Christopher Barzak has a story in the new issue of Asimov's "The Ghost-Hunter's Beautiful Daughter" that perfectly illustrates what he does with ghost stories that is so appealing to me. First, it is set in Warren, Ohio, a place that Barzak is familiar with and nails so effectively. He does not write about Ohio as an exceptional place however but rather Ohio at its most common or mundane and yet it is no less fascinating. The very commonality of Barzak's settings makes his stories that much more compelling - even if, like me you have never been in Ohio, you recognize the towns he writes about. They are, for lack of a better description, quintessentially American and I don't mean that in a kitschy or rose-colored sort of way but more in a hard working, regular old middle class, ordinary, kind of town. Except there are ghosts in Barzak's Warren, and the ghost-hunter and his daughter make them go away.

In this story the daughter is the catalyst - the one who sees the ghosts - and her father is the one with an invention that literally sucks them up. But Sylvie still sees them and more importantly hears them and Barzak explores her relationship with them and the burden she bears as their unfortunate link. That one of those ghosts is someone she loves just makes everything that much more complicated (and no - it's not a doomed romance with the undead, thank you very much).

So, why do I love Christopher Barzak's stories? Because they are populated with the living and the dead who are struggling to figure out the world and where they fit in it. Most appealingly, his ghosts are not vengeance-filled monsters but often just sad people who don't know how they ended up where they are now. They are confused and troubled and, well, an awful like those of us among the living except they have even less control over their future then we do (which says a lot).

Chris talks a bit about the story's origins at his site (and the real ghost walk in Warren). You can't read it online unfortunately but Asmiov's is always worth the purchase price anyway and if you like ghosts who truly dwell in a gray area and the people who find themselves drawn in there with them, then you will enjoy this story. Although enjoy might be a tough word for Barzak's ghosts - it's more like you are affected by them and keep thinking about them and worry about them. The ghosts I have known would recognize his worlds I think, and find some odd comfort there. At least the way he writes them, ghosts are not caricatures of the living. They are just dead and not yet gone which is the way I think it is for a lot of people we loved once. Just gone away too far for us to see, but not far enough for them to be free.

Yeah, he's that good of a writer, promise.

[Post pic from Paris’s famed Père-Lachaise cemetery.]