The Ghosts of Heaven

Four related stories range chronologically from the prehistoric past, to Britain at the end of the witch hunts, to an early-twentieth-century Long Island insane asylum, and finally to a spacecraft in the distant future. In each, the image of a spiral is associated with violence and horror. Satisfyingly brain-teasing conceptual elements help compensate for the distant narrative voice and stiff characters.

Like Sedgwick's Midwinter Blood (rev. 3/13), The Ghosts of Heaven revolves (an apt verb) around a visual image -- in this case, the spiral or helix. The novel comprises four related stories, and the four parts are divided into quarters -- one for each turn of a full spiral revolution. The stories range chronologically from the prehistoric past; to rural Britain at the end of the witch hunts in the eighteenth century; to the early twentieth century, at an insane asylum on Long Island; and finally to a spacecraft in deep space and the distant future. In each, the image of the spiral is associated with violence, death, and horror. In the first three tales, it appears that "what goes around comes around"; almost from the first words, violent death is inevitable and predictable. Not until the final quarter, "The Song of Destiny," in which the story's sections are numbered according to the Fibonacci sequence, do we and the protagonist begin to see that the spiral movement through space and time makes repeated patterns, but is always moving forward. The conceptual elements of this final story are satisfyingly brain-teasing, which helps to compensate for the novel's distant narrative voice and stiff characters. deirdre f. baker