One long whine
—
Am I missing something here? I found this really difficult to read, like striding through molasses, and I can even look past the one-sided vision of Manchester (where I’m from, if I’m from anywhere) to assess a novel about a writer. Stories about storymakers are always interesting—sorry, usually interesting, but this was one long whine. Not for me.

Meanwhile: Luca returns to his hometown of Manchester in the North of England in the wake of a failed relationship and abandoning his PhD in Massachusetts. He relies on the kindness of an old friend and his partner who help him to land a job as a ghostwriter for Andy who is writing his life story. Andy lives MS; Luca’s dad died of it. Cue survivor’s guilt, new-ish adult angst, classist imposter syndrome, romantic ennui.

Give. Me. A. Break. You don’t have to like the main character, but you need to be able to empathise with them, and I’m sorry, I couldn’t even.

I love a book with a sense of place and even more so when the place is where I ilve . The setting definitely made this book for me . I have lived in Manchester for over 20 years now and like Luca i have very mixed feelings about the city as it has changed so much and not for the better. I loved his bitter attitude and comments he made about places whilst he was walking around as they are my thoughts !

Aside from the Manchester backdrop the novel is also great , The writing style was giving me David Nicholls sort of vibes , easy to consume, deep issues but not heavy to read. Also the characters you meet are all so real and could easily be someone you know .

It's a story about ambition , failure and about not knowing where you fir in once you get to a certain age . I would LOVE to see this adapted by the BBC!

Poor Ghosts by Gabriel Flynn; I requested this purely because of its mention of Manchester. I love to see the city represented in literature! I was also on board with the reference to Hamlet in the epigraph (I love Hamlet). However, Luca, the main character, was more insufferable than Hamlet and that’s saying something. Having recently quit his PhD in America and returned home to Manchester in his thirties with no money, nor prospects, he takes on the job of ghost writer for Andy who has progressive MS and wants to write down his life story. Luca sees this work as beneath him but is desperate for the money. There are parallels between Andy and Luca’s father, which brings up uncomfortable emotions. He also has a lot to confront emotions-wise from his time in the US and the narrative switches between the present and the past. Overall, I wasn’t a fan though I did enjoy some of the commentary on Manchester and its changing landscape. Thanks @sceptrebooks for the review copy.

This was a good look at class structures within higher education as well as returning home once you have left. It was interesting and I did finish the book, but it did not capture my attention as much as I would have liked it to - I would have preferred it if it explored some themes and areas of the story a bit more.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this ARC.

Luca has quit. Quit his phd at Harvard, quit America, quit the maybe blossoming relationship with hot poet Mia. He find himself back in Manchester, living with his friend, finally reckoning with his father’s death 16 years earlier. Then he gets an offer to ghostwrite a memoir of sorts for an older man Andy who suffers from MS. Which Luca’s dad had too.

If this was an AITA post on reddit the resolution would be everyone sucks. Everyone sucks! Luca sucks because god almighty at some point wind your neck in? His friend Tom sorta sucks because he’s mean unprovoked. Andy sucks because he does kind of think his life has been more interesting than it seems. Mia innocent.

I’d say this sits at a solid 3.5 for me. I think it was trying to tackle some big topics but it was hard to get past the end of Luca’s nose for long enough to really care about them. Writing nice though!

I thought this was great! Very entertaining read and great concept. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

If there was one thing my education had taught me, it was that cash set the imagination free."

Luca has quit his PhD in the US, broken up with his girlfriend, and returned to Manchester to crash on his friend's couch. He's not figuring it out and trying to stretch his last 2,000 pounds until he dies. After his friend gives him a wake-up call, he accepts a job as a ghostwriter for a man who's had shit luck in life.

This is peak literary fiction. Amazing writing, not a lot going on, but very wordy chewings about that nothingness. The ending was very heavy, I wasn't expecting to feel that bad about it all. So rounding my 3.5 starts up for the rating.

Luca was difficult to empathize with. He's the type of dude who goes with the flow and repeats his parents' mistakes. Some bits, I enjoyed. But overall, I couldn't get the sense of it all. The best bits for me were the writing bits and spending time with Andy, everything else about Luca's romantic life or dad didn't hold my interest.

I do have to say, as someone who has finished a PhD, that defense bit where you go from student to candidate is one of the toughest things to go through. It's a very humbling experience and I can't imagine having a tough panel for it (mine was great and I had the shakes while they deliberated). So, I just want to stress that leaving and quitting while the panel is deliberating is such a choice lol I also had the intrusive thought.

Anyways, amazing writing. (I think it's a debut too). I'm just the type of reader who likes substance and action more than I do style.

An interesting novel, but one that's hard to get into and doesn't quite feel like it's finished. The prose style of the Poor Ghost was, perhaps, not for me.

Luca, a native of Manchester, finds himself return to the city after dropping out of his doctoral degree.
The PhD represents an intellectual, complex, and at times, ideal world. and Luca's life outside of the PhD is more shattered.
In need of money, Luca turns to ghostwriting.
MS, philosophy, language, classes, trauma, belonging, being true to one's self, being between two worlds and minds, mental and real/physical dislocation, misunderstandings are some of the many layers and themes of this interesting book.
The writing is 3.5 stars.
The themes and topics 5.
The overall execution is 4, in my experience. With a bit more editing, I would have enjoyed it more.
Though, I recommend it for its interesting and authentic themes and characters/situations.

I was really eager to read this as I have MS and wanted to see how this was handled. I liked how reflective and lyrical the writing is but only managed to get 40% of the way in before abandoning the book. It lacked pace and forward motion for me and I just couldn't care enough about the protagonist enough to carry on reading.

Poor Ghost! by Gabriel Flynn successfully captures that feeling of being someone who struggles with their natural instinct to self-sabotage and how to move forward with life when you've no idea what you're doing.

This book delivers what it promises : a story about a man struggling after his failing at his PhD, coming back to his hometown and being offered a job to write the story of another man. Frustrated ambition, intelletucalism and memories are the centre of the book, down to its structure. We follow our narrator in the present timeline and wander into the past before coming to the present.
Once again, books set in a contemporary setting and telling a story of day to day life isn't for me. I couldn't connect with Luca and found him quite unlikable, despite my empathy. Normally, I don't really mind unlikable characters as long as I am invested in their story. Saddly, it wasn't the case here, leading me to put the book aside half way through.
It's not that the book is bad. It is well enough written, not the most vivid prose I've read, but doing it's job. But the overall sense of misery and the movement between present and past had a tendency to annoy me, and I had no drive to pursue my reading, so here we are.
People looing for a quite realistic novel, with themes of lose, failure, love and stories might find this book to their liking.