Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance

by Paul Park

A Confederate veteran revisits a haunted battleground outside of Petersburg, Virginia. Many years later, his great-grandson returns obsessively to a mansion (now a museum) in southern Vermont, the scene of an unsolved murder. In the late eighteenth century, in eastern Connecticut, a separatist minister receives a visit from a flying saucer, while, coincidentally, a young officer takes the stand at his own court-martial in 1919. Not a hundred and fifty years further on, a beautiful young woman self-destructs in New York State, while two hundred miles and a mere generation away, an old woman dances on a cold Rhode Island beach.

In Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance, Paul Park braids these and other seemingly mutually exclusive strands, and the resulting text, part memoir and part fiction, could serve as a “last will and testament” not only for Park himself, but also for John Crowley and Elizabeth Hand, old friends who, through a series of oversights, have guided it towards publication . . .

90 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2013

About the author

Paul Park (born 1954) is an American science fiction author and fantasy author. He lives in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children. He also teaches a Reading and Writing Science Fiction course at Williams College. He has also taught several times at the Clarion West Writing Workshop.

Park appeared on the American science fiction scene in 1987 and quickly established himself as a writer of polished, if often grim, literary science fiction. His first work was the Starbridge Chronicles trilogy, set on a world with generations-long seasons much like Brian Aldiss' Helliconia trilogy. His critically acclaimed novels have since dealt with colonialism on alien worlds (Coelestis), Biblical (Three Marys) and theosophical (The Gospel of Corax) legends, a parallel world where magic works (A Princess of Roumania and its sequels, The Tourmaline, The White Tyger and The Hidden World), and other topics. He has published short stories in Omni Magazine, Interzone and other magazines.

Reviews

[Blue · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although some might be able to come up with a theme among these 70 pages of hodge-podged story snatches, I was unable. Or rather, unwilling, because I found these mashed and melded scenes too brusk. It seemed like I would become interested in one story only for it to be cut short by a new story thread and then never mentioned again, over and over, multiple times every few pages. I don't recommend this story for most people. If you're the kind who likes really artistic stories and finds meaning in everything, you may be able to pull a theme of some kind out of this story. I sure as heck couldn't.

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual little book in which Paul Park mixes biographical anecdotes with fictional events to create a piece of metafiction. I loved how the former members of the Parke family are revisited and remembered by the things they have left like paintings, books or transcripts from a court trial.

Everything comes together in a puzzling and fascinating way although I have to admit that I have no clue about the last part.

The physical book is a prime example of why people will never switch completely to ebooks. It's a pleasure to just hold it in the hands, first observing the details on the cover and then jumping straight to the pictures and sketches. Very creative and very well done!