Seeing ghosts

     An enthralling account of a very unusual and symbiotic working relationship, Jennie Erdal's memoir Ghosting: A Double Life tells of her many years as translator, editor and amanuensis to a well-known and flamboyant London publisher. Although her employer's identity is no secret, he is referred to throughout the book as "Tiger", while she in turn was always "Beloved", and theirs was not an ordinary partnership. She became his ghostwriter, producing articles, interviews, and eventually novels, all of which appeared under Tiger's name. The effort was a collaborative one, though the hard grind of putting the words on paper and adopting a male perspective was her job alone, never acknowledged publicly nor even in private where Tiger talked only of "us" and "we", never "you".

    The book is at times highly comic, affecting and, ultimately, very sad. Tiger supported his right-hand woman when her personal life was in crisis, and though he was obsessive, impossibly demanding, fastidious and tiresome, she seems to have developed a great affection for him, and there's a warm side to the story which occasionally thaws the cooler 'distance' from which she tends to write. But in the end, enough was enough, and when Jennie resigned, Tiger announced his retirement from literary life. The book's final sentence says it all: "Things would never be different again".

    For all his faults, the bold and brilliant Tiger dazzles. The writer herself - perhaps too practised in concealing her true identity - is harder for the reader to grasp, and I sensed a lot left unsaid. Of course any book of this type must be selective in its content, but there was a striking contrast between longish passages about her childhood, the relevance of which was often social commentary, and puzzlingly little about her adult life outwith work. Beyond that, precisely what she felt and thought about this extraordinary man and what she did for him remains shiftingly obscure. That said, this is a book I read with pleasure and would read again; the ghost might then become more visible.

Comments

[Simon T]

What an intriguing book, and what a wonderfully enticing review you have written, Karen.

[Teresa]

This sounds like a fascinating read. I'll have to keep my eyes out for it.