I’m going to start out with some thoughts on the first few questions. I have a take on the ending, mostly because I’ve read some of the other literature mentioned throughout the book, but I’ll leave them until later.

From the very beginning, Gerard seems like a very lonely person. He is stuck in a house with an overbearing mother with issues and a father who plays a small role in his life. He is nearly beside himself with excitement when he writes back to Penfriends for the first time, so questioning how they got his address probably never even crosses his mind.

However, I wondered why he never thinks about how easy the whole Penfriends set up is. He doesn’t have to pay for postage because they send him mailing coupons and Alice seems to be tailor-made to exactly fulfill his need for love and friendship. Whenever something comes that easy to me, my skeptical side always makes me question it.

There had to be a way for Alice to avoid meeting Gerard for so many years, and her paralysis is how she puts him off. This sort of brings me to your fifth question as well because I never fully understood why Anne spends so much time and goes to such great lengths to get revenge against Gerard. He isn’t Hugh’s child and Phyllis is alive when Anne first finds them. Why not just go after Phyllis? Or is Anne so super-pissed over irradiating herself that she doesn’t care who she takes out?

For me, Viola’s stories are much more than just a literary device. They’re where the real ghost story happens and help make the book really creepy because, in the end, there is no ghost. Harwood leaves us with a real cliffhanger since we never get to find out what happens in “The Revenant.”

marydell | July 25, 2005 12:53 AM

I love the multi layered texture of this book. You had the main story – Gerard and all that happened to him which seemed very real and then you had the manuscripts within this which seemed equally real, but at the same time you were aware the manuscripts were just stories and so ‘anything could happen’ whereas the main story would have to stick with reality. But this brought up the postmodern conundrum that actually even the main thread was a story, was made up, so anything could happen here and this drew attention to the artifice in a way that I found really interesting.

You get the impression that Anne has been in the house all along, but I wondered about the practical aspects of her existence. What has she been doing all these years, how does she live, eat, drink, does she ever go out? Obviously her existence is the explanation for the house having been obviously aired in the intervening years – as Gerard notices when he first arrives there, but he never really questions this, despite knowing he is the only one with the keys.

The questions:

1. Why did Gerard not question Penfriends International getting his address? Gerard was a child, having a penfriend fulfilled a need in his life so he never looked further.
2. Why is Alice paralyzed and orphaned? Anne creates Alice so she builds a character in her own image – orphaned like her, and paralyzed by her circumstances and disfigurement.
3. Viola’s stories mirroring Gerard’s life, I missed this, but it’s obvious now you mention it. I’m not sure how useful it is, I guess it makes the unfolding events in his life seem more menacing.
4. I don’t think we or Gerard really knew his mother. She is always very withdrawn. She seems terrified of everything and does not connect with reality or at least her son. Her reluctance to give away their address suggests she is hiding, presumably from Anne.
5. It is unclear why Anne wants revenge of Gerard, or even how she tracks him down in the first place. She is probably quite twisted and mad.
6. The ending – I wasn’t sure about this. It felt a little disappointing. What does everyone else think?

Danny | July 26, 2005 6:48 AM

Danny, I like your idea that Anne is "paralyzed by her circumstances and disfigurement." She is sort of paralyzed because she is stuck in the attic of that house for the rest of her life. However, she’s also the key mover in the story. She finds Phyllis and Gerard, she enslaves Gerard by inventing Alice (figuratively paralyzing him as well), and she’s the whole reason why Gerard goes to England. When I got to the ending, I thought Anne was a ghost. After rereading the last 30 pages or so, four times, I finally realized that she isn’t dead despite telling Gerard so. (Seriously, how could a ghost get her hands on a computer?) The real paralysis occurs because Gerard is paralyzed by Anne’s revenge. He is unable to do anything with his life because he is trapped inside his family’s mystery.

Throughout the book, I had wondered what was up with Phyllis. Why would she have that story in a locked drawer? Why does she flip out on Gerard when he finds it? Why is she so opposed to him having a pen pal? It took the entire book before I figured out that Anne had sent her the picture and copy of “The Revenant.” Phyllis obviously knows that Anne is alive and still out to get her. Phyllis is terrified at facing Viola’s ghost-story-come-true and tries to shelter Gerard by trying to block him from writing to Alice and going to England. She’s not as bad as I originally thought, and I have to give Harwood a lot of credit. He really got me with that one.

