Going Through Ghosts

by Mary Sojourner

Overview

Maggie Foltz is a fifty-five-year-old cocktail waitress in a rundown casino in the southern Nevada Mojave Desert. She spends her days serving drinks to lonely old folks playing the slot machines and her nights trying to escape her bitter past. When she befriends Sarah, a young Native American woman who is hired to cook in the casino coffee shop, her life begins to change. Maggie finds herself falling in love with a memory-haunted Vietnam veteran and warily begins to hope that together they can find peace. Then Sarah is mysteriously murdered, and Sarah’s ghost enlists Maggie to accompany her on a quest for the wisdom that she needs in order to move into the next world. The story ranges from smoky casinos into the harsh magnificence of the desert and the reservation where Sarah’s people are trying to preserve their culture and find their own place in a modern world that seems to want them to be either shamans or losers. Sojourner’s characters are compellingly real, and the Mojave setting has rarely been depicted as sensitively or truthfully. This is a memorable story of love, redemption, and solace, told by one of the West’s finest writers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874178104
Publisher:	University of Nevada Press
Publication date:	02/01/2010
Series:	Western Literature and Fiction Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
File size:	753 KB

About the Author

Mary Sojourner writes and lives in Bend, Oregon. She is also the author of Bonelight: Ruin and Grace in the New Southwest, another novel, short stories, and many essays. She has taught writing workshops and been a commentator for National Public Radio.

Table of Contents

Cover Page Title Page Copyright Page Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Back Cover

Editorial Reviews

Sojourner’s suspenseful and finely observed second novel (after several story collections and works of nonfiction) reaches deeply into Native American lore as it pursues an unlikely friendship between two hard-luck women—one living, one dead. Maggie Foltz (aka Maggie May “for tips”) is a cocktail waitress with a heart of gold at the Crystal Casino in Creosote, Nev. At 54, Maggie is weary of falling for charismatic men and helps Sarah, a young transient, get a job at the casino. Sarah, who grew up in the small Willow tribe of Bone Lake, has fled man trouble of her own, and the two women become pals—all too briefly before Sarah is murdered. However, their friendship only intensifies from here on, as Sarah returns—with the help of the Willow healer Minnie Siyala—and guides Maggie back to Bone Lake to resolve spiritual issues. In punchy, alternating points of view, Sojourner introduces potential murderers and plenty of quirky customers as Maggie helps Sarah’s spirit transition to what comes next. Sojourner’s sympathy for her characters is palpable and gracious, making this a notable and worthy effort. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

I have a soft spot for this book, and I like these characters. I think this is a book that serves Nevada really well, both in terms of landscape and in terms of the loving but unsanitized description of those who tend to wind up in a place like Creosote.” — Pam Houston, author of Sight Hound

“Searing and redemptive, Mary Sojourner’s prose creates rituals for living, for dying, and for learning patience while we endure what’s intolerable.” — Peggy Shumaker, author of Just Breathe Normally and Gnawed Bones

“You will not want to put this novel down until you’ve read the very last word. . . . Sojourner’s characters will not ever leave your mind and heart—even if you wanted them to.” — Susan Lang, author of Small Rocks Rising and Moon Lily

From the Publisher