The Ghost At The Table

The Ghost At The Table

2.95 of 5 stars 2.95  ·  rating details  ·  743 ratings  ·  156 reviews
Strikingly different since childhood and leading dissimilar lives now, sisters Frances and Cynthia have managed to remain "devoted"--as long as they stay on opposite coasts. When Frances arranges to host Thanksgiving at her idyllic New England farmhouse, she envisions a happy family reunion, one that will include the sisters' long-estranged father. Cynthia, however, doesn'...more
Published (first published October 20th 2006)
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Jessie
I always love a good dysfunctional holiday family story, and this one didn't disappoint. Anyone who knows me has heard me go on ad nauseam about my theory of subjective reality, and this book is to a large extent about that. Is it great literature? No, but it's extremely readable and engaging, and keeps you guessing as you think about families and the way we all individually perceive and process group experiences.
Khaya
Mar 22, 2010 Khaya rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Khaya by: TABBIEs book club
The concept of this nicely written book was pretty interesting, and possibly a good choice for people who like dysfunctional family sagas. Cynnie (an appropriate moniker; short for Cynthia but I kept thinking "cynical," which was probably intentional) reluctantly travels east for Thanksgiving to visit her older sister Frances. Upon reaching Frances's place, she learns that their elderly and ailing estranged father who was supposedly placed in a nursing home will actually be with them for Thanksg...more
Dave
Sisters living on opposite sides of the country from each other and have asiduously avoided visiting each other during the Holidays, finally agree to "share" a Thanksgiving together.

The beginning of the book was pretty slow, ( 1st 130 pages) but set the stage for a more interesting end with a few interesting family drama's predicated un very different views of the family "history" they experienced.

Everyone seems to have their own view of past reality - what a surprise -- my favorite line of tr...more
Kristin (Kritters Ramblings)
Rarely, do I read reviews for books before reading them - no need to spoil the fun, but for some reason I did on this one. Depressing was the overall theme for the reviews, so I went in a skeptic and hoping that this book wasn't the downer it was potrayed to be.

A story that centers around the two remaining sisters of a family that started with three. With a less than wonderful childhood, these girls lost their mom early on and with that they lost their father to another woman. A sister passing...more
Lisa Eirene
I enjoyed her writing style. Sometimes lots of description of settings can drone on but it wasn't that case. The story was interesting, even if it felt unresolved at the end.

It's about a writer living in San Francisco who goes home to the East Coast for Thanksgiving with her family. Her ailing father whom she hasn’t spoken to in years is there, and so is her sister who apparently wants them to have the picture-perfect family and picture-perfect Thanksgiving. The story is about their dysfunction...more
Bookmarks Magazine

Suzanne Berne's A Crime in the Neighborhood (1997), which won Great Britain's Orange Prize, dealt with a murder, family desertion, and the transformative power of memory. Berne similarly mines sisterly tensions and the ambiguity of memory in Ghost at the Table; comparisons naturally arise to Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. The scene that occupies the center of this dark novel flashes back to an invalid mother and her possible poisoning. Parallels between Cynthia's family and that of her newe

...more
JackieB
I just couldn't get into this book and abandoned it after reading the first quarter. The main theme of the book seemed to be that three sisters were estranged from their father. This kept coming up over and over again. I suspect that the reasons for the estrangement would become more apparent as the book progressed and maybe the author was going to examine how dysfunctional families keep up appearances. However I got frustrated that the fact of the estrangement kept being reiterated with very li...more
Carrie
When I first added this book to my "Goodreads" shelf, I saw that it didn't seem to have a very high rating. I couldn't understand it; it seemed like a well written, interesting story of two sisters who spend Thanksgiving together, and try to deal with their difficult childhood. But the story ends up this bizarre tale of their mothers sickness and their father's infidelity, and how each sister had such a different memory of what happened that we are left not knowing which one to believe. It ended...more
Mitzi
I loved this book. It was everything I hoped Sing Them Home would be. It's a book about the relationship between two sisters and how they remember their childhood and the events that happened when they were children. Berne perfectly captures how memories of the same time can be so different and how we perceive ourselves may not be how others see us. The only wish I could have is that Berne would write a sister novel from the perspective of the other sister!
P.S. No swearing or sex!
Ms. B
Synopsis:
The Fiske family is gathered at the exquisitely restored New England home of the second of three sisters. The family table groans with the weight of guilt and blame in this taut, psychological drama of a familys unraveling.

