Christopher Barzak

A Glorious Sunday

Not only did Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik win the middleweight championship in seven rounds tonight, giving it up to Youngstown in the interview afterward, the town that sent him off with a pep rally which people talked about on TV as if it were not as sophisticated as it should be, you know, pep rallies and all, but after the fight I came home to find this review in the San Francisco Chronicle of One for Sorrow:

Christopher Barzak finds a new slant on the “I-see-dead-people” formula in his off-beat coming-of-age tale, One for Sorrow (Bantam; 310 pages; $12; trade paperback). Already reeling from a recent family tragedy, 15-year-old Adam McCormick feels a special kinship with Jamie Marks, a classmate whose body is found buried in the woods. Neglected by his parents and peers, Adam begins to interact with Jamie’s all-too-visible ghost, comforting the dead boy even as his memories begin to burn away. Their bond, however, proves dangerously seductive, and Adam eventually begins to lose his own moorings in the physical world.

Barzak does a beautiful job of capturing the anxieties of adolescence and the righteous rage many teens feel at life’s inherent unfairness. He wisely discards the amateur detective cliches that coagulate around this kind of fantasy and concentrates on Adam’s brave, interior struggle to find the value in his family, his first girlfriend, his hometown and himself. Smart and affecting, “One for Sorrow” is a first novel likely to haunt those who fall under its spell.

Two ghost stories. One that I was cheering for from the oldest pub in Youngstown, where the floor felt like it was going to collapse when Kelly knocked out Taylor, like knocking out everyone who thought us a lost, nowhere place in the world, someone told me as we all cheered, and one from San Francisco, where the ghosts I’ve written about have been welcomed. It’s a good night.

Good night.

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4 responses to “A Glorious Sunday”

  1. eric uhlich Avatar
    eric uhlich

    Hi Chris, Eric here. Good to read the reviews of your book. Is it in bookstores over here? Perhaps I’ll have to order it. Looking forward to having a read.
    Congratulations.
    In other news, Tokyo is still Tokyo, but it’s becoming Tokyo fall, which is cool and nice and nearly my favourite.

    Reply
  2. Christopher Barzak Avatar
    Christopher Barzak

    Hey Eric, great to hear from you! I’m not sure if the book is in actual bookstores in Japan, but you can certainly order it from amazon.jp if you have an account. I know some of our mutual friends got theirs that way. Let me know if you get a hold of it and what you think of it.

    I miss Tokyo. Fall and Spring were always my two favorite seasons in Japan, though I did love winter and summer for their own unique aspects as well.

    Reply
  3. OMAR Avatar
    OMAR

    The triumph of Mancini, and the gravity Duk Koo Kim incident were as much a part of my childhood as the Canfield Fair.

    Sounds like Pavlik’s victory was as uplifting as the one 25 years ago.

    Reply
  4. Christopher Barzak Avatar
    Christopher Barzak

    Totally, Omar, that’s exactly what it felt like that night, even for people who aren’t boxing fans. 🙂

    Reply

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