His violent manifestations and messages become a serious problem for ten-year-old James, who inevitably gets blamed for everything by the annoyingly modern-minded people around him. Thomas Kempe is the ghost of a seventeenth-century apothecary whose resting place has been disturbed by renovations when a new family moves into his home. And this time, I could see Lively’s greatness, not so self-consciously occupied with War and Betrayal and other Deep Adult Subjects, but put at the service that most fundamental, most formative of literary forms: the tale for children. So I decided to try a very different book, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe. However, given that Lively is an anointed Great Writer, I wanted to give her another chance. This happens to me a lot with acclaimed novels of the last century or so.
I think it was because I could not connect emotionally with the main character, and found the novel ultimately empty and dull in spite of the literary skill of the author.
Unfortunately, I can’t remember quite why. When I read Penelope Lively’s Booker Prize-winning Moon Tiger, I was underwhelmed. Penelope Lively, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe (1973)
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