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Ghost MacIndoe
Following in the wake of his highly praised first two books, Jonathan Buckley’s ‘Ghost MacIndoe’ is a bold and ambitious novel that focuses on the life of Alexander MacIndoe, a self-centred man who is characterised only by his physical beauty and a complete lack of will.Jonathan Buckley’s third novel opens with Alexander MacIndoe’s earliest a February morning in 1944, in the aftermath of the second wave of German air-raids. Set mainly in London and Brighton, Ghost MacIndoe is the story of the next fifty-four years of Alexander’s life. We meet his glamorous mother and his father, a pioneering plastic surgeon; a traumatised war veteran called Mr Beckwith with whom Alexander works for several years as a gardener and, most important of all, the orphaned Megan Beckwith, whose relationship with Alexander crystallises into a romance in the 1970s. In the wake of his highly praised first two novels, Jonathan Buckley’s third miraculously brings into being one simple life and the last sixty years of English history.
- GenresContemporaryFiction
480 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
3 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Buckley
76 books50 followersJonathan Buckley was born in Birmingham, grew up in Dudley, and studied English Literature at Sussex University, where he stayed on to take an MA. From there he moved to King’s College, London, where he researched the work of the Scottish poet/artist Ian Hamilton Finlay. After working as a university tutor, stage hand, maker of theatrical sets and props, bookshop manager, decorator and builder, he was commissioned in 1987 to write the Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto.
He went on to become an editorial director at Rough Guides, and to write further guidebooks on Tuscany & Umbria and Florence, as well as contributing to the Rough Guide to Classical Music and Rough Guide to Opera.
His first novel, The Biography of Thomas Lang, was published by Fourth Estate in 1997. It was followed by Xerxes (1999), Ghost MacIndoe (2001), Invisible (2004), So He Takes The Dog (2006), Contact (2010) and Telescope (2011). His eighth novel, Nostalgia, was published in 2013.
From 2003 to 2005 he held a Royal Literary Fund fellowship at the University of Sussex, and from 2007 to 2011 was an Advisory Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, for whom he convenes a reading group in Brighton.
He went on to become an editorial director at Rough Guides, and to write further guidebooks on Tuscany & Umbria and Florence, as well as contributing to the Rough Guide to Classical Music and Rough Guide to Opera.
His first novel, The Biography of Thomas Lang, was published by Fourth Estate in 1997. It was followed by Xerxes (1999), Ghost MacIndoe (2001), Invisible (2004), So He Takes The Dog (2006), Contact (2010) and Telescope (2011). His eighth novel, Nostalgia, was published in 2013.
From 2003 to 2005 he held a Royal Literary Fund fellowship at the University of Sussex, and from 2007 to 2011 was an Advisory Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, for whom he convenes a reading group in Brighton.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 20, 2020
I got this book in a book swap. I know now why the last owner did not want it.
The ghost of this story is the protaganist. Alistair Macindoe is a dull and listless character blessed with good looks and a very good memory and really, nothing much else to speak of. We are then treated to snapshots of his life as he remembers it (but told in the third person) from being a very young boy in war torn London to being on the verge of retirement.
His life can be summed up with "nothing much happened", and that is probably the author's intent. It is probably supposed to be a profound look at the life of a man who drifts through life, almost never even managing a decision. He does not feel, he does not get motivated. He only even moves around at the behest of his friends.
Very clever as all this may be, it's a pretty rotten read. I could not get into this novel at all, and I admit I skipped a whole chapter somewhere around page 350 because it was really rather mindlessly dull.
Jonathan Buckley is clearly capable of good writing. The dialogue is fine, the prose is competent. But good writing without a story, and with a rather deliberately uninteresting character left me cold. Not a book I could recommend in good conscience.
The ghost of this story is the protaganist. Alistair Macindoe is a dull and listless character blessed with good looks and a very good memory and really, nothing much else to speak of. We are then treated to snapshots of his life as he remembers it (but told in the third person) from being a very young boy in war torn London to being on the verge of retirement.
His life can be summed up with "nothing much happened", and that is probably the author's intent. It is probably supposed to be a profound look at the life of a man who drifts through life, almost never even managing a decision. He does not feel, he does not get motivated. He only even moves around at the behest of his friends.
Very clever as all this may be, it's a pretty rotten read. I could not get into this novel at all, and I admit I skipped a whole chapter somewhere around page 350 because it was really rather mindlessly dull.
Jonathan Buckley is clearly capable of good writing. The dialogue is fine, the prose is competent. But good writing without a story, and with a rather deliberately uninteresting character left me cold. Not a book I could recommend in good conscience.
September 24, 2022
Possibly the dullest book I have ever read. Well written but turgidly boring. I wouldn't have got to the end except for a 12 hour airport layover where even this book was better than nothing. (Purchased secondhand from an Amazon seller)
November 29, 2019
I read it many years ago... I read an uncorrected proof copy and gave that away and now have the first edition.
March 18, 2021
Ghost MacIndoe recounts Alexander MacIndoe's life, covering almost sixty years from his earliest memories dating back to 1944, it tells of the events that mark out his life, what he remembers, along with some of what he does not remember. Its is not a remarkable life, but then in many ways Alex is not a remarkable person; affable and easy going, unambitious and content to accept what comes; yet it is a remarkable story.
Over the course of his life Alex makes some good friends, but his oldest friend is Megan. They meet as children when the orphaned Megan came to live with her aunt and uncle, neighbours of the MacIndoes, after the War. Over the years we meet others who enter Alex's life, some fleetingly, some to stay. We see often in great detail many of the memories that amount to his life. For anyone who has lived through those years it will be a nostalgic journey, there will be dates and events that are familiar, from The Dome of Discovery of '51 to the Great Storm of '87, and much more, the telling of the story is such that one is almost thinking 'I was there then'.
I said that Alex is not a remarkable person, and yet on reflection perhaps he is, and not just because he is good-looking, which he is, but in the same way each one of us is remarkable, an individual unlike any other. For that is what is special about this story, it could be the story of anyone of us, an ordinary life story, but a real story. It is thoroughly believable, convincing; there are no great dramas, no real puzzles or mysterious other than those that one might expect to encounter from day to day. It is a gentle story, pervaded by a calmness and at times melancholy air that makes one feel content to follow at the given pace, to accept it as it comes and not want to rush ahead to find out what happens next, such that the reading experience itself is so thoroughly enjoyable.
Ghost MacIndoe is a story of an ordinary boy, a boy who is average at school, yet in his own way very bright, a boy who grows into a very likeable man who is content with life and himself. It is a story that is very easy to relate to, and is bound to make one consider one's own life. It is a beautiful story, one of the most memorable and one of the most moving books I have read in recent years.
(pre-publication review copy)
Over the course of his life Alex makes some good friends, but his oldest friend is Megan. They meet as children when the orphaned Megan came to live with her aunt and uncle, neighbours of the MacIndoes, after the War. Over the years we meet others who enter Alex's life, some fleetingly, some to stay. We see often in great detail many of the memories that amount to his life. For anyone who has lived through those years it will be a nostalgic journey, there will be dates and events that are familiar, from The Dome of Discovery of '51 to the Great Storm of '87, and much more, the telling of the story is such that one is almost thinking 'I was there then'.
I said that Alex is not a remarkable person, and yet on reflection perhaps he is, and not just because he is good-looking, which he is, but in the same way each one of us is remarkable, an individual unlike any other. For that is what is special about this story, it could be the story of anyone of us, an ordinary life story, but a real story. It is thoroughly believable, convincing; there are no great dramas, no real puzzles or mysterious other than those that one might expect to encounter from day to day. It is a gentle story, pervaded by a calmness and at times melancholy air that makes one feel content to follow at the given pace, to accept it as it comes and not want to rush ahead to find out what happens next, such that the reading experience itself is so thoroughly enjoyable.
Ghost MacIndoe is a story of an ordinary boy, a boy who is average at school, yet in his own way very bright, a boy who grows into a very likeable man who is content with life and himself. It is a story that is very easy to relate to, and is bound to make one consider one's own life. It is a beautiful story, one of the most memorable and one of the most moving books I have read in recent years.
(pre-publication review copy)
July 15, 2013
Wonderful story telling and characterisation, I couldn't put it down.
February 4, 2014
Came across this by accident but it was a great find and one to read time and again...especially if you can remember the late 50s, early 60s
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews