Jesse's Ghost: A Novel

by Frank Bergon

Everybody loved Jesse. Boys wanted to be him--or beat him--and girls wanted to be with him. In a place where fist fighting was a noble sport, and drinking and sex were the only forms of cheap entertainment for teenagers, Jesse was the toughest kid in the valley. Until he was murdered by his best friend. Told without nostalgia or sentimentality, Jesse's Ghost is a powerful novel about a man haunted by the crime he committed decades ago and the realization that the ghosts of his past will always haunt him. These are the sons and daughters of the people portrayed in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath --the generation who came of age when toughness, hard work, and loyalty defined what it meant to be a man in America. Through the chaos that surrounded him, the risks he took, and despite the mistakes he made, Jesse pursued the American Dream. His best friend Sonny, through the moving, funny, and tragic story he narrates in Jesse's Ghost , seeks a new life and redemption.

205 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2011

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful novel about love and regret. It is spare like an ecosystem is spare--nothing can be added or removed without upsetting the balance. A reviewer said that this is a "man's book" but I don't agree anymore than I think Jane Austen's novels are "women's books." There are certainly things I can't relate directly to--though I think more because of class and culture than gender--but we've all loved, done things we regretted, felt loss. And Bergon conveys these things, and the characters that experience them, with great artistry.

[Peg Lotvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a sad book. Young men mostly from broken alcoholic families growing up with little or no direction. The saddest part is their total disregard for the women in their lives except as items to be seen with or to steal from one another. And that is why Jesse is a ghost.

[Mark Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Tough, tough people growing up just miles from where I did but in a different world. Descriptions of farming life in the Valley are very vivid.

[Kkraemer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of ghosts who walk the fields, bars, and cars of California's Central Valley. Descendants of the Oklahoma migration of the '30's, Sonny, Jesse, and their friends work hard to raise the crops that we all eat. They work hard, cuss hard, chase women hard, and drink a lot. They are friends who fight without boundaries and then make up to go and do it all again.

For Jesse, Sonny, and their families, there is no sense of building toward a future other than living the way they've always lived. They take pride in the toughness of the old men, pity on the craziness of the old women, and solace in a six pack.

In some ways, this novel seems more like a portrait than a movie. It's a portrait of how people live and think, of the rules children are taught. and of a way of life that pulses at the center of California. It's a way of life far different from that of the coast or San Francisco or Southern California, a life based on a sense of pride and a respect for fists, not on a "lifestyle."

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was different than what I thought it was going to be. I enjoyed this book on multiple fronts. A word of caution I would add is that this is def. a guys book. I could see some women panning it for the language and subject matter. It can be pretty crass in its' descriptors at times.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bored in the first 20 pages. Lamesauce.