Shuffled Off: A Ghost's Memoir, Book 1

by Robert J McCarter

Overview

Sometimes death wakes you up... Death comes for us all, but when JJ Lynch dies, it's one hell of a wakeup call. He's forced out of the rut of his going-nowhere meat-life and must embrace his new after-life. With a gallows sense of humor, JJ fights his way through the five stages of grief on a journey you will never forget. Along the way he has to confront the bardo (his own personal hell) and delicately tie up his loose ends. If he's not careful, one of his loved ones will die. Life is not easy, even when you're a ghost. Using technology developed at the University of Arizona, JJ communicates from beyond the veil to tell his mind-bending story of life beyond death in his own words. "JJ's heartrending passage, kicking and screaming, through Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' five stages of grief for his lost life, is relatable for any reader who has lost a loved one too soon.... The wry humor and raw emotional truth of JJ's journey will have readers rooting for him from death to eternity." Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780964209626
Publisher:	Little Hummingbird Publishing
Publication date:	10/02/2011
Series:	A Ghost's Memoir , #1
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Robert J. McCarter lives in the mountains of Arizona with his wife and two dogs. Although he currently makes his living as a computer programmer, his heart has always been that of an artist. Whether acting, taking pictures, producing fractal art, or writing he finds his greatest joy in creativity.

Editorial Reviews

When 29-year-old janitor JJ Lynch is tragically killed by a drunk driver, he uses tools found in a university lab to communicate with those he's left behind. McCarter has turned the grief memoir on its head by exploring loss from the first-person point of view of his newly departed protagonist, struggling to shuffle off this mortal coil. In life, JJ befriended Tamara, a scientist experimenting with electromagnetism in an effort to reach her murdered fiancé; after his own untimely passing, JJ uses Tamara's experiment to send her a series of "Transmissions" from the other side. This storytelling device is original, and JJ's transmissions are well written and often irreverent. In between, though, McCarter includes sketchily written "Interview Transcripts," in which JJ's loved ones react to his messages from beyond. Here, the author misses the opportunity to flesh out the experience of those left behind, more deeply linking the novel's frame--the laboratory experiment--with JJ's "memoir." There are other missed opportunities, as well. Tamara's fiancé died trying to tell her something, but this intriguing thread is left unresolved, as is another memorable episode in which new spirit JJ is threatened by a gang of ghostly bullies. McCarter has grounded his paranormal narrative in the "reality" of numerous accounts of near-death experiences, such as the "silver cord" connecting the soul to the "meat," or body, but there is much for the rookie ghost to learn on the fly. While coming to terms with his accident, JJ is consumed by flames of rage as he seeks retribution for his death, sinks into a vivid, horrifying slough of despond known as the bardo (a Buddhist concept) and fights desperately to intervene as his best friend is about to be murdered. McCarter's spirit world can also be playful and fun, particularly his account of the "Midnight Circle," at which a motley assortment of ghosts gather to perform Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett. It is to the author's credit that, even though his main character is "extra corporeal," JJ's heartrending passage, kicking and screaming, through Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' five stages of grief for his lost life, is relatable for any reader who has lost a loved one too soon. The wry humor and raw emotional truth of JJ's journey will have readers rooting for him from death to eternity.

Kirkus Reviews