Shadows and Ghosts

by Barbara Froman

Ida Mae Glick, a critically acclaimed filmmaker, has lived and taught in the small town of Willow Bend, New York for five years without drawing attention to her troubled past. But when she suffers a near fatal heart attack, the result of trying to live on the same meager rations as a group of homeless people she is filming, she winds up in intensive care under the scrutiny of a neurotic psychiatrist who believes she's unstable. To make matters worse, her mother's ghost has appeared at her bedside with old gripes, and her angry, estranged identical twin, Lisa, is heading toward town intent on having her committed. Ida Mae is desperate to escape with her freedom intact, but knows she'll have to get past her psychiatrist first. The only question is, can she? Shadows and Ghosts is Ida Mae's tale of artistic passion, fierce sibling rivalry, failed love affairs, substance abuse, and the magical redemptive power of cinema.

250 pages, Paperback

First published December 14, 2011

About the author

Barbara is a writer and musician whose early love of sound led to a study of music and degrees in music composition. After a few career twists and publications, she became the Director of Mundelein College’s Creative Writing Program, then taught Literature and Creative Writing at National-Louis University where she also acted as a consultant to National’s graduate program in Written Communication. She's written fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry, placed in screenwriting competitions, and was nominated for a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Fringe. When she's not writing, she's practicing, composing, reading, or watching movies….

Reviews

[Nancy Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relationships of all kinds is explored in this prize-winning novel. Mother-daughter, two sisters, doctors and their patients, and friends and lovers are all types of relationships that are dealt with to various degrees in this character-driven novel.

When Ida Mae Glick has a heart attack in her local grocery, her mother Edna pushes her soul back into her body (and hangs around for the rest of the book). Ida Mae is literally starving herself for her art (a literal starving artist)...that is, she has been living with and among the homeless that she is filming in her documentary. It is because of this radical change in lifestyle that she nearly dies.

A psychiatrist, Fern, is called into the case, but cracking through Ida Mae's protective armor may be too much for either of them. Both have mother issues; both have addiction/eating disorders, and there are more similarities between them than either wishes to acknowledge.

The difference: Edna is a ghost that is hanging around her hospital room and talking to Ida Mae, and Fern's mother is living with her, but both drive their daughters crazy.

For Ida Mae, add in an identical twin sister Lisa, and there is enough sibling rivalry to make a reader cry. Especially when they are both jealous of each other.

As the tale is spun out, Ida Mae's story comes out, Fern may realize that they have more in common than they know.

Poignancy, depth, and emotion are all hallmarks of this novel that makes the reader identify with these characters...and their own relationship with their mother and sister. Overall, loved the story and the characters especially ex-nun/biker chick Gloria and Max, Lisa's husband. Loved, too, the way the humanity of each and every character was brought out, making the reader examine their own humanity as well.

[Joan Corwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shifting between memory and reality, filmmaker Ida Mae Glick watches her world stagger into focus from the perspective of her hospital bed, as powerful truths emerge about her relationships with the people in her life. Framed within the context of the classic films that have shaped and inspired Ida Mae, Shadows and Ghosts is full of twists and cleverly layered with revelations about family and identity. Froman’s honed prose, comic wit and scalpel-edged exploration of human nature make this novel uniquely engrossing and very, very funny. The characters (alive and dead) and their dilemmas will haunt you long after you’ve turned the last page.
Joan Corwin, Ph.D. Award-winning author of Safe Shall be my Going

[Eli B · Rating 4 out of 5]

It grows on you

At first I wanted to abandon the book. It moved slowly and depressed the hell out of me. Eventually the characters began to grow on me. I wanted to know about their lives, I wished for positive resolution. Ida Mae the main character is a filmmaker. The whole thing reminded me of a Fellini film. If you like the director this book will thrill you to pieces. Seriously it is worth wading through the slow parts.

[Abigail Danfora · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I won this book through the Goodreads First Reads program. Thank you so much, to Goodreads, Barbara Froman, and the publisher! Special thanks to Barbara Froman for the card, and for signing the book! :) I'm very sorry I couldn't review this book sooner (school was starting to get really crazy around the time I received it).

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. When I first read the description, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it. I usually stick to fantasy and sci-fi, and the description seemed more in the realm of real-life than I'm usually interested in. It did turn out to be way out of my normal genre, but I didn't mind at all! Froman's writing pulled me in from the start, and while it lagged for a page or two mid-way through the book, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What I found especially enjoyable was the depth of the characters. At the beginning of the book, the reader isn't quite sure who everyone is, what their relationship is to each other, and who's really the 'good guy.” Throughout the story, we learn about each character's past, and what got them into the tense relationships we find them in in the beginning of the novel (thinking of Ida Mae and her sister). The characters have such 3D past and current relationships with each other, that I half expected some of them to walk right off the page and start arguing in front of me :D.

That said, I think this book would be best for people who like a lot of character development and not a whole lot of plot. While the story outline did have physical plot that greatly impacted the way the characters felt and responded, the story wasn't about stuff going on in the external world. It was about internal emotions, and how these formed and caused relationships between the different characters.

