Do you think that a review comes over better this way? I have only done this once and am thinking of doing it again.https://soundcloud.com/mistralia?utm_...I love going into graveyards and churches. I like looking at the tombstones and the inscriptions and try to imagine what that individual did in his/her life. I then always light a couple of candles in the church. However, I certainly didn’t think that I would thoroughly enjoy a story about a man called Mr Rebeck who lived in a large, sprawlin...

A lonely man lives in a New York cemetery is accompanied by two ghosts and a talking raven. Along the way he learns about life and love. The story is humorous and touching without being overly sentimental. Peter Beagle's simple and straightforward prose makes the story quick and easy to read, yet unforgettable.

This is a contemplative book about life, love, and death that follows the interactions between people, ghosts, and a talking raven in a cemetery. I have rather mixed feelings about this book. There is a whole lot of introspective dialogue going on, particularly in the conversations between two ghosts who contemplate who they were when they were living and what it all means to them now that they are dead. It gets very annoying at times, yet some things hit me on such a personal level that I would...

I really don't know what to say about A Fine and Private Place. It's a sweet, touching ghost story about love, life, death and homelessness. There's a man who's run away from live and spent 19 years living in a graveyard. There's a widow who meets him while visiting her husband's grave. There's a young man ghost who has allegedly been poisoned by his wife. There's a beautiful young woman ghost who was hit by a truck. Add a raven and a really bad night guard (bad as in he doesn't guard well) and

Jonathan Rebeck, a homeless man, lives in a New York cemetery. His companions are a talking raven and two new ghosts. While the ghosts explore the circumstances of their deaths and fall in love, Rebeck meets a widow named Mrs. Klapper. Will Rebeck's feelings for Klapper be enough for him to leave behind his cemetery home?I bought this for a quarter at a book sale and the story was worth a thousand times that. I was hooked from the moment the talking raven tried stealing the salami in the first c...

This should be a melancholy book with all the talk of death, wasted lives, and lost loves. Yet Peter S. Beagle can inject charm into a pickle and in doing so, lifts this tale into a amazing look at our attempts to find meaning and love. Mr. Rebeck wandered into a cemetery 20 years ago and now lives there avoiding the living and only finding company with the ghosts and a raven. Michael and Laura has recently died but are struggling with both their deaths and their past lives...and their feelings

Hm... I love Peter S. Beagle's style. I love his ideas and I love the way he puts words together. Logically, I should love everything he writes, right? Well, apparently I don't.When I started reading A Fine and Private Place, the back cover (which is the summary above) and the first chapter or so really pulled me in. But then it slowed down and stayed slow. Hopelessly slow. It took me forever to read because I'd curl up with it and there was nothing to keep me awake. In 260-something pages, pret...

I first read A Fine and Private Place in 1970. It was my first introduction to the work of Peter S. Beagle. I was 18 years old. That I can still recall the opening scene so clearly is an indication that this book was a unique experience for me as a reader. I immediately followed this book by reading The Last Unicorn. A Fine and Private Place is a contemporary 'ghost' story set in a cemetary, and The Last Unicorn is a lovely fantasy set in an alternate world. I recommend both of them without rese...

There are no happy endings, because nothing ever ends. That (admittedly paraphrased) quote pretty much encapsulates the book, which is sometimes sweetly cynical, and always bittersweetly romantic. Prose that is poetic, with its beautiful and sometimes stark similes and metaphors, without being florid or cloying, and it shocked me how modern it could sound, in its ideas and its love for the city in which it takes place (there were a few tell-tale signs, like talk of the El and the fact that penic...

A Fine and Private Place: A gentle tale of love, death, and lost soulsOriginally posted at Fantasy LiteraturePeter S. Beagle is a well-known author of many fantasy novels, including the classic The Last Unicorn. However, I don’t often hear mention of his debut novel, A Fine and Private Place (1960), written when he was only 19 years old. Given his age it’s a phenomenal achievement — the prose is polished, filled with pathos and humor, and the characters’ relationships are deftly described. And y...

