Going Through Ghosts

by Mary Sojourner

Maggie Foltz is a fifty-five-year-old cocktail waitress in a rundown casino in the southern Nevada Mojave Desert. She spends her days serving drinks to lonely old folks playing the slot machines and her nights trying to escape her bitter past. When she befriends Sarah, a young Native American woman who is hired to cook in the casino coffee shop, her life begins to change. Maggie finds herself falling in love with a memory-haunted Vietnam veteran and warily begins to hope that together they can find peace. Then Sarah is mysteriously murdered, and Sarah's ghost enlists Maggie to accompany her on a quest for the wisdom that she needs in order to move into the next world. The story ranges from smoky casinos into the harsh magnificence of the desert and the reservation where Sarah's people are trying to preserve their culture and find their own place in a modern world that seems to want them to be either shamans or losers. Sojourner's characters are compellingly real, and the Mojave setting has rarely been depicted as sensitively or truthfully. This is a memorable story of love, redemption, and solace, told by one of the West's finest writers.

298 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

A chance pick up at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle. Started out pretty strong but faded down the stretch. Neat enough overall read about an MA who dead-ended in the desert and the ghost of the Native American woman with whom she pals around.

[Aguess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit of a ramble, but it has some luminous writing, particularly the descriptions of the desert landscapes. I liked the ghost character, but found her story kind of fizzled at the end. The scars from vietnam that she shares with the older veteran of the war seemed a bit forced in the end. In the end I found the strongest metaphor was the gambling, both in the casinos and outside in ordinary time.

[Sunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first "West" book since moving to Nevada. Enough quirky characters to feel at home. Just finished it and need a bit of time to let it settle in before saying exactly why I recommend it. "Going" is the key word. This novel is about moving and the stories we need to tell in order to find out where we are headed. Will get back to the review, but it's on my "good read" list.

[Alexandra Mergen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and have recommended it to several people. Read my full review for High Country News.

[Lee Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ghosts, amongst the living and dead. An interesting book and hard to put down once I got into it. I enjoed it, but it was very different than anything I usually read.

[Angie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started out promising but morphed into a lot of boring nonsense. The only thing of interest to me in the entire book was the Native American culture.