Ghost Quartet

by Richard Burgin

TriQuarterly Books, 288 pp., $25.95

Ray Stoneson, an ambitious young composer, compromises his integrity and sacrifices true love with Joy, a soprano with a Mona Lisa smile, by sleeping with Perry Green, a famous conductor who will help Ray’s career. In what could be a provocative, painful tale of tragic pride and loss, Burgin takes on the gamut of human experience in the late 20th century: hetero- and homosexuality, fame, the “family dream,” grief, selfishness, the essence of New York City, fear of AIDS, betrayal, fashion and poise, parental flaws, ambition, paranoia, and the life-sustaining creation of art. The latter ought to be the most powerful comment in the novel, but, like its protagonist, Ghost Quartet is ambitious and doesn’t fully succeed. The narrative voice has drive and grace, but the characters are at times clichéd, the dialogue stilted. The result is a book that is sometimes insightful but never profound.

This article appears in November 19 • 1999.

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