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The Frequency of Souls
George Mahoney suspects he is getting a little stale at redesigning refrigerators, after fourteen years in the same job. With the arrival of his new office mate, Niagara Spense, George is forced to re-evaluate everything in his life from love and family, to science itself. Obsessed by the six feet tall Niagara, the very foundations of George's belief in facts and the physical world are shaken when she reveals that she is on an incredible quest for electrical evidence of life after death―"audible fossils" she calls them. As Niagara Spense seeks the dead, and George seeks her, everything suddenly becomes possible in a novel that makes engineering funny, and mixes the world of icemakers and buttersofteners with the miraculous.
- GenresFictionContemporary
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
4 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
About the author
Mary Kay Zuravleff
7 books100 followersMary Kay Zuravleff is the author of four novels. Her latest, American Ending, was praised by Alice McDermott as "wholly fresh and achingly believable." Her third book, Man Alive!, was a Washington Post Notable Book, and the New York Times called her second, The Bowl Is Already Broken, "a tart, affectionate satire of the museum world's bickering and scheming." The Frequency of Souls, her first book, won the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the James Jones Award. She grew up in Oklahoma City and has made Washington, D.C., her home. She has written and edited extensively for the Smithsonian and taught writing just about everywhere.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 5, 2009
My local library is full of many gems. Recently as a I strolled through the fiction at end of the alphabet the bright colors of The Frequency of Souls by Mary Kay Zuravleff cover got my attention. The combination of electrical extension cords (one male and one female) with the title had me flashing Bunny Modern.
Bunny Modern and The Frequency of Souls are contemporaries and both combine metaphysics and electrical engineering. While Niagara Spense is trying to discover an electrical record or "audible fossils" of life after death, I kept imagining her experiments as a contributing factor in the disappearance of electricity in Bunny Modern.
The novel though, isn't about Niagara Spense's experiments. Instead it's about how Niagara forces long time ice maker engineer, George Mahoney, to reexamine his own life. The man he had been sharing an office with was recently forced to retire and his replacement is the young, very tall and equally unconventional Niagara Spense. She's so different that she's alluring to him.
George though has a suburban life: wife, son and daughter. He's atypical for the neighborhood in that he's the only one who isn't a lawyer or stockbroker. He's equally atypical among the other engineers at his company because he makes an effort to be home in time for his family and even helps with the chores, the cooking and their children's homework. His family isn't perfect (no family is) but he seriously has to consider if it's worth jeopardizing just because Niagara is so very different.
I won't give away George's decision. The book is worth reading. It's one to take slowly, a chapter a night. Let the chapter sink in. Mull it over before moving on to the next one.
The novel was on the long list for the Orange Prize in 1997.
Bunny Modern and The Frequency of Souls are contemporaries and both combine metaphysics and electrical engineering. While Niagara Spense is trying to discover an electrical record or "audible fossils" of life after death, I kept imagining her experiments as a contributing factor in the disappearance of electricity in Bunny Modern.
The novel though, isn't about Niagara Spense's experiments. Instead it's about how Niagara forces long time ice maker engineer, George Mahoney, to reexamine his own life. The man he had been sharing an office with was recently forced to retire and his replacement is the young, very tall and equally unconventional Niagara Spense. She's so different that she's alluring to him.
George though has a suburban life: wife, son and daughter. He's atypical for the neighborhood in that he's the only one who isn't a lawyer or stockbroker. He's equally atypical among the other engineers at his company because he makes an effort to be home in time for his family and even helps with the chores, the cooking and their children's homework. His family isn't perfect (no family is) but he seriously has to consider if it's worth jeopardizing just because Niagara is so very different.
I won't give away George's decision. The book is worth reading. It's one to take slowly, a chapter a night. Let the chapter sink in. Mull it over before moving on to the next one.
The novel was on the long list for the Orange Prize in 1997.
August 14, 2022
Not the story I expected. Too many flashbacks and discussion kept the story from moving forward
January 7, 2017
A shout-out to my fellow KTRU Rice Radio alum Mary the Kay. The fact that old-timey radios play a pivotal role in the story feels like Zuravleff's many DJ shifts stuck with her. One of the protagonist's sobriquets is "Magazine Man," which I recognized immediately as the title of a song by The Judy's, a DIY trio popular among Rice students, a band that put Pearland TX on the map in the 1980s.
I loved portions of this debut novel: the characters in particular, and the subtle satire of yuppiedom in Greater DC. I'm drawn to character-driven fiction, and I like when the setting itself becomes a character. Protagonist George Mahoney has so many paragraphs devoted to his backstory, sprinkled liberally through every chapter, that it seems overdone. For novels this size, there is such a thing as too rich or too deep, and it makes most of the other characters seem flat by comparison.
