Had I planned better I would have chosen one of Edith Wharton's ghost stories to read this weekend. Maybe I'll read one next weekend, but the momentum would have been perfect since it's been an Edith Wharton sort of week.
Time to change tack however. I decided I needed something with a contemporary flair, so I picked up Alison Lurie's Women and Ghosts: Tales, which is a collection of short stories that have been called a cross between Dorothy Parker and Edgar Allen Poe. The ghosts in this collection are both literal and metaphorical, and the stories are meant to be spooky but also maybe a little quirky and funny, too. I'm not sure whether I'll read the whole collection (of course I want to, but best intentions and all that), but just in case--I decided to start at the beginning.
In "Ilse's House" it's the kitchen that's haunted. But can a place be haunted by someone who isn't even a ghost? Rather, someone who is still alive? Dinah is a market-research analyst, a much younger woman who is seeing the older, distinguished and mercurial Gregor Spiegelmann. Successful, sexy, charming and a serious 'catch', Greg is an academic. He's he chairman of his department as a matter of fact. He's divorced and known as a ladies man, but Dinah's caught him and moved into his house. It's the home he shared with Ilse, his first wife.
Ilse hated living in the US. She could never speak the language properly and never felt at home. She would jealously wonder what Greg was out doing while she stayed up late waiting for his return. She left behind family, country and career. And when she had enough she packed up and left and went home to Czechoslovakia. Maybe never to be heard from again. But she seems to be inhabiting the space between the refrigerator and the wall in Greg's kitchen and scaring the heck out of Dinah.
"It was a wet dark late-winter morning, and the kitchen windows were streaked with half frozen rain like transparent glue. When I went into the room the first thing I noticed was what looked like somebody's legs and feet in grey tights and worn black low heel pumps sticking out between the refrigerator and the wall. I kind of screamed, but nothing came out except a sort of gurgle. Then I took a step nearer and saw a pale woman in a dark dress sitting wedged in there."
Is she real or a figment of Dinah's imagination. And if the space is closed off, will she go away? Greg doesn't notice anything amiss, but Dinah keeps running into her. She doesn't say anything, but is simply a presence. In this case, maybe a warning of things to come. When Dinah gets a taste of Greg's true colors she comes to realize just what Ilse is trying to tell her.
"Ilse's House" is an entertaining if light story. Definitely low-level chill factor here, spooky in idea but lite in execution. I'm thinking this is not "vintage" Lurie--I've heard many good things about her novels, but I have yet to try them. Still, a nice feminist slant and I suspect the point is less about telling a chilling ghost story than looking at relationships (and being lucky enough to get out of a bad situation early). In this case I think it's better to look at the collection as a whole than at individual stories, so, I'll keep reading and see what else Lurie has up her sleeve.