A Haunting Audiobook-- The Raising by Laura Kasischke

On the surface, this book is a story about traumatic events on a college campus and how they skewed the lives of the people involved. But more than that, this book is threaded with death and the response of the living to the dead. Based on the title, the cover art, and the brief description in Library2Go, I expected a light and probably cheesy gothic novel. What I found instead was a meandering exploration of the haunting of the living by the dead, by the missing, and by the past. One character is an anthropology professor whose most popular class is a study of death beliefs and rituals. The author uses her to introduce a larger and more informed perspective on some of the ideas and issues raised, although the real focus is always on the subjective experience of death and haunting.

Two timelines are interlaced; before and after the car accident in which sorority girl Nicole Werner allegedly dies. The book follows a number of characters in both time periods. Craig Clements-Rabbitt, a surly and spoiled stoner, is accepted into the Honors College due to his dad’s friendship with the dean. Perry Edwards is Craig’s polite, ambitious and honorable roommate, a small town boy who grew up with Craig’s girlfriend Nicole. Shelley Lockes is a forty-something lesbian who works at the Music College, the first person at the scene of the accident and the only one who knows what really happened. Mira Polson is a one-time Fulbright scholar and untenured professor, whose marriage is falling apart as her stay-at-home husband crumbles under the responsibility of raising their two-year-old twins.

Listening to this book, not knowing where it was going, I was slowly but surely drawn in. (The key word may be “slowly”—don’t go here for a quick read!) I enjoyed it much more than I expected, although the beginning is unfocused. Kasischke has published seven collections of poetry, and her sense of language reflects that. The writing is lovely, and every character has depth and evolves in the course of the book.

At this time, The Raising is only available to borrow through Library2Go. The audiobook is read by Renée Raudman whose voice does Kasischke’s poetic writing credit.