The Forgotten Condition of Things

by Robert Froese

Evelyn Moore, a clinical psychologist, has joined the staff of a mental hospital on the edge of the Maine North Woods. Now, attending daily to the disintegrating personalities of others, she finds her own fragile identity, stitched together out of her troubled past, beginning to unravel. Moreover, the hospital, known to the patients as "The House," awakens in Evelyn a growing and tangible dread. Does the institution harbor some malevolence? But soon Evelyn’s attention turns to Sophie, a young patient whose wild life has brought her to the hospital in handcuffs. Sophie views the world differently. She doesn’t speak to the hospital staff but communicates with spirits. Here in this enigmatic institution, where the boundaries between physical and mental realities continually shift and blur, these two women look for their separate salvations through one another and through the alliance of spirits and patients inhabiting the House.

299 pages, Paperback

First published January 8, 2002

About the author

Robert Froese lives on the coast of Maine in the solar-powered home he and his wife, Leonore, built themselves. He teaches creative writing and film. He has written four novels---The Hour of Blue (1990), The Forgotten Condition of Things (2001), A Dark Music (2006), and The Origins of Misgiving (2009). He is currently working on his fifth. While Froese’s books have been well-reviewed inside the state of Maine, they are little known elsewhere. Below are some critical reactions and review excerpts.

Reactions to The Origins of Misgiving:

"A darkly compelling vision of the strangeness of everyday life."
---Kirkus Discoveries

Reactions to A Dark Music:

“Steeped in mystery and wonder . . . . A poetic and passionate novel.”
---The Midwest Book Review

“A fascinating read that’s hard to put down, A Dark Music succeeds brilliantly on two levels. First, there’s Froese’s suspenseful story set in the brooding desert atmosphere of the American Southwest. Throw in sudden storms, a potential rapist, and a prowling mountain lion, and you have a page-turner from start to finish.”
---Maine Sunday Telegram

“It’s about reaching through into the meganatural realm. Froese’s words breathe and pull the reader into that somewhere. All of his books are like this, intellect and feeling whisked together so that every line causes you to lose a heartbeat and gain a little magnificent disorientation, while a solid story unfolds like a perfectly natural flower . . . all this, yes, in every line.”
---Carolyn Chute, author of The Beans of Egypt, Maine

“A hauntingly beautiful novel.”
---Bill Gresens, New Reviews, Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center

“Froese has brought the archeological dig to life on many levels. Landscape, the traces of buried millennia, vision, and the demanding, patient work come together to evoke the mystery of time. The contemporary world and the prehistoric world engage in a dance that is beautiful, harrowing and moving.”
---Baron Wormser, Poet Laureate of Maine

“Written in a haunting, minor key, with a grave, compassionate bass note-the dark music of Froese's prose evokes a dimension that in the moment seems not only real, but absolute.”
---Downeast Coastal Press

“As Froese offers this world . . . past and present---evokes it in the details of a swallow’s flight, a raven’s call, an unseen mountain lion that breathes in every darkness---the writing is animated by the suspense of what we will discover next.”
---Puckerbrush Review


Reactions to The Forgotten Condition of Things:

“How could you not be swept away by a book of precisely crafted sentences: prose written with the kind of attention to detail readers hardly ever see anymore. You don’t skip a sentence in this finely structured novel; you pause and go back and read it again for the lyricism there to be savored.”
---Bangor Daily News

“Robert Froese . . . has crafted a piece of hushed beauty and subtle terror.”
---The Portland Phoenix

“. . . a beautiful novel, subtle and moving, a work of astounding profundity. The characters are impressively well-drawn and convey great psychological richness.”
---Violaine Huisman, Seven Stories Press