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'A Fine and Private Place' is the first published book, and first novel, by Peter S. Beagle. Written and set in 1958, it is a love story set in a graveyard. The main characters are Jonathan Rebeck, who left his career as a pharmacist and now dwells, with no living companions, in Yorkchester Cemetery; the recently widowed Mrs. Klapper, who meets Jonathan in the cemetery and strikes up a friendship with him; Michael Morgan, a recently deceased professor; and Laura Durand, also recently departed. Other characters include a cynical raven, who brings Jonathan food and news of the outside world; and Campos, the guard, who works from midnight to eight (literally the graveyard shift) and who plays an important role in the ending of the story.

In the world of 'Fine and Private Place', the ghosts of the deceased linger on the earth - confined to the limits of the cemetery - for about a month or two before they finally transition to wherever it is that their spirits go next. (Jonathan Rebeck is one of the few living people able to see and converse with the ghosts.) What stays on, temporarily, after death is the person's own memory of who he or she was - the body, the clothing, the experiences, the feelings. And it is during this short-lived period after death that the ghosts of Michael and Laura meet and fall in love.

FPP is a love story, but it's also a bit of a mystery. There are questions around the circumstances of Michael's death: Michael says he was poisoned by his wife, but the widow and her lawyer insist it was suicide. And the future of Michael's romance with Laura depends on the outcome of the widow's trial, because if she is found innocent, Michael will be judged a suicide, his body will be exhumed from the Catholic cemetery, and his relationship with Laura will be sundered forever.

I loved the book, and it kept my attention to the end, although I found the pace uneven at times. Chapters 11 and 12 should have been the pivotal chapters: the couple finally confess their love for one another (over and over, in fact), and Michael's killer finally confesses to the crime. But I found the writing and the dialog longwinded and tedious here, and the characters started to lose my sympathy. But the final chapters, 13 and 14, rescued the story for me and made it a very memorable and worthwhile book.

Peter S. Beagle is probably best known for his third book (and second novel), 'The Last Unicorn'. His grandfather was the Hebrew writer Abraham Soyer, and his uncles were the painters Moses, Raphael, and Isaac Soyer. You can hear the writer's native ear for Jewish dialect in the heavily Yiddish-inflected dialog of Mrs. Klapper (with generous use of the subjunctive "should", as in "you want I should ... ?").

Also less well-known is that he is a folk musician/singer, which plays an important role in his second book (an account of his cross-country trip with his good friend, artist and fellow musician Phil Sigunick). His love of folk music will be very much in evidence in 'The Last Unicorn'.

Now 86 years old, Beagle is, thankfully, still very much in the world of the living. Following a long legal dispute, he finally regained creative control of his works. Most of his books are now available in print, e-book, and audiobook. You can visit Peter Beagle's homepage Beagleverse [https://beagleverse.com/] for the latest on the writer.

I'm now working on Beagle's second book, 'I See by My Outfit', and enjoying it greatly.

A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE. I'm about halfway through 'A Fine and Private Place', the second book and first novel by Peter S. Beagle, who is best known for his next book, 'The Last Unicorn'. 'A Fine and Private Place' - written when Beagle was 19 years old - is a love story involving ghosts and humans. I first read the book as a young person, so long ago that I've almost entirely forgotten the story, so it is like reading it for the first time. And I think I'm able to appreciate it much better now.

The main characters are Mr. Rebeck, a middle-aged man who haunts (as it were) the cemetery; Michael and Laura, two recently deceased individuals interred there; and Mrs. Klapper, the widow who visits the cemetery to visit her departed husband Morris, and who strikes up a friendship with Mr. Rebeck. Oh, and there's the cynical but compassionate raven, who brings Mr. Rebeck food and news from the outside.

The story is a love story, but it's also a bit of a mystery, because there are two possible suspects in Michael's death. I am a little surprised that Mr. Rebeck, himself a (now non-practicing) pharmacist, does not express more professional interest in the details of Michael's poisoning.

I'm planning to give this book a decent