Ghosts & Oddities

by Jack Fitzgerald

Ghosts, Heroes and Oddities is a collection of the stories that have inspired, entertained and haunted countless generations of Newfoundlanders. The anthology captures the spirit of The Rock and its people with stories about feeling the icy cold hand of death, an Inuit woman’s courageous life and the day a sea monster attacked a 150-ton schooner.

168 pages, Paperback

First published March 20, 2006

About the author

Jack Fitzgerald was born and educated in St. John's, Newfoundland. During his career he has been a journalist, a feature writer and political columnist with the St. John's Daily News; a reporter and public affairs writer with CJON and VOCM News Services; editor of the Newfoundland Herald and the Newfoundland Chronicle. During the last years of the Smallwood administration he was assistant director of Public Relations with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. He has also worked as Assistance Officer with the Department of Social Services. Jack Fitzgerald also hosted a regular radio program featuring off-beat Newfoundland stories on radio station VOFM.

As well as writing about unusual happenings relating to Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders, Fitzgerald has also authored a series of Newfoundland crime and punishment stories as well as Newfoundland historical publications.

Reviews

[Noelle Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading this! Jack Fitzgerald is a master storyteller! This book is a must-read for book lovers, ghost story lovers, fans of Mr. Fitzgerald and lovers of Newfoundland books!

[Emma Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting, and short enough to keep my attention. However, it was oddly organized and some stories were far reaches for NL connections.

[Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whenever I travel, I always love picking up a local ghost stories book as a souvenir. I got this last September in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and finally got around to reading it.

While I thought this was a good collection of short occurrences and snippets, I feel that the title is a bit misleading. Of the 150 pages, only the first 20 pages had ghost stories. Maybe another 30 or so pages later on had “oddities” but the rest were random moments or people. A whole section about history via songs?

Overall interesting from a historical perspective I guess, but oddly grouped, and fairly short. Many stories were just a couple paragraphs long. Wish there was actually more tales about “ghosts & oddities”.