I’ve seen a lot of stuff on the Internet about people being disappointed with the ending. I was for a while, too, but it took several rereads of the ending to finally appreciate the complexity of the plot. The Ghost Writer is exceptionally well-constructed.

marydell | July 26, 2005 9:10 AM

Marydell, I think you must be right about Anne sending Phyllis the story. I never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense -- it explains why Phyllis is so fearful if she knows Anne actually does know where she is.

But -- I see why Anne sent the story, of course, but why did she send the picture? Was the picture of Viola or of Anne?

On this read, the most confusing thing to me is how Anne got burned. Did Phyllis burn her accidentally? Why did P have the radiation lamp on at all? I get that her bedside table lamp was burned out, so that wouldn't have been a giveaway, but I don't see why P had the radiation lamp on in the first place.

daisy | July 26, 2005 9:28 AM

Also, what about the story left in the rotting gazebo? Did Anne put that there recently for Gerard to find?

daisy | July 26, 2005 9:29 AM

I'm just over halfway through the book and enjoying it. I hope I finish it in time to contribute something meaningful to the discussion. In the meantime, re the question of why Gerard didn't wonder about PenFriends: I'm sure the concept of mass mailing was well-known in his time. Not exactly a shocker or a stretch of the imagination. I had no problem with that whatsoever.

maya | July 26, 2005 11:51 AM

Daisy, on p. 363 of my copy, Gerard says to Anne, "'You traced my mother to Mawson, posted the story...'" Since she sent the story, my guess is that the picture is of Anne because the date on the back is 10 March 1949 and Viola was already dead by then. Later on in the book, Gerard mentions that the photo was taken around Anne's birthday so that's why I think it's her.

Anne irradiated herself in an attempt to kill Phyllis. In order to turn the bedside lamp on, Phyllis had to plug it directly into the wall because it didn't have a switch. The plug is actually an extension cord that was attached to both the lamp and the fluoroscope. Later, Gerard mentions that whenever the machine was on, it would flood both sides of the partition made by the cabinet between Phyllis and Anne's rooms. And then finally, Anne tells Gerard, "'Filly slept in the attic that night. Where she slept with him...There was no light under her door, you see. I thought I was safe'" (p. 367).

I read the ending a whole bunch of times because I didn't get it. I'm pretty sure Anne plants the machine, but I still don't know how it turned on when Phyllis was in the attic.

Here's a geeky literary reference not a lot of Americans might know about. When Anne says she wants to kill Gerard, she refers to an old English nursery rhyme that has to do with church bells in London:

"Oranges and lemons," say the bells of St. Clement's. "You owe me five farthings," say the bells of St. Martin's. "When will you pay me," say the bells of Old Bailey. "When I grow rich," say the bells of Shoreditch. "When will that be?" say the bells of Stepney. "I do not know," says the great bell of Bow. Here comes a candle to light you to bed. Here comes a chopper to chop off your head!

Morbid, huh? But I guess it isn't any worse than Ring Around the Rosey, which most people believe refers to bubonic plague.

marydell | July 27, 2005 12:36 AM

Oh, and I think Viola left the story in the gazebo. She wrote Phyllis a note about finding it, so it's possible that Anne doesn't know anything about it.

Maya, I agree that direct mail was common by the time Gerard was a teenager. His birth year is only a few before mine and we got junk mail for as long as I can remember.

Looking forward to your return when you finish the book. I had a hard time getting into it at the beginning, but it ended up being a real page turner for me because I had to find out what would happen.

marydell | July 27, 2005 12:49 AM

I stumbled on to your site in May while looking for help in understanding Life Of Pi, which my library group read in early June. I found the comments here very enlightening (and shared some with my group). I now confess to have been lurking here since, going on to read Thumbsucker, Running with Scissors, and Ghost Writer.