Book 2 of the Great Beagle Reread.Disclaimer: This is going to be an un-apologetically emotional review, because I do not have thoughts about this book, only feelings.This is Beagle's first published work, it came out when he was 19, which is utterly depressing. Reading this is a bit like watching a toddler pick up a violin and play Mozart.I wasn't even 19 when I first read it, and it floored me. Now, rather more years later than I'd like to admit, it has exactly the same effect. You'd think som...

I should have loved this when I was Laura's age, or maybe even as a teen, romantic and idealistic and all. But I wasn't really into this kind of stuff then. Now that I'm older than Klapper, I can appreciate the charm and the poetry and the themes better. The raven almost steals the show imo. And I like that in another language the title is "Hey Rebeck!"btw, I did not actually read the edition shown so I have no idea whether I read the complete or definitive edition. It seemed fine. Anyway, I jus...

This book came from a good friend, whose opinion I value highly. I don't tend to read much fantasy or sci-fi (I'd rather be entertained by that genre in another medium) - but often books are so well-written that it seems a shame not to enjoy them in their original creation. ‘A Fine and Private Place’ more than falls into this category.I loved the language, the descriptions and the fine, sensitive writing that made this book such a wonderful read. It seemed to inhabit its own space and to heighte...

Oh, this book is so wonderful. I kind of hate Peter S. Beagle for having written it when he was NINETEEN YEARS OLD! Is that true?? Is it possible?? I was reading a library copy and it was almost more strength than I possessed not to dog-ear and underline the hell out of it, the writing is just so great. There are so many places I wanted to mark and remember. So. I will be buying my own copy, and maybe some for gifts. It's a book about a man who has lived for 19 years in a mausoleum of a huge cem...

Original review posted on The Book Smugglers HEREA few weeks ago, I read and reviewed Sleight of Hand, my first real introduction to Peter S. Beagle’s writing and I loved it so much I proceeded to add some of his other books to my TBR pile: The Last Unicorn because everybody seems to love it and A Fine and Private Place which came highly recommended by The Other Ana (www.thingsmeanalot.com) I decided to start in chronological order: A Fine and Private Place was Mr Beagle’s first book, published

A sweet story abut an old man who lives in a cemetery and has given up on life. He can converse with and see the newly-dead and likes to befriend and help them on their journey. He is also friends with a rascally raven who helps him survive by bringing him food. When a recent widow comes to visit the grave of her husband, she notices Mr. Rebeck. The 2 unlovely and unlikely protagonists fall in love, as do the 2 latest ghosts to enter the world of the dead. Mr. Rebeck must soon make a decision t

I love "The Last Unicorn"--I've probably re-read it at least half a dozen times. When I saw "A Fine & Private Place" in the bookstore yesterday, a special re-released version of a yet unread Peter Beagle book, I had to get it. I flew through it on a stunning day at the beach. There are a couple of lines in here that were particularly gorgeously crafted and followed me throughout the book. Apt, since it's a book about ghosts and hauntings.Surprisingly, it doesn't read like a first novel. The lang...

Parts of this book reminded me of Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry, but it's better. I love a good story of this type that's not scary and this one is almost perfect.

For those who are interested, there is a talking raven and chess with the dead. PETER BEAGLE WROTE THIS AT NINEFUCKINGTEEN. I am not going to get into what I was writing at the tender age of ninefuckingteen. In any case: a book about death and love, unsentimental and full of stunning sweetness. This (along with The Diary of Anne Frank, Breakfast of Champions, & Winesburg Ohio) is a book that makes me start crying in five pages or less. This is not a bad thing. Oh, and Peter S. Beagle can describ...

This is a high three star read. This is an in depth character study and contemplative book. One of the only plot arcs involves discovering the truth of one of the ghost's death. Otherwise, this is a book about four main characters and a raven and what they think about the nature of life and death. Though this takes place in summer, it had a very autumnal feel for me. This also takes place in New York City. I thought that setting came through in the story. The characters voices are all unique, wh...