The Dark Between by Sonia Gensler (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- The Dark Between by Sonia Gensler
Three teens converge at Summerfield College in Cambridge in 1901: Kate, who has just lost her job playing a spirit at Mrs. Martineau's sham seances; Elsie, the ailing niece of Mrs. Thompson, the college president; and Asher, an American paying a courtesy call on behalf of his parents. What appears at first to be coincidence begins to seem inevitable once the trio discover that their respective parents and the Thompsons have long shared an interest in spiritualism and its possible relation [End Page 90] to the fascinating new field of psychology. Asher is a skeptic, more concerned with figuring out what to do with his immediate future than pursuing phantoms. Kate is a pragmatist, willing to consider any possibility that can explain the connection between a murdered tramp and her missing friend, Tec. Elsie is convinced she sees the dead, but she's been so heavily dosed with Chlorodyne for her epileptic-like seizures that she can barely manage to get through the day without incident. The melodrama here somewhat overshadows what could have been a fascinating examination of the overlapping study of mind and soul, body and disembodiment, at the close of the Victorian period. The character of Elsie, however, adds a welcome measure of complexity, as she tries to wean herself off the Chlorodyne and to face her tendency to form sexual attachments to men in the hope they will finally free her from her parents, who repress her psychic gift. An author's note comments on historical inspiration for details of the novel, particularly the Society for Psychical Research.