My Opinion:
I didn’t really like this book. It took a while to get through. One that you think will get better as the time goes on. But, it doesn’t get any better and it doesn’t have a happy ending. So, it is frustrating to think you moved through the entire book just...more
Blaire
On one level, this book is about character and family dynamics. The characters are people I know very well, in my own family and my friends'. They are real enough to me that the book made me squirm a little at times. On another level, it was about how subjective reality, and therefore memory, is. One person's recollection of family history can differ wildly from another's. We see and remember what our natures allow. We react to our family members in ways that surprise even us. In the end, there...more
Cara
Talk about complicated families and holidays! This book is chock full of family drama - from a "depressed" sister, one "cutting" teenage girl, an eighty- year old disabled father who is recently divorced, plus a deceased mom and sister who still leave their marks.

I got through this easily enough but was puzzled by the end. The pieces didn't seem to fit, but maybe that was the point. I could identify with the characters, the main character in particular, but by the end the strings were coming ap...more
Elizabeth
I'm giving this book three and a half stars, although I'm not sure it deserves more than three. I enjoyed the story of two sisters who come together for Thanksgiving. Cynthia (the narrator) and Frances are more different than they are similar. They each battle their own demons and struggle to overcome the realities of the childhood that they remember. As is always the case in families, each sister has her own perspective of growing up in the same household.

Here's what annoyed me: Cynthia works f...more
TheRLPL Rice Lake Public Library
Five people attended the Page Turners Book Club discussion of this book on Thursday, November 10 at 6 pm. The consensus was that the family dynamics were intriguing and realistic. The average rating was 3.43 out of 5; the lowest score was a 3 and the Highest was a 4.

Members comments:

3 / 5
“It was an OK read. It starts out with a lot of promise, but doesn’t deliver. However, the family
dynamics were a good illustration of how we all interpret ‘reality’ differently.”

3 / 5
“Some of the parts were co...more
Christine
Berne's skillful portrait of two sisters--Cynthia, the narrator, who feels a kinship with the forgotten sisters of famous writers whose lives she records for her "Sisters in History" series (e.g., Lavinia Dickinson and Mildred Keller), and capable, beautiful Frances, her father's favorite and the far more polished of the two--raises fascinating questions about each of the two women and the other members of their family. Cynthia's version of events--both in the present and, especially, in the pas...more
Pam
Family drama blahblah and I don't care about Mark Twain either. And why did the main character show up to Thanksgiving dinner wearing a corseted dress made out of velvet she obviously bought at Hot Topic? However, I did like this part:
"You love whom you love love, you fail whom you fail, and almost always we fail the ones we meant to love. Not intentionally, that's just how it happens. We get sick or distracted or frightened and don't listen, or listen to the wrong things. Time passes, we lose t...more
Laura
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Kelly
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Biblophile
I actually enjoyed this one. A story of a dysfunctional family as seen through the eyes of one sister who believes her father killed her mother in order to marry the much younger Swedish helper, Ilse. The characters are wonderfully drawn and the writer conveys the angst, hatred, and regret many of them contain. Frances chooses to hide the family's dysfunction by constantly rewriting their history and Cinnie demands it be drug out for all to see. A fascinating study of a family gone awry.
Deborah Kades
This is a well-written story about sisters and how different life can be for two children raised in the same house. Two sisters and their father spend Thanksgiving together for the first time in years and the differing ways they experienced their family lives clash, resulting in seismic shifts. I've been disappointed lately in the ways books end -- all too often they are too fairy-talish or predictable. This book has a satisfying end that reflects the complexity of family dynamics.
Klynn
Berne's writting isn't so bad...but our story teller, Cynthia is SOOO crummy...and I never came to understand enough about her to feel any compassion toward her terrible judgments. She had a somewhat unloved, lonely childhood...but I need more in order to forgive her when she enjoys her 'almost' seduction of her sister's husband the evening before Thanksgiving when she is a guest in her sister's house. Goodgrief. This left me with a hollow and incomplete feeling.
Garry Moore
Sep 21, 2009 Garry Moore rated it 2 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: No one in particular
Recommended to Garry by: No one. I just picked it up because it was by the author of A C
I was anticipating the story as one about how different are the memories of people who go through a common experience and how those different perceptions affect lives and relationships.

