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William "Dead" Kennedy is in trouble. He''s thirty-two, in love with his ex-wife, has lost his job, and he''s been dreaming about ghost roads again. Sometimes a guy is haunted for a really good reason. -- Nebula and World Fantasy Award finalist -- A Book Sense Notable Book -- Best of the Year: Booklist, Locus, San Francisco Chronicle -- A Locus bestseller "Stewart''s quicksilver wit makesPerfect Circle perfectly hilarious. And, a supremely skilled storyteller, he saves the best for last." --Texas Monthly "Stewart''s mastery of Will''s first-person narration is unflinching and unfaltering. The voice conjured here is absolutely authentic and affecting." --Washington Post "Stewart''s compelling account of how DK comes to grips with his ghosts, both actual and metaphorical, is alternately poignant and hilarious, with some genuinely creepy moments and one or two powerful jolts.... Compelling ... with strong potential for crossing over into the mainstream." --Publishers Weekly "All-around terrific."--Booklist (starred review) "By turns heartbreaking and hilarious,Perfect Circle is ... an impressive example of an author using genre resources to stake out a territory that, for the moment at least, no one but he occupies. --Locus "A read-at-one-go novel.... Everything is both stated and understated, elegant, full of the mundane horror and fear that inform a normal, frustrated life.... And it is well, well worth the reading. A highly recommended work." --F&SF Sean Stewart''s much-anticipated eighth novel is a dark, funny, fast-moving thriller that you won''t want to put down. William "Dead" Kennedy has problems. He''s haunted by family, by dead people with unfinished business, and by those perfect pop songs that you can''t get out of your head. He''s a 32-year-old Texan still in love with his ex-wife. He just lost his job at Pet-Co for eating cat food. His air-conditioning is broken, there''s no good music on the radio, and he''s been dreaming about ghost roads. When Will''s cousin ("My dad married your Aunt Dot''s half-sister") calls in the middle of the night about a dead girl haunting his garage, it seems like an easy way to make a thousand dollars. But nothing is ever that simple, especially when family is involved. Will''s mother is planning a family reunion of epic proportions. Will''s ex-wife is married to a former Marine. His twelve-year-old daughter Megan thinks Will needs someone to look after him. And recently his dead relatives seem to want something from him. +++ punk attitude: country & western life +++ "Perfect Circle is a perfect read, exciting, unique, everything here but the Second Coming, but, Sean Stewart himself is the prize. What a talent. Write on, my man. Write on." --Joe Lansdale "Needy Ghosts, bar fights, concealed weapons, R.E.M., and ramen noodles--Perfect Circle is an irreverent Texas treat. Sean Stewart is one bright, funny writer." --Stewart O''Nan "Will Kennedy has some troublesome relatives. Especially the dead ones.Perfect Circle is Sean Stewart at his spooky, funny, sad, and haunting best." --Karen Joy Fowler "A ghost story for grown-ups, frightening, funny, and finally redemptive. It kept me up way past my bedtime." --Harley Jane Kozak "I read it all in one gulp, by turns fearful and joyful for Stewart''s likable loser protagonist." --Cory Doctorow "If Oprah read science fiction...This quirky, engaging novel tells the story of William "Dead" Kennedy, a thirtysomething former punk rocker and down-on-his-luck divorced dad--who sees ghosts. After a visit to his haunted cousin goes horribly wrong, "DK" finds himself getting lots of attention--mostly the wrong kind--from both the living and the dead. Funny and thought-provoking!" --Carol Schneck, Schuler Books and Music, Okemos, MI "My favorites among Sean Stewart''s books are those that hover on the edge of our reality. His characters, like William "Dead" Kennedy are much like my friends and relatives -- although if any of my relatives are seeing ghosts, they haven''t mentioned this to me. Will leads a not-quite life in Texas, working in dead end jobs, and yearning to reconnect with his ex-wife, and trying to avoid ghosts. When a cousin calls with a ghost-busting request, his financial offer is more than Will can resist.But accepting the job opens Will up to a whole new level of darkness. Great prose (Stewart has some of the best metaphors going) and a melancholy mood, like music half-remembered." --Maryelizabeth Hart, Mysterious Galaxy Bookshop, San Diego, CA Sean Stewart is the author of the "I Love Bees" and "Beast" search operas, two short stories and seven novels:Perfect Circle, The Night Watch, Nobody''s Son, Clouds End, Passion Play, Resurrection Man, andGalveston. With Jordan Weisman, he is the author ofCathy''s BookandCathy''s Key. His novels have received the Aurora, Arthur Ellis, Sunburst, Canadian Library, and World Fantasy awards. He lives in Davis, CA, with his wife and two daughters. … (more)
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I picked up this book at a book fair a year or two ago, and it just kept
We’ve had problems back on bookwyrmmes to categorize this book. At
Perfect Circle is written in a very colloquial way and with many American references, things you wouldn’t necessarily get if you’re not a native or don’t know the country very well… still I managed so I guess it’s not that big of a problem.