I'm coming out now because no one has commented on the anagram "Havisham" which Gerard made using some of the key characters' names. I returned my copy of GW to the library, so I can't cite specifics, but I recall it included the name of Anne's "legatee" (Ashram?). Miss Havisham was the old lady in Dickens' "Great Expectations" who had been abandoned at the altar as a young woman, and who had secluded herself ever since, leaving her house exactly as it had been on her wedding day: drapes closed, dust and cobwebs accumulating.

Beth | July 27, 2005 8:01 AM

Marydell, I remember that the radiation was supposed to affect both rooms, but I'm confused at how Anne could accidentally burn herself since she would know that too.

I guess my problem is that I'm imagining this happening all in one night, but probably Anne put the machine in there as soon as she caught Phyllis and Hugh, and then each night, Anne waited for Phyllis's light to go on and then she (Anne) left her own bedroom. But that night, Phyllis's bulb had burned out, and Anne didn't know it, so Anne went to sleep in her room and got burned, but Phyllis was upstairs. Does that make sense?

And I guess Anne would have sent the picture of herself to remind Phyllis how Anne used to look before being burned, as if it was Phyllis's fault.

Daisy | July 27, 2005 9:26 AM

Beth: I picked up on the Havisham reference too. Both books seem to be about the corruption of youth by adults as a revenge tactic. Sad, huh?

And of course, the name Miss Jessel, as a reference to "The Turn of the Screw," which is also about corruption of youth for dastardly ends.

maya | July 27, 2005 12:30 PM

aaahhh...

i'm more behind than Maya is!
this book has been hell to get for me.
i just got it at the beginning of this week and i'm making a huge effort to catch up!

:-(

ana | July 27, 2005 5:52 PM

Thanks for explaining how Anne burned herself - I was a bit confused about that.

I found the Miss Havisham reference a bit obvious. There are lots of parallels - Anne was jilted by her lover and stayed shut up in the house and she wears a veil. But I thought this was spelled out a bit too much. The fact that Gerard works the anagram out suggests that Anne is aware of her affinity to Miss Havisham, and perhaps models herself on the character.

I don't know Turn of the Screw though - so thanks for that one.

Could Alice also be a reference to the most famous Alice in literature - Wonderland? She lives in a kind of dream world and I wondered the clothes we hear of her wearing sounded so old-fashioned - the white dress, it sounds almost Victorian.

Danny | July 28, 2005 9:15 AM

So I finished the book. Overall, I liked it, but it's full of plot holes and uncertain character motivations, so I can't really say it's a masterpiece. And at then end, I was confused too about Anne and the radiation and all that. Did anyone else think it weird that Gerard so quickly assumed that Phyllis could have murdered Anne? She didn't strike me as THAT crazy a mother.

I think the plot was TOO convoluted, and it didn't quite cohere properly. Some things, like Anne's writing her "locked in the basement note," just seemed over the top. Why would she even bother? It seemed too contrived.

maya | July 28, 2005 11:41 AM

Welcome, Beth! You'd be amazed at how many search engine referrals BookBlog gets for “[insert title here] discussion questions” and “[insert title here] CliffsNotes.” Please feel free to drop in on a discussion any time. Despite the acerbic humor I used when writing the faq, we really don’t bite.

Thanks for bringing up the Miss Havisham reference, and I agree with Danny that the anagram from Abigail Hamish’s name is a little too obvious. But think about it this way: the book is modeled after Victorian novels so contemporary readers who aren’t up on their English literature aren’t going to get it. Of course, Great Expectations is one of the more famous ones, but Harwood still needs to make some of his literary references accessible.

Henry James’ Miss Jessel has been criticized as an unreliable narrator because she keeps certain facts to herself and there is also some question as to whether she’s a good character or a bad one. She’s the end of a line of servants who torment the children even after death, and she’s unable to save them in the end. I also really like Danny’s connection to Alice in Wonderland. So now I see Harwood’s Alice Jessel is an untrustworthy girl who exists in a fantasy.

Going back to another name in the book, one of Anne’s inventions is Parvati Naidu, the nurse who writes to Gerard after Alice’s operation. In Hinduism, Parvati is a wife of Shiva and the mother of the universe with the power to create and destroy. I’m not sure if this name choice was deliberate, though, since I have no idea if Naidu refers to anything.

Daisy, thanks for reminding me about the burned out bulb. Phyllis must have plugged in the light and never unplugged it again after going up to the attic.