I guess what I was really hoping for was a meeting of the minds with an opening of each sister's eyes to the view seen by her sibling. Perhaps I wanted a more happy ending.

All-in-all, it was a fairly good read although not compelling and not neatly summed up. Kind of like life.
Jude Wilson
I loved the first couple of chapters of this and continued to enjoy the writing, the setting, descriptions and characters - all utterly convincing. But there was little development - it seemed clues were being left at the start which were never developed or resolved. The Thanksgiving Scene was like the climax and very well realised - but then the climax (to me) failed to happen. Interesting and I would like to read more by Suzanne Berne, but I find it hard to believe that this was selected for t...more
Fiona Bell-Currie
Believable characters in a strange place, emotionally and geographically. Strong writing, at times painful, especially as each sister picks over the other, the aged parent in the middle. A lot of parallel situations with my own mother and sister. Not convinced the title or the book cover reflects the strength of this novel. Great writing - read it!
If you haven't read Berne's foirst, do - A Crime in the Neighbourhood, winner of the Orange Prize 1999.
Sandy
I kept thinking something would happen and it would all become clear and the questions would be answered. But unfortunately that wasn't the case. It was very much like real life and who wants to read that...LOL. Each family member had their impressions of what occurred in the earlier years, but the truth was never revealed to us. Each family member had their own impressions of what the other family member felt, but again we were never told how truly they felt. A rather depressing book, with no r...more
Lisa Mills
It was kind of odd story. I didn’t have any investment in any of the characters. I felt like I didn’t really know the main Cynthia because at times her actions made no sense to me. I felt like she was acting out of character. Throughout the entire novel I kept thinking that at the end everything was going to work out for everyone and make sense but it really didn’t. I did like that it wasn’t completely obvious what was going on and who the ghost was but I think the author pushed it a little too...more
Anita
Not a ghost story. A very dysfunctional family with lots of secrets gets together at Thanksgiving. It reminded me how even though we may grow up in the same house and family, we all see things differently. Elise will like it because the older sister is manipulative and nuts; Marla will like it because the father is being put in a nursing home; Kris will like it because it is mostly depressing, and I liked it because the younger sister needs to get her life together. Something for all the Swenson...more
Crystal
I will credit Berne with writing a novel that is detailed and helps people understand the dysfunction that is present in families. However, the storyline itself is slow and does not grip the reader as much as it could. With all of the details, the climax of the novel should hit the reader with a sudden hint that causes them to rewind and piece it all together. Furthermore, the ending is lacking. With the attention paid to all minute facets of the book, I was sadly let down by the resolution.
Jae
One of the things I liked about this book was the things it didn't do, the plot twists or revelations I was expecting that didn't occur. I really enjoy art that considers how memory and our view of our past, and our present, are structured, how we structure them and how that can differ so much from the way in which people who shared those events see them, and that was explored in an interesting way in this book.
Janet
I kept thinking this was going to be a psychological thriller. Why has one sister had no contact with her father in 25 years? Why does the other sister remember everything completely differently from their childhood? I kept waiting for the big reveal, but it never came. The whole point of the book is that people remember things differently. The neat and tidy ending just seemed trite.
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The Ghost at the Table (Hardcover)
The Ghost at the Table (Paperback)
The Ghost at the Table: A Novel  (Kindle Edition)
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“In my experience, people's sorrows are always in danger of bursting out; it's only through careful inattention that they can be contained.” 1 person liked it
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