Reviewer
Lavanya Karthik: Lavanya is from Mumbai, India and is a licensed
architect and consultant in environmental management. She lives in
Mumbai with her husband and six-year old daughter. She loves reading
and enjoys a diverse range of authors across genres.
Author: Bonnie Grove
Publisher: David C Cook
ISBN : 978-1-4347-6641-0
Click Here To Purchase Talking to the Dead: A Novel
“Where ," mulls
Kate Davis, the narrator and central character of this book, “did
we get the idea that the best approach to facing death is to eat
Bundt cake?” These words set the tone for this debut novel,
by turns humorous and reflective, about self discovery and coming to
terms with loss.
Young and newly widowed, Kate grieves
for her beloved husband Kevin by withdrawing from her life and
family. All of a sudden, she begins hearing Kevin’s voice
speaking to her. Even as she wonders if she is losing her
sanity, his presence becomes increasingly hostile. Her attempts
to seek help from psychics, counselors and priests leave
her steadily disillusioned, before she begins to look inward for the
roots to her predicament . As she slowly unravels the bitter secrets
of her marriage,she finds both betrayal among those closest to her,
and allies in unlikely places. In her quest to find the
strength and conviction to get pass her sorrow and anger, she also
moves from agnosticism to faith. Most of all, Kate realizes the
need to forgive herself for the poor choices she has made in an
effort to hold onto a relationship that was not as ideal as she
believed.
‘Talking..’ charts Kate’s rocky
path to emotional and spiritual recovery with empathy. The
book paints a rather bleak picture of the mental health
industry with its over-reliance on prescription drugs, and is also
critical of over zealous evangelists and their harsh interpretation
of the gospel. Grove mines familiar territory here; she
is trained in Christian counseling, has authored a self help guide in
the past, and is also married to a pastor.
The
character of Kate is drawn well; despite the emotional blows she
suffers, she emerges a survivor, and on her own terms. The plot
involves both romance and finding God, but these never overshadow
Kate’s own quest for closure; rather, they emerge as
natural consequence of her own passage from hurt towards
healing. The plot is also open ended on the reasons Kate hears
her husband’s voice; it chooses to stay focused on her journey
towards life. The narrative does sag in the middle, and could
have benefited from tighter editing. Some characters appear
rather stereotypical – the psychic and evangelist are cases in
point, as also the tearful Blair, Kevin's best friend. But
these are still minor issues in an otherwise interesting
and readable book about one woman’s internal journey toward finding
herself.