The Other Side

Martha Wilson is Canadian correspondent for the Japan Times (Tokyo) and
a Toronto-based freelance editor and writer.

What happens when someone commits suicide, but rather than just plain
dying takes up residence as a kitchen ghost in his former home? In this
novel, the newly dead Marc reflects on his tangled life while he haunts
the people he chose to leave behind. His roommate Holly, an out-of-work
actor who cleans houses for a living, tries to help Marc face his
options. When she grows impatient with his rattling cups and banging
tables, she tries to persuade him to “cross over to the other side.”
When Marc balks, Holly coaxes a procession of unsympathetic visitors to
come by for tea and a glimpse of the afterlife.

The Other Side would be livelier and more likable if it had some
warmth, some evidence of human connections. Holz has set up a profound
situation in a whimsical context—a recipe that could yield riches.
Unfortunately, her characters are so sullen and so bafflingly mean to
one another that it’s hard to care about who’s hurting whose
feelings.

Of course, characters can be riveting even when they aren’t nice: for
example, the central character of Barbara Pym’s wonderful The Sweet
Dove Died is the utterly distasteful Leonora Eyre. But Holz stints on
those insights and revelations that a writer like Pym produces on every
page. Holz’s use of humor, in particular, can feel clumsy and
heavy-handed, as if she were handing us clichés even when she isn’t.

Still, Holz is deft, and she has a great eye for wacky details: “She
finds a book with a photo of a diapered pig on the cover, and he
snatches it with a cold hand.”