Self-Portrait with Ghosts

by Kelly Dwyer

In the aftermath of Luke's suicide, his sister Kate struggles with single motherhood and family betrayal while his niece Audrey fights her grief over losing Luke, who has been a substitute father. By the author of The Tracks of Angels. 18,000 first printing.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Hello! I'm Kelly Dwyer, and I'm the author of GHOST MOTHER, published by Union Square & Co., August 2024, as well as two other novels. GHOST MOTHER asks the question, "Is the house really haunted? Or is the narrator losing touch with reality?" (After you read the novel, please let me know what you think!)
A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Oberlin College, I grew up in San Pedro, California, and now divide my time between Baraboo (near Madison) Wisconsin, and Los Angeles. Please visit
http://www.kellydwyerauthor.com/
and let's connect here on Goodreads and on Instagram!
https://www.instagram.com/kellydwyera...

Reviews

[Kathy Kubik · Rating 4 out of 5]

OPENING LINE: "The sky is the wrong color for this."

I read this book to prepare for my workshop in Iowa City. The instructor for my class wrote this, it is her second book. (Her first one was not at my local library). I really enjoyed this book, it has three main protagonists, which I had never seen before. The story is told in each individual voice, and Dwyer pulls it off.

Summary:

A woman who reassembles her life and achieves greater maturity in her work is the protagonist of Dwyer's impressively nuanced second novel (following the well-reviewed The Tracks of Angels). In this story of betrayal, loss and forgiveness, ceramicist Kate Flannigan has made a career for herself by casting her family members as mythic figures. She's raising her 13-year-old daughter, Audrey, alone in the Southern California beach town where she herself grew up. But Kate bears a scar of betrayal: her husband, Sam, was stolen away a decade earlier by her wild sister Colleen, and Kate has since refused to speak to either of them and has even denied Sam visitation rights. As Kate begins her latest project, a ceramic portrait of herself as Zeus giving birth out of her head to Audrey (as Zeus did to Athena), her brother Luke commits suicide. His death brings the family together again, leading to the reconciliation of the estranged sisters and to Audrey's first meeting with her father. Although at times the dialogue is stagy, the symbolism obvious and the characters naively portrayed, the moments of truth in this novel outweigh these minor defects. Dwyer moves gracefully from character to character and from past to present. She gets the intergenerational dialogue just right, often with a flash of humor, and the distinctive voices ring true. Even jaded readers will be moved by this novel of quiet metamorphosis.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Self-Portrait with Ghosts tells the story of a woman, Kate, and her daughter, Audrey, who are forced to cope with the the suicide of their brother/uncle Luke. The story is told in alternating chapters, told in the present via Kate/Audrey, and in flashback via Luke. These flashback chapters explain Luke's life and what leads to his suicide. What emerges from this is that Luke is desperately, almost hopelessly depressed, and the rest of the family is plagued by problems too. The result of Luke's suicide is that it ultimately brings the family together, particularly Kate and her estranged sister Colleen. Clearly the saddest character in the book is Luke, who is extremely depressed, to a level that anti-depressants cannot help. He seems, in short, to be wired differently in a way that is incompatible with life. Luke is presented as the kindest and least flawed character. In Dwyer's presentation it's almost as if luke *has* to die. He's the saintly sacrifice that mends his family's wounds. Luke is kind, he's quiet, he gets along with all of his family members, he's generous. These are all things of which the rest of the family falls short. The irony in the story is that Luke's calmness and kindness are what allow the family to stay divided. His moderating influence preserves the divide. Ultimately, I'm struggling to find the larger point of this book. There's a great deal of sadness, some heartfelt family moments, but there didn't seem to be a larger takeaway. While engaging enough to read, it's not the sort of book that left me thinking about it afterward.

[Marilynn Farmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Kelly Dwyer's book after taking her class at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival ("Plotting the Plot in a Novel," which I loved, by the way). I would classify this book as literary fiction, which is not something I read often. Normally, I'm more into popular fiction/action/thriller type stuff. But I enjoyed Ms. Dwyer's writing style. It was very easy to read, the narrative flowed marvelously. It's a moving portrait of a small family with a tangled past, and how one member's death/suicide, while tragic, brings them together and helps the family heal old wounds. The book deals with depression in a non-maudlin, straightforward kind of way, and the characters are normal, realistic people struggling with daily life as we all are.