The first person narration helping, I thought Will’s character was very nicely portrayed and believable all the way from his love for his ex-wife to his habit of taking the bus (because on the street, ghosts look just like normal people) or to his incredibly large family (at times, I wished the author has given us a genealogy I was so lost). I don’t think it would have worked so well if not written from his POV… his witty and cynical remarks might’ve been less funny.
Anyway, this isn’t a story of great adventure, epic quest or anything. Will is a total failure, he’s only talent which gets him more in trouble than out of, is his capacity to see ghosts and communicate with them. Ghosts are presented as homeless black and white people Will tries to avoid seeing. Ghosts are hungry, they always want something. They can’t do anything to you but they can make you do horrible things to yourself. So Will tries to fight off both his metaphorical ghosts (he sees his ex-wife dead) and other people’s ghosts… because sometimes a guy a haunted for a good reason as he puts it.
The author tries to reveal the relationships between life and death, love and hate… Will tells is that he’s never loved a woman enough to kill her…
This book is very different from the fantasy that I’m used to reading… the hero doesn’t come out of it as your typical I-defeated-the-real-big-bad-guy hero… and this only makes the whole situation more believable. The author is just relating part of the life of this thirty-ish total failure who can’t even keep his job at Petco… this is not his entire story, it’s just a part… long enough for the author to illustrate his POV.
I think this is definitely something I’ll be coming back to… as much for the plot than for the sometimes critical eye the author lays on Texas or even Americans in general. I would recommend it to fantasy fans that are looking for something a bit different from your usual epic quest fantasy.
Sean Stewart's portrait of that breakdown is so sharp and tight as to shake the reader in its grip, but Will's self-deprecating sense of humor gives it a light touch. Will has made an art of getting fired from worthless jobs, but the latest incident has left him depressed--and, at 32, feeling his age. Comparing himself to a prostitute, he accepts an offer of a thousand dollars from a distant cousin to get rid of the ghost in his garage. The encounter turns almost fatally sour; Will finds himself with huge medical debts, sudden fame from a newspaper story, and a new ghost following him around. Pile on the ex-wife he can't get over, the twelve-year-old daughter who treats him like a lost puppy, and Will's huge extended family, gearing up for a reunion that includes the living and the dead: whether or not Will notices, we know it's a matter of time before it cracks him open.
Stewart has a loose and kinetic style, and his characters are lightly drawn but fully realized. He withholds easy answers to the end; even as I felt for Will, I found myself glad for that, and more affected for it. Perfect Circle digs its fishhooks into you and starts to pull, more quickly than you think, until it's actually painful to put down.
Here's the thing: I don't go to horror movies; I don't read horror. Anything with vampires or werewolves or dead people walking around is generally an
The good: everything else. There's no firm conclusion because this is a book that reads a lot like life, about not being able to know everything.
the neutral: I'm having a harder time understanding books that someone's father or motherhood
The main character sees dead people and it really messes up his life - he messes up his life. And when he loses it, he wakes up and starts to live. Really live his life.