The story doesn't hold together as well as I'd have liked: It just has too many moving parts, relying too much on balancing technological innovation with the spirit realm (can't reveal more than that) and stuff happening at certain moments because, well, it's got to.
A few rookie mistakes bothered me, picky details that neither Zuravleff nor any editor managed to catch, such as:
Megadeth is the band's name, spelled just like that, missing an "a."
The primary language spoken in Ethiopia is Amharic, not Ethiopian.
I-75 goes through Lexington, Kentucky, but not Louisville. I-65 is the main north-south interstate through Louisville.
Still, having found this pre-read paperback at the very end of the alpha-by-author fiction section at Book Barn in Niantic, Connecticut, I look forward to reading more Zuravleff works to see how her writing progressed.
I loved portions of this debut novel: the characters in particular, and the subtle satire of yuppiedom in Greater DC. I'm drawn to character-driven fiction, and I like when the setting itself becomes a character. Protagonist George Mahoney has so many paragraphs devoted to his backstory, sprinkled liberally through every chapter, that it seems overdone. For novels this size, there is such a thing as too rich or too deep, and it makes most of the other characters seem flat by comparison.
The story doesn't hold together as well as I'd have liked: It just has too many moving parts, relying too much on balancing technological innovation with the spirit realm (can't reveal more than that) and stuff happening at certain moments because, well, it's got to.
A few rookie mistakes bothered me, picky details that neither Zuravleff nor any editor managed to catch, such as:
Megadeth is the band's name, spelled just like that, missing an "a."
The primary language spoken in Ethiopia is Amharic, not Ethiopian.
I-75 goes through Lexington, Kentucky, but not Louisville. I-65 is the main north-south interstate through Louisville.
Still, having found this pre-read paperback at the very end of the alpha-by-author fiction section at Book Barn in Niantic, Connecticut, I look forward to reading more Zuravleff works to see how her writing progressed.
July 27, 2010
Cover says it's a "funny and wholly original love story" but that is misleading. It's basically about a refrigerator engineer having a midlife crisis, complete with a 'torrid' love affair. I found the love affair plot boring. The dynamic of the husband-wife relationship was far more interesting. Glad I didn't pay more than $2 for this. Won't be reading this or any more books by this author anytime soon.
July 1, 2008
I was a fan of Zuravleff's other book, "The Bowl is Already Broken" but I have to say, I'm not really sure why she wrote this one. Possibly it could have been an interesting short story (the characters are compelling and well drawn) but as a novel it's a sloppily thrown together series of sexual scenarios and bad science. No thanks.
March 29, 2015
What a fascinating idea - the Frequency of Souls. Now that is something I´d like to read about.... unfortunately only maybe 1% of this book was about that, the rest was a limp male midlife crisis suburan semi-"comedy". What a disappointment.
August 30, 2008
A quirky, at sometimes intersting book that had the possibility of being much more. It fizzled out toward the end because the character development was a little weak.
September 11, 2014
One of the most charming and creative books I've read.
September 13, 2023
This novel is built around an intriguing plot. George, an engineer with a unique backstory, is growing bored with a career in refrigerator design. Enter a new office mate. Niagara is much more brilliant than the job requires, but needs the income to advance her quest -- searching for electrical evidence of life after death. She uses a trailer packed with vintage radio equipment as a lab, working there nearly every free moment. Sounds amazing doesn’t it?
It could be amazing. And it nearly is.
But the author consistently defaults to superficial, appearance-based judgments. How many times does the reader need to hear about George’s 36 inch waist, his tan, his distractingly good looks? His wife’s appearance, so petite and physically perfect that she comes across as fake? Niagara is regularly described as “ugly, huge, ungainly, and hulking.” Her hearing aid is repeatedly mentioned such as in this example: “the unappealing mock-flesh color filled her right ear like wood putty patching a wide hole.” And his smart 12-year-old son, Harris, who isn’t just criticized by George’s wife for being fat, but whose weight is constantly referenced. On one page alone we’re informed he has a “chunky gait” and “doughy demeanor.” George says at one point, “Maybe Harris will become the first person large enough to create his own weather.”
Niagara is by far the most interesting character, but we don’t get to know enough about her, her theories, her motivations. She’s brilliant and genuinely interested in people. [Spoiler alert.] But when George becomes jealous that she’s turned her attention away from a potential affair with him, he spys on her and breaks into her lab to smash her equipment. When he confesses to her the next day she barely reacts. George, for other reasons, again wins her approval.
