Communication with the Spirit World as a Form of Psychological Stability

Through both Lurie and Nora’s narratives, the author explores the ways in which the individual’s belief in and communication with the spirit world may lend her a form of psychological stability. Because both characters’ worlds are so fraught with uncertainty, unfounded and unknowable, they must find alternate means of maintaining emotional and mental balance. In Lurie’s portions of the novel, he addresses his accounts to his camel Burke, the animal offering him an alternate form of communion and interaction. In Nora’s portions, she speaks often to the ghost of her deceased daughter Eveyln, their exchanges mirroring Lurie’s words to Burke. Both characters, then, find comfort directing their questions, struggles, longings, and hopes to a nonhuman or nonliving being. These relationships, whether the reader considers them real or imaginary, keep Lurie and...