and faster pace, Beagleís novel might seem quaint as it takes its time to tell its story. But you know, thereís a reason that people still read Dickens and Austin, and thereís a reason theyíll appreciate this book: quality counts.
This edition is apparently the definitive text, but I have to admit that whatever small changes Beagle might have made, I didnít notice them. What I do know is that itís a great book, in a lovely affordable package. To give you an example of the attention to detail that everyone involved with this new edition took, cover photographer Ann Monn flew to New York to take a photo in the same cemetery that provided Beagle with his inspiration.
And the bookís worth it.
From a ‘Books to Look For’ column which first appeared in The Magazine of F&SF, August 2007, edited by Gordon Van Gelder. Copyright (c) 2007 by Charles de Lint. Reprinted by permission of the author.