What George learns from Niagara’s radios helps bring the story to a satisfying close, but cleaning up the judge-y distractions could have made this novel so much better.
It could be amazing. And it nearly is.
But the author consistently defaults to superficial, appearance-based judgments. How many times does the reader need to hear about George’s 36 inch waist, his tan, his distractingly good looks? His wife’s appearance, so petite and physically perfect that she comes across as fake? Niagara is regularly described as “ugly, huge, ungainly, and hulking.” Her hearing aid is repeatedly mentioned such as in this example: “the unappealing mock-flesh color filled her right ear like wood putty patching a wide hole.” And his smart 12-year-old son, Harris, who isn’t just criticized by George’s wife for being fat, but whose weight is constantly referenced. On one page alone we’re informed he has a “chunky gait” and “doughy demeanor.” George says at one point, “Maybe Harris will become the first person large enough to create his own weather.”
Niagara is by far the most interesting character, but we don’t get to know enough about her, her theories, her motivations. She’s brilliant and genuinely interested in people. [Spoiler alert.] But when George becomes jealous that she’s turned her attention away from a potential affair with him, he spys on her and breaks into her lab to smash her equipment. When he confesses to her the next day she barely reacts. George, for other reasons, again wins her approval.
What George learns from Niagara’s radios helps bring the story to a satisfying close, but cleaning up the judge-y distractions could have made this novel so much better.
Read
February 28, 2022 I picked this up and quickly remembered that I had already read it. I remember I liked it but that's about all. At least I didn't get halfway through before realizing it!
December 29, 2025
It felt like something out of a Twilight Zone episode.
September 10, 2022
Okay, so this time around, I started off thinking that I wasn't going to like it again. This is just one of those books that, at least for me, took a while to get into. But...once I got into it, I was so intrigued and so anxious to know what was going to happen next. I never pictured the book ending the way it did, which I really enjoyed for a change. Although, the ending seemed a little out of nowhere, I think that it fit in perfectly with the way George's life went crazy for a week when Niagara first came into it. Overall, I really enjoyed this book...but I will confess, I am curious to see how Niagara's endeavours turned out :)
July 12, 2008
Haiving read another book by Mary Kay Zuravleff, I was interested to see what this book was about. She creates interesting and likeable characters. The main character George is a refrigerator designer who shares an office with a young and quite unusual new designer named Niagara(having taken the place of "the veteran" who retired) who is trying to prove that the dead try to communicate over radio waves. Oh, and Niagara is deaf in one ear and sews her own caftan type dresses. And George is married with two children and experiencing a sexual midlife crisis imagining himself in love with Niagara. There are shared donuts in the office, talks around the receptionist's desk and a mysterious science fair project. As in her other book "The Bowl is Already Broken" Mary Kay Zuravleff has a exceptional ability to create loving families who seem like everyone else we know from our own neighborhoods but they have crazy events swirling around them that only affect them by bringing them closer together. Not great literature but a thoughtful read.
July 26, 2009
George Mahoney has worked at Coldpoint
as a refrigerator designer for fifteen
years. He has a wonderful wife and
two great kids. What's the attraction,
then, to new Coldpoint employee Niagra
Spence, six foot tall, gangly, not
pretty? Fun, redemptive story.
as a refrigerator designer for fifteen
years. He has a wonderful wife and
two great kids. What's the attraction,
then, to new Coldpoint employee Niagra
Spence, six foot tall, gangly, not
pretty? Fun, redemptive story.
August 6, 2011
A rather directionless book that contains some good observations about the way the middle class, middle aged can think and operate. Some lovely moments relation to Georges son, and some tense moments in office life which I can related to, but overall I don't think the story is strong enough to satisfy.
March 9, 2009
Your average family guy going through everyday life. There are times when doesn't know what to do with his mundane life. He doesn't know whether to leave his home life for a co-worker and change jobs.
July 2, 2009
I am not very fond of books that take place mostly in the head of one person, with very little actual activities. this man has a dull life, but it suits him all but about a week of his life. i did enjoy the portrait of his son.
August 21, 2010
My friend got this for me because I'm a female electrical engineer and thought the title fit me well. I didn't know what it was about and I didn't have high expectations, but it took me by surprise. Not a bad story overall.
January 1, 2010
A young woman believes the dead speak to us on unused radio frequencies. A man, her co-worker, deals with his mid-life doubts about who he is as a husband and father. I loved this book!
June 18, 2011
A book full of strangeness. It was a somewhat uncomfortable read but still enjoyable.
June 8, 2008
A nice ride, enjoyable read, I liked the character Niagara.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews