PICKING UP THE GHOST BY TONE MILAZZO: BOOK REVIEW

We work in an industry where thousands of books are published seemingly on the hour. So many go to such great lengths to try and stand out, tricks and gimmicks to cause a head to turn. Sometimes these games will work. More often, not.

Then there are the occasional authors who can distinguish themselves with their words and their voice.

This is the second book of Tone Milazzo that I have had the pleasure to read, the first being the Faith Machine. And what I find most striking about them is the notion that they came from the same mind. And that may seem like a criticism but I actually mean the exact opposite. It’s no small task to infuse new books with such a fresh feeling of entering into a totally new and unexpected universe.

Picking Up The Ghost tells the story of Cinque, a young man struggling, with no place of his own in this world. He lives in a town that is gradually slipping away into obscurity, leaving him adrift and disconnected from the present and what the future might bring for him. He receives word from the city of Chicago that his long since departed father has passed away, leaving him severed from his past as well. Cinque is a character that seems to be struggling for a story.

He just needs someone to write it.

Going against seemingly the advice of everyone in his life, Cinque decides to go to Chicago to reclaim his fathers belongings and maybe in the process reclaim some of his father as well.

And from the point he discovers his father’s death, we are plunged into worlds of possibility that no one, Cinque included, had likely ever considered.

This is a magical journey which I think has the potential to appeal to a large group of readers in terms of age and genre. It goes down a path that definitely requires your attention. It isn’t going to stick with the conventional and there are going to be moments of beautiful abstraction but through it all you have some confidence in that you are in the hands of a qualified author who is leading the way

We writers love to talk about this thing called “world building.” It means pretty much how it sounds although it is usually used in reference to science fiction. Essentially it is about establishing the rules and parameters of the world in which your story takes place. What is this place called “Narnia” anyway? What happens there? How do you get there? How do you get back?

In stories that lean on the fantastic, it’s not as difficult to just splash in some colors of the bizarre and then sit back to revel in how clever you think you are. But in this case, this isn’t just about creating abstract situations for the characters. You really sense the time and care which Milazzo has expended in creating this book. This was no quick endeavor and I think it made the book all the better for the love and respect he seems to have for it all.

This is not a book that is overly long, although you may find yourself wishing it was as it starts to wind down. It’s storytelling that deserves to be recognized in the finest traditions of David Lynch and Neil Gaiman. It takes you on a journey that, if nothing else, is going to likely be unlike any that you have ever undertaken before. One of the upsides to writing these reviews is the chance to be exposed to books that you never would have encountered otherwise. And while sometimes this means books that are disappointments, this book is definitely far from that. It’s a welcome breath of original possibility from an author who I think will have many more narrative moments that will be worth taking note of.

Living in St. Jude, a 110-year-old dying city on the edge of the Mississippi, is tough. But when a letter informs fourteen-year-old Cinque Williams of the passing of the father he never met, he is faced with an incomplete past and an uncertain future. A curse meant for his father condemns Cinque to a slow death even as it opens his eyes to the strange otherworld around him. With help from the ghost Willy T, an enigmatic White Woman named Iku, an African Loa, and a devious shape-shifter, Cinque gathers the tools to confront the ghost of his dead father. But he will learn that sometimes too much knowledge can be dangerous — and the people he trusts most are those poised to betray him!

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