All Things Cease To Appear by Elizabeth Brundage | LJ Review

Tragedy leaves an indelible mark on both people and places in Brundage’s (A Stranger Like You) piercing new novel. Part mystery, part ghost story, and entirely brilliant, this title will entrance book clubs and literary fiction readers
all_things_cease_to_appear_1__1456864721_85706redstarBrundage, Elizabeth. All Things Cease To Appear. Knopf. Mar. 2016. 416p. ISBN 9781101875599. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9781101875605 F Art history professor George Clare comes home to his upstate New York farmhouse to find ­Catherine, his wife, murdered and their toddler daughter alone in her room. Instead of the traditional whodunit path, however, Brundage takes the reader back in time to reveal what led to this devastating event. It’s not just a history of the Clares and their move from Manhattan to a depressed rural town; it’s about their neighbors, George’s free-spirited colleagues, and the boys who perform odd jobs around the property. Each person connected to the family has their own story and perspective, and the author elegantly shifts among them all until the truth comes into focus. In examining the inconsistency of memory, Brundage plays with how things look vs. how things actually are. The structure of her transcendent work allows readers to see how characters experience events in the moment, reflect upon them later, and then examine them years after the fact. VERDICT Tragedy leaves an indelible mark on both people and places in Brundage’s (A Stranger Like You) piercing new novel. Part mystery, part ghost story, and entirely brilliant, this title will entrance book clubs and literary fiction readers.—Liza Oldham, Beverly, MA This review was published in Library Journal's March 1, 2016 issue. Subscribe today and save up to 35 percent off the regular subscription rate.
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