What do you think?
Rate this book
Making the Ghost Dance: A Novel
Objects easily appear and disappear in Peck’s hands, and so do people. “Into the void,” the young magician writes on a sheet of paper. “What’s supposed to happen doesn’t” and “What’s not supposed to happen does.” That’s all the sense he can make of life, and the uncertainty produces hilarious results. The “theory of failed expectations”—if you can’t control the outcome, then roll with it. And roll he does, all the way to Puerto Villarta, Corfu, and Paris—letting life come to him rather than searching for the “divination of secrets.” In the end, he finds both. “For the record, I am in this book and you are in this book. When they make the movie, it’s going to feature everybody. David Kranes writes from the marrow, and this novel is fierce and crammed with heart. It’s cerebral and cinematic, and if feels—like all of Kranes’ prose—like something new and something old. A man loves his life in the ways he can, and Peck’s ways are rich. I would say this book is about family and love and time. But it isn’t about something, it is something! If I were with you now, I’d put it in your hand. Wait, fortune, it has already appeared! So, now you’ll see what I mean.” —Ron Carlson, author of A Kind of Flying.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
1 person is currently reading
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 10, 2023
I love that feeling you get when you are so into a book that you want to drop everything else and just read it. That doesn't happen very often for me, but it did happen with this book. It was a little frustrating because there were things I really needed to get done which I couldn't focus on because I wanted to get back into the book. But it was enjoyable nonetheless.
This is, in effect, the biography of a fellow named Peck. Oddly, we never learn his first name. At first, I just assumed Peck was his first name, but it became clearer once he had children and once they, in turn, had children, that Peck was the surname.
One of the things about this novel that is fun is that Peck isn't limited at all by reality. He truly is a magician who can make the inexplicable happen. The only thing he can't do, he tells his children, is bring back his loved ones from the dead, although he can, at important moments, conjure up their voices and images of them.
I'm not sure why I was so drawn to Jessica, Peck’s high school girlfriend. I was very happy to see her reappear at various times in his life. The loyalty they maintain to each other throughout their lives, even when both are married to other people, is endearing.
And I liked that Peck, at base, was a decent person who recognized that it was wrong to use his talents to take advantage of others. And I appreciated how he would go out of his way to make things right, often at his own expense, when he witnessed others being taken advantage of.
Another positive about Peck is that he is a good, loyal friend to those few people in his inner orbit, including Russell and JT and, later, his would-be biographer, whose name escapes me at the moment. And, of course, Leslie. He is even loyal to his old high-school cohort, Antony, who doesn’t deserve it.
One last observation: The book was published by Signature Books in Salt Lake City, which usually publishes books with a Mormon connection of some kind. I know David Kranes as a playwright who taught at the University of Utah. I have a book of his plays called David Kranes Selected Plays. He may well be Mormon, but there’s no hint of anything to do with Mormonism in the book, so it struck me as kind of an odd choice for Signature. Great book, though.
** *** ** *** ** *** ** *** ** *** **
Some quotes from the book for my own use later:
1- In reference to himself and his son in contrast to his father and his self, Peck muses: “What were they? What communication was there? Were they a better, a more promising father and son than Peck and Dr Peck? He couldn't tell.” -p 143
2- Peck’s father, a medical doctor, who is approaching the end of his career and questioning himself and his fellow physicians as he, for the first time, lies in a patient bed at his own hospital: “We are all frauds. We think we're the panther’s meow, but we're all hoaxes.” -p146
3- Peck and his wife, Victoria, name their twins Lee and Leigh. Leigh becomes a painter while Lee has culinary and musical talents. Years later, after Leigh’s death, Lee tries to finish her work. His father confronts him, and they have a conversation: “Whose paintings are these?” Peck asked. “Lee Peck’s”, Lee said, though it was impossible to know whether he'd said Lee or Leigh. -p194
This is, in effect, the biography of a fellow named Peck. Oddly, we never learn his first name. At first, I just assumed Peck was his first name, but it became clearer once he had children and once they, in turn, had children, that Peck was the surname.
One of the things about this novel that is fun is that Peck isn't limited at all by reality. He truly is a magician who can make the inexplicable happen. The only thing he can't do, he tells his children, is bring back his loved ones from the dead, although he can, at important moments, conjure up their voices and images of them.
I'm not sure why I was so drawn to Jessica, Peck’s high school girlfriend. I was very happy to see her reappear at various times in his life. The loyalty they maintain to each other throughout their lives, even when both are married to other people, is endearing.
And I liked that Peck, at base, was a decent person who recognized that it was wrong to use his talents to take advantage of others. And I appreciated how he would go out of his way to make things right, often at his own expense, when he witnessed others being taken advantage of.
Another positive about Peck is that he is a good, loyal friend to those few people in his inner orbit, including Russell and JT and, later, his would-be biographer, whose name escapes me at the moment. And, of course, Leslie. He is even loyal to his old high-school cohort, Antony, who doesn’t deserve it.
One last observation: The book was published by Signature Books in Salt Lake City, which usually publishes books with a Mormon connection of some kind. I know David Kranes as a playwright who taught at the University of Utah. I have a book of his plays called David Kranes Selected Plays. He may well be Mormon, but there’s no hint of anything to do with Mormonism in the book, so it struck me as kind of an odd choice for Signature. Great book, though.
** *** ** *** ** *** ** *** ** *** **
Some quotes from the book for my own use later:
1- In reference to himself and his son in contrast to his father and his self, Peck muses: “What were they? What communication was there? Were they a better, a more promising father and son than Peck and Dr Peck? He couldn't tell.” -p 143
2- Peck’s father, a medical doctor, who is approaching the end of his career and questioning himself and his fellow physicians as he, for the first time, lies in a patient bed at his own hospital: “We are all frauds. We think we're the panther’s meow, but we're all hoaxes.” -p146
3- Peck and his wife, Victoria, name their twins Lee and Leigh. Leigh becomes a painter while Lee has culinary and musical talents. Years later, after Leigh’s death, Lee tries to finish her work. His father confronts him, and they have a conversation: “Whose paintings are these?” Peck asked. “Lee Peck’s”, Lee said, though it was impossible to know whether he'd said Lee or Leigh. -p194
Displaying 1 of 1 review