On a more technical level, the editor did a good job. As I was reading, I only noticed two small mistakes. They were both very minor missing words--nothing that can't easily be fixed. The mistakes weren't anything that made me stop and stare and have to think for an hour about what it was supposed to say--I just like to include technical stuff like that in my reviews. In general, the book flowed nicely.

Overall, I really enjoyed Shadows and Ghosts. I think Barbara Froman's characters were amazingly realistic and 3-dimensional, and her writing style was very nice.

Thanks again!

[Jane Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ida Mae is so passionate about her work as a filmmaker, her intensity lands her in the hospital after a heart attack. Her mother, Edna, whose ghost takes up residence in Ida Mae's hospital room, appears as Ida Mae's spirit leaves her body and shoves it back in. "You think because I'm dead, I don't know things? I'm your mother. I know everything." Lisa, Ida Mae's mirror image twin, lives a perfect life with a perfect husband, and the sisters' resentment of each other, which began simmering when they were children, has now reached its boiling point.

Fern, the psychiatrist who is called in to evaluate Ida Mae, battles with her own demons, specifically, her mother and food. Within minutes of meeting anorexic-looking Ida Mae, "[t]he flat foot of inadequacy reaches up and kicks her in the behind, its heel sinking into thirty extra pounds of cellulite." Fern regards Ida Mae as "an egocentric, frizzy-haired, sarcastic bitch who uses every opportunity to build up her own self-esteem by trying to tear down others," but writes, "Patient is in denial about cause of arrest. Claims starvation was for 'artistic' reasons. Exhibits hostility to authority. Suspect rivalry with sister, Lisa."

If you're thinking, "Yikes," you're already inside Ida Mae's head, and you've only read 8 pages of one of the most alternately terrifying and hilarious novels ever written. I will not spoil your enjoyment further, except to urge you to set aside a chunk of time before you open the cover, because you will not be able to stop reading once you've begun.

[Charlotte Babb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anxiety eater meets anorexic to exorcize their mutual ghosts.

Well-written, this book gives some deep insights into the difficulties of modern daughters separating from their mothers, a glimpse from both sides of the fence as a shrink tries to assess and then treat a woman who has had a heart attack due to her self-starvation. As they begin to connect on a human level, deeper stories emerge.

The book gave me some insights, and plays up how unresolved issues and miscommunication interfere with our relationships with our parents, siblings and partners.

I particularly liked Gloria, one of the sidekicks, an ex-nun teacher of art who dresses like a biker. She adds color and humor to lighten up the drama.

Partly told in first person past by one character, and in third-person present by the narrator, the voice shifts from one person's point of view to focus on the other players are doing--an interesting technique. I liked the descriptionsn of scenes from popular movies as chapter titles and as hits to what migth happen next.

It is a satisyfing read, and one I enjoyed quite a lot.

[I received an ecopy of this book from the author for a fair review.]

[Rhiannon Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me say first off that this book is the perfect example of why you should not judge a book by its cover! The cover would lead a reader to believe the story is a paranormal thriller or horror story when it is a story of an artist literally starving for her art. I also think this is a perfect example of why the genre of women's fiction is so broad. While most generally think chick lit is synonymous with women's fiction, it is refreshing to read a perfect example of non-chick lit women's fiction. Barbara Froman created characters that are relatable and real. These women are psychiatrists and artists dealing with familial guilt and personal addictions. While producing a documentary on homelessness, Ida chooses to embrace the lifestyle of her subjects, including minimal eating, which leads to her passing out in a grocery store. Waking up in a hospital under the care of a psychiatrist, Ida begins to share her past demons as well as her encounters with her deceased mother.
Read my entire review here: http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.c...

[Patty Somlo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of all, Superb Writing

There are books fueled by dynamic plot that keep you furiously turning the page. Then there are books where an elegant choice of words makes you linger over phrases. The best books do both, and Shadows and Ghosts by Barbara Froman, is one of those. It’s also very funny.
The book operates on many different levels at the same time, being about Jewish mothers and their daughters, sibling rivalry, the creative process, and the magic and power of films. There’s also the presence of ghosts, the past that lives with us long after people have died.
Two aspects of this book stood out for me. First was the exceptional character development. Wonderful depictions of every character made each one come alive.
But most of all, the writing itself was superb. I often found myself rereading sentences several times, because the choice of words was so perfect.
My only complaint is that I wished I’d seen more of the films referenced in the book. I think this would have helped me appreciate the work even more.

[Ellen Beals · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel, winner of the First Book Contest sponsored by Fairleigh Dickinson University (and Serving House Books), delves into the "shadows" and "ghosts" of many relationships (sister-to-sister, daughter-to-mother, artist-to-work, therapist-to-client) as we learn the story of Ida Mae. Don't let the folksy-sounding name fool you--Ida Mae is an articulate artist with a story to tell, one that is told through various perspectives and scenes, much like the movies to which Ida Mae alludes. Though the themes may be ages old, this is a contemporary story and its originality makes for a great read.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not at all what I expected from the description on Goodreads. It is not something I would have normally read but I did enjoy it. The focus was on two women, whose lives are very different but yet their past is quite similar.
If you are looking for spooky ghosts and supernatural happens, it is not there. Easy fast read.

[Sherri Rabinowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I really understood the Mother/Daughter relationships in the book. I really think all women can in one way or another. Not the drama of story but the underlining love in it. An excellent read!