Maya, Phyllis does slap the hell out of Gerard just for looking at a picture and never explains why. This incident causes him to question her throughout the entire book and is the starting point for his ruined life. Plus, Anne’s revenge includes poisoning him against Phyllis. If I were him, I’d be suspicious, too.

marydell | July 28, 2005 1:13 PM

Maya, I agree with you about the note in the basement being overwrought. I think the whole basement scene could have been scrapped. It's unnecessary to the plot for Gerard to have been trapped in there at all; he could have just found Anne in the attic without that prelude, I think.

I totally believed Phyllis as a killer, though. Her behavior was pretty insane and hard to understand, especially when you're a child, and Gerard was seriously misled by the Abigail letters, remember. It was a logical conclusion for him to draw. I drew it myself...of course, she wasn't my mother, though.

daisy | July 28, 2005 7:59 PM

Daisy - I'm agreeing with you about the basement scene. The high drama comes out of nowhere and doesn't really fit with the delicate building of suspense Harwood uses elsewhere.

Thinking about Gerard and Phyllis's relatonship is odd. He seems to have so little affection for her and their seems to be so little between them considering they lived pretty much alone together for 30 odd years. That he could think she was the killer suggests how little they really knew each other.

All in all I thought the book was excellent. It has its faults and the plot is vast, but both these mean there is just so much material to think about. I love just musing on the believableness of the characters.

Danny | July 29, 2005 10:08 AM

i've just finished the book, finally!
i'm in my bedroom reading everyone's entries and instead of sleeping, when i have to wake up in less than four hours.

okay, let's see...i've had lots to do this whole week and i never imagined a 369 pages book!

why didn't gerard wonder how Penfriends International got his address? i think that it was because the thought of having a penfriend was completely out of the ordinary and routine life that he lived in Mawson. i think he was desperate for some intimacy of some kind (the kind that he lacked with his parents, especially his mother) that he rushed to accept a penfriend and didn't think twice about where it came from.

ah...alice still boggles me. she was mad. why she would even contact gerard in the first place is completely beyond me. at first, when i realized that alice must have some how known about gerard and his mother (in her letters, she always had a really good and reasonable excuse for gerard's mother's behaviour), i thought that alice might have been someone close to Phyllis in an attempt to reconciliate Phyllis with her past.

i think viola's stories were an interesting device. i really liked them. but after .... the Revenent, i really got tired of more fiction within fiction...i just wanted it to get straight to the point.

i'm not sure about the end. there are a lot of details that i don't understand. for example, did phyllis accidentally expose anne to radiation? somehow i got the idea at the very end that anne set it up herself? i don't know. i'm still confused about that. one thing i'm sure about: anne was CRAZY!

ana | July 30, 2005 4:15 AM

What did happen in the Revenant?
Mary brings up a good point about Viola's stories being the real ghost stories. As for a ghost at the end of the book, I don't think i expected one, even though Phyllis was paranoid about "she seeing Gerard."
(who was she referring to? viola or anne? if she was referring to anne, was she referring to anne's ghost? which would mean that phyllis really did kill her?)

I wondered too about Anne's life. How did she end up with a computer in the attic, connected to the internet? From the way that Gerard describes the house, it's old and no trace of electricity. Even when he finally sees that there is some electricity, the dim light at the top of the staircase, that doesn't seem like enough electricity? I don't know...but it's just so strange.

The ending was not what I expected. I knew that Alice was Anne, but I didn't make the connection with Abigail, even with Gerard's reasoning. I still don't understand how he formed Miss Havisham from their names...or what that means--unless I missed some detail throughout the story.
I never expected Anne to be that mad, or to want to avenge herself on innocent Gerard. How twisted was she in completely making a mockery out of an innocent boy's life? Then again, she never forced him...

Okay, I think i missed the detail where we find out that Anne sent her a copy of The Revenant...is that where he says that she "posted it?" But that does make MUCH MORE sense as to why Phyllis was paranoid all the time!

In the Revenant, wasn't Imogen's gown green? Then, Cordelia decides to put it on to spook Harry when she finds him in the attic, but she ends up getting burned. Again, both Harry and Cordelia seem paralyzed and do nothing to help her. Then Anne sends the greensleeves photograph to Phyllis is. I see it as a reminder of the events that Phyllis caused, how the ghost story became true and everything else that happened after the night she put on the gown--to say, "I haven't forgotten."

I know who miss Havisham is and I understand the symbolism...but I still don't understand how he arrived at it.
Could someone explain it to me as if I were 5 years old?

I didn't think that Phyllis could've killed Anne. Not because of how she treated Gerard, but because of the mentality that the killer is never who you expect it to be. Also, I didn't think Anne would be dead...I most certainly didn't think that Abigail was Anne! I fell for that!

I know I late to the discussion. I had lots of trouble getting this book through the library, but it was worth it! Despite the few chances I had for reading for more than two hours straight, I couldn't put the book down. The main story was intriguing, as were Viola's ghost stories. I loved the Victorian referrences. I did have some trouble imagining Gerard's present life in the late 20th, early 21th century.
There may still be some unanswered questions, but I think I've left with a better understanding of the entire novel.

Thanks for the title, Daisy!

p.s.--which was your favorite ghost story? mine was the very first one, of the paiting of the mystery woman that drives the man into falling into the river, was it? The story with the child-doll was TOO spooky for me!

ana | July 30, 2005 4:50 AM

My favorite of the stories was definitely "The Revenant." I actually yelled out loud when it was cut off so near the end. I'd love to read the completed story -- we did get more of it later, but not all.

My least favorite was the one you mention in the British Museum with the doll. It was so bizarre as to be silly. I did like "Seraphina," and I agree that after "The Revenant," I was eager for the rest of the frame story to go on and I didn't really need any more interludes. I might have liked "The Pavilion" better if it came earlier in the book.

daisy | July 30, 2005 8:20 PM

Also, I didn't know what the word "revenant" meant, but I just looked it up: "One who returns after death (as a ghost) or after a long absence." (dictionary.com)

So who's the revenant in "The Revenant"?

daisy | July 30, 2005 8:21 PM

hmmm...good question...

i think it would be ... Viola, but only because Cordelia dresses in her gown when she goes up to the attic to spook Harry.

then again, that would be the more obvious answer, so i'm not so sure.

ana | July 31, 2005 2:03 PM

I think "The Revenant" is also my favorite story within the story. Although we don't get to read the ending (since Gerard has the manuscript in his shirt when he jumps out the window), I think there isn't ghost in that story just like there isn't a ghost in The Ghost Writer. Cordelia puts on her grandmother's dress, and I suspect that she's supposed to appear to be the ghost of Imogen de Vere.

marydell | August 3, 2005 8:34 AM

Ana, Gerard figures out that Miss A.V. Hamish is an anagram for Miss Havisham while he's doodling and thinking about Anne and Abigail. It's at the bottom of p. 333 in the paperback edition.

marydell | August 3, 2005 8:41 AM

hello, everyone. I just finished the book and I'm really really confused, but I guess the previous comments helped somewhat. However, no one mentioned the painting of the old/dead man in the Revenant. Is it because it's not important or it was easy to get. Anyhow, can someone explain that to me. And if the radiation machine affects both rooms, how come Filly didn't show any disfigurement ? Was it becuase she had been going to the attic for a some time already? thanks.

Erica | August 5, 2005 6:15 PM

Erica, that's a good point about the tiled picture that the fiancé in "The Revenant" was obsessed with. I never did get the point of that, unless it was to make a parallel with how the main character of that story (sorry, I returned my book to the library and don't remember characters' names) was a little obsessed with the painting of her grandmother. Still, she wasn't really obsessed, I didn't think. Well, I guess my answer to your question is that I don't know! Anyone?

As for the radiation machine, I'm not sure about that. I'm confused about how the machine went on whenever Filly turned her light on, and yet she wasn't burned. Was it rigged that way for only one night? This contradicts what I said in an earlier comment, but truly, I just don't know.

daisy | August 6, 2005 12:51 AM

I have read a reread all these comments, parts of the book, and reviews of the book and I still do NOT understand the darn radiation thing. What was the plan and how did it get messed up? Wouldn't Phyllis have known that she would be poisoned too? Why does it matter that the light was out- "I thought I was safe". Why was Phyllis poisoning Anne anyhow? As far as my understanding goes, Anne got poisoned, Pyllis didn't, Anne suffered treatment and is still alive when she confronts Gerard in the attic, horribly disfigured by the radiation and treatment. But there is the line "And she died" at the end of the explanation Whatever-She-Is gives about what happened to Anne. ARGH.

Meg | August 6, 2005 9:32 PM

Wait, now I realize Anne did planted the machine. But that still doesn't help me.

Meg | August 6, 2005 9:46 PM

Erica, I think "The Drowned Man" is supposed to be a red herring.

Anne had read "The Revenant" and finds parallels between her affair with Hugh and the affair between Cordelia and Harry from the short story. Harry meets Cordelia because he appraises her picture collection for her trust fund. Anne meets Hugh because he helps her sell some of her pictures. Harry falls in love with Beatrice, Cordelia's younger sister. Hugh falls in love with Phyllis, Anne's younger sister.

In her diary, Anne writes that she searches the house for "The Drowned Man" but doesn't find it. So, I'm guessing that the picture was part of "The Revenant" in order to keep us from thinking that it was the ghost story that would come true.

marydell | August 9, 2005 6:18 PM

Meg, maybe a play-by-play will help.

1. Anne catches Phyllis and Hugh in bed together. Anne is pissed and wants to hurt Phyllis.

2. Anne plants the fluoroscope in the bottom of the cabinet and rigs it so that Phyllis will turn on the machine whenever she turns on her bedside lamp.

3. Radiation isn't bad for you in small doses. Each night Phyllis turns on her lamp, she gets a small dose of radiation. When she turns the light off, the machine goes off, too. Poisoning Phyllis this way will take a long time, but Anne is patient.

4. Meanwhile, Anne knows that whenever Phyllis' light is on, the machine is on and floods both rooms with radiation. When Anne sees Phyllis' light through the crack under the door, Anne stays out of her own bedroom. When Phyllis' light goes off, Anne is safe and goes to bed.

5. One night, Phyllis turns on her lamp and the bulb burns out. She goes up to the attic and falls asleep. However, she doesn't turn off the power to the light, so the machine stays on.

6. Anne doesn't see a light under Phyllis' door so she thinks she is safe to go in her own room. Anne sleeps there all night with the machine flooding her room with radiation. As a result, Anne irradiates herself.

Hope this helps.

marydell | August 9, 2005 6:36 PM

Marydell, I bet all of us benefited from that.

I really enjoyed doing a book that's hard to figure out, because we can all confer and voila, we've got it. I'd like us to do House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Can I volunteer for January?

daisy | August 9, 2005 8:36 PM

Sure, Daisy. January is yours.

marydell | August 9, 2005 9:40 PM

I know I am a little late in this topic, but I just read the book and had to find a forum of some sort because I wanted more clarification of the ending.

All these comments were SO helpful.
I just finished reading, so I am going to go back and check on these questions myself, because I am sure I am forgetting some clues.
Some questions-
Do we know that Gerard is in fact a "new" Gerard? (I have to go back and check dates)
I always thought he was Hugh's child and thus would be a reason for the revenge. And Phyllis faked his death and left town.

Also, I thought the cellar scene made sense.
Anne wanted him to die thinking his mother was the killer, etc. Thus completing her ruining Phyllis in his eyes.
What I did not get was why exactly she did let him out, I understand it was on fire, and for story purposes I understand we needed to know the whole truth, but I thought the reasoning in the book was flimsy.

I hope somebody still vists here :)

laurel | August 26, 2005 12:55 PM

Laurel, narrator Gerard and Hugh's child Gerard are two different people. Hugh's child dies of pneumonia as an infant and the narrator is born a few years later.

The cellar scene doesn't bother me as much as the rest of our discussion participants. Anne's phony dying words are kind of convoluted, but her whole plan for revenge is also kind of convoluted. A few pages from the end, Anne tells Gerard that she let him out because he had set the house on fire. She probably doesn't want the place to burn to the ground since she has to live in it, but it does anyway because the original fire wasn't put out properly.

Hope this helps.

marydell | August 31, 2005 6:39 PM