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A review by dantastic
A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle
4.0
Jonathan Rebeck, a homeless man, lives in a New York cemetery. His companions are a talking raven and two new ghosts. While the ghosts explore the circumstances of their deaths and fall in love, Rebeck meets a widow named Mrs. Klapper. Will Rebeck's feelings for Klapper be enough for him to leave behind his cemetery home?
I bought this for a quarter at a book sale and the story was worth a thousand times that. I was hooked from the moment the talking raven tried stealing the salami in the first chapter.
Beagle crafted quite a tale. While it's a fantasy story on the surface, it's really a story about relationships. The relationships between the four main characters is what drives the story and sets it apart from other fantasy tales. Rebeck's fear of the world outside the cemetery was a tangible thing and the revelation of how Michael Morgan really died was one of the more powerful parts of the book. I loved that there was no big bad menace other than the characters' own personalities.
I recommend A Fine and Private Place to fans of fantasy stories that are about people rather than quests.
I bought this for a quarter at a book sale and the story was worth a thousand times that. I was hooked from the moment the talking raven tried stealing the salami in the first chapter.
Beagle crafted quite a tale. While it's a fantasy story on the surface, it's really a story about relationships. The relationships between the four main characters is what drives the story and sets it apart from other fantasy tales. Rebeck's fear of the world outside the cemetery was a tangible thing and the revelation of how Michael Morgan really died was one of the more powerful parts of the book. I loved that there was no big bad menace other than the characters' own personalities.
I recommend A Fine and Private Place to fans of fantasy stories that are about people rather than quests.