| Title | : | The Waiting Room |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0812527607 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780812527605 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 342 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1986 |
The Waiting Room Reviews
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A bizarre little book by Wright; I take it this is a sequel to
A Manhattan Ghost Story but it read fine as a stand alone. Our main protagonist is Sam, a Vietnam vet living in NYC doing construction and other odd jobs. One day he sees an old pal from Bangor, Maine where he grew up across the street, but he went away before Sam could catch up. After a few more sightings, Sam finally catches Abner, but Abner looks really bad. Sam convinces Abner to take him to his house out in Long Island, but Abner keeps warning Sam to go away before it is too late. Too late for what? Somehow, Abner 'caught' the ability to see the dead all around us occasionally, and when Sam came to the house, he got the same thing.
Today, this would probably be deemed bizarro fiction and Wright gives us a surreal reading experience. Besides Sam's struggles with ghosts, he is involved with a woman (who lives with her strange, sick father), but that gets put on hold while Sam deals with Abner and the visions to the 'other side'. Things get really strange when Abner falls head over heels for a ghost woman and moves to Vermont and Sam goes on a very strange road trip to find him...
Truly one of the most surreal and bizarre books I have ever read. 3 spooky stars. -
This one is a sequel to Wright's best known book, A Manhattan Ghost Story. It's another quietly creepy and chilling ghost story, in which people sometimes somehow slip sideways into another, parallel plane of existence, one inhabited by ghosts from our world. (The title itself is creepy; is there any place more uncomfortable and unsettling than a waiting room?) Some of the characters overlap from the previous novel, but I found the new ones more likable, particularly Viet Nam veteran Sam. On a personal note, I read this one when the internet was a new thing and stumbled across a place where one could communicate electronically and instantly with authors. I sent Mr. Wright's "board" a message asking about a passage in the book where the number of doors in a hallway don't match up. "Seven doors in the hallway at the top of the stairs, five on the left and three on the right," or something like that. It was the first time I'd ever tried to communicate directly with an author whose books I'd read. He sent me a prompt and polite short reply saying he didn't remember, which impressed me as being quite cool.
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This strange and unsettling story is a sequel to the equally strange and unsettling
A Manhattan Ghost Story. It also might be one of those unique occasions where a sequel is every bit as good if not better than the original. While the first one was just a eerie love story with ghosts, this book is more structured, more plot driven and offers more of a resolution in the end. It is possible to read this book without the first one, but I suggest reading them both. That way it'll give the reader a much more complete experience plus there'll be more of an emotional involvement with the characters that way, particularly Abner's. As always, Wright isn't for everyone, but I really enjoy his writing style, the simple elegance and eerieness of it, and his books are always such quick and easy reads. Recommended. -
Excellent. As good as Manhattan Ghost Story was, this was even better, because Sam is a much more assertive, active protagonist - and a lot easier to like - than Abner, in the first book...
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Character driven, suspense , paranormal, story that will keep you reading into the night. Prose runs smoothly and a delight to read. Wright puts forth the question "where the dead go, not knowing they have passed". A pleasure to read.
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I've always felt T M Wright has a slightly odd style, particularly with dialogue, but it works! Really enjoyed getting back into one of his books, it's been too long. Will be reading more very soon (still quite a few I've not read). If you want a change from gory in-your-face horror, I highly recommend this book (and all his others too).
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It’s not a bad book per se, but it’s really not helped by the fact that it’s not apparent until about half way through that it’s a sequel. Because suddenly a lot of stuff happens that’s barely explained and a little bit of digging suddenly reveals that instead of saying “author of A Manhattan Ghost Story” on the cover it needs to say “the sequel to” because I’d not have bought this or started reading it without having read the first book if I’d known that
It’s just about readable without knowledge of the first book, although part of me would be more impressed that an antagonist who’s barely fleshed out, an ally with wobbly motivation and best of all some old woman who has a softball haunted by her late son had just turned up with no explanation. He’s not a bad writer, although he has an annoying habit of stumbling across a truly great idea and just not knowing what to do with it that happens several times here. It feels mostly like what Jonathan Carroll would be like if he didn’t have a fertile, dark and brilliant imagination. Weird stuff happens, it’s never really explained what or why or how that’s the case and there’s a resolution which feels like it was a placeholder until Wright had a better idea which never came
It’s not unlikeable but deeply frustrating, and the lack of context of the first book just makes it particularly maddening -
I wanted to like this because it was so creative and the writing was really decent. It's just that the bad things about it were SO bad, they distracted from the really great things. The author seems like he must be eccentric; this is so creative and, at times, funny. But the main characters were all despicable. After a while, it seemed germane to the story that the main character was an Alpha Henry all the time -- if only he'd learned his lesson, it might have meant something.
Also the padding that a lot of books are guilty of around the 3/4 mark, is really bad in this one. And worse because there's no excuse for it. The book is already done with fairly large, widely spaced text, and the author HAS written novellas, so I don't understand why this couldn't have been a less meandering novella.
The climax was not only anti-climactic, but it was also a confusing and not well described non-sequitur. There was a lot of vague psycho-babble in this book that reminded me of 60s drug-culture writing like Harlan Ellison.
It was creative enough for me to want to try him again, but I'd think you'd have to already be a fan in order to want to suffer through this one. -
3.5 stars
What a weird book. Starts out with an interesting premise and then swiftly becomes a fever dream. The whole road trip section near the end feels like it's weaving in and out of reality, you don't know who's alive and who's dead, it's a strange time -
A relatively minor follow-up to the classic Manhattan Ghost Story, but a pleasant visit with some old friends in the returning characters. Worth reading.
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Until I just signed on now to Goodreads, I didn't know that "The Waiting Room" by T.M. Wright is a sequal to "A Manhattan Ghost Story". Hmm. I wish I would have known that prior...I dislike reading books out of order. But I guess it makes sense.
This book is about a man named Sam who is a Vietnam war vet who while living in Manhattan runs into his old high-school friend Abner who he hasn't seen in 20 years. It turns out Abner has communication to a seperate world of the dead, and upon reconnecting with Abner, the spirit world is reaching out to Sam as well! Sam is determined to help Abner before the world of the dead totally consumes him.
Ok, when I started this book I thought it showed a lot of promise. It was interesting, unique, and I wanted to learn more. Yeah it was bizzare, but nothing too over-the-top....in comes part 2. Part 2 was WAYYYYYY over-the-top, unbeleivable, and an utter dissapointment. This would have been a 5-star rating had it just maintained the consistancy of part 1.
For the month of October I was planning on reading just horror and Halloween themed books, but the ridiculousness of part 2 of this book has drained me and I think I may just break away and start to read "normal" books once again. -
This is a sequel to A Manhattan Ghost Story. This is a story about a man name Sam. Sam was a friend of Abner's twenty years ago.They went to high school together. Sam is living in Manhattan also. One day he spots Abner and yells for him to wait. Abner runs to get away from Sam. Sam knows something is not right. Sam also learns that Abner is in love with Phyllis but we know from book one, Phyllis is dead. Abner lives in a rundown beach house with many guests. The only problem is they are dead and they live in the walls. Abner warns Sam to stay away or he will pay the price. Sam wants to help his old friend no matter what! Sam learns that the dead do walk the earth.
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This sequel to A Manhattan Ghost Story expands upon the ideas of its predecessor, as one Sam Feary meets up again with old childhod buddy Abner Cray (the protagonist of Manhattan Ghost Story), who is still coping with the after-effects of having been exposed to and caught up in a parallel plane of existence, a plane populated by dead people (different planes of reality = recurring theme in much of TM Wright's work). Sam soon finds himself descending into the same realm. A solid follow up, not quite as good, but recommended to fans of the first one.
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J'ai eu l'impression que tout était bon à mettre dans ce livre sans pour autant donner au lecteur les bonnes explications à ce qui arrive. Visiblement, les évènements se passent parce qu'on a donné à l'histoire une dimension "paranormale" mais il manque des explications, des ressentiments du héros peut-être, pour nous faire gober l'histoire. Il y a plein de bonnes idées mais qui ne sont malheureusement pas abouties. Trop fouillis.
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A sequel to A Manhattan Ghost Story. I hadn't realised there even WAS a sequel so between the 1st & 2nd books it's been nearly *cough* 20 years. Unfortunately, this meant it was a bit too long for me to have any clear recollection of Ghost Story but still an enjoyable (if that's the right word) little horror story.
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Part ghost story, part thriller, a quickly read classic horror novel about one man's struggle with what's real and what is not.
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A fine piece of literary horror, and a take on the ghost story unique to T.M. Wright.
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"I counted seven doors in that hallway: three on the left and five on the right."
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6.8/10
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Stephen King recommended author: "T.M. Wright is a rare and blazing talent!"
