Ghost Music is wonderful for readers who know a little bit about Chinese culture and regions, and even for those who are looking for a first steep into Chinese literature. An Yu is a master at focusing on the minute details of family and relationship dynamics in this novel. Our main characters maneuver life in 21st century China while trying to find meaning through different potential avenues of life. Parenthood, career mobility, and feelings about the past all influence each character on their journeys through accepting the most devastating truths about themselves and the world while always having to find ways forward. While those crucial truths can be informative, this novel explores how those truths are often swept under the rug to save ourselves from facing the complex realities of life and, too often, death. This novel understands the realities of life to be so complex as to appear to us as more fantastical than our wildest dreams.
Read this novel with a mind to explore the thin line between the real and surreal, and you will discover something inside yourself that drives your behaviors the way the characters of this novel are driven by obsessions over their own fantastical realities. The worlds of Classical music, Chinese tea culture, and rare Chinese mushrooms come to life throughout this novel in ways that are exciting to explore.
Vera Chok adds wonderful narration to the audio version by Media Recorded Books, bringing emotion and different character voices and perspectives to life with her talents.
Alexander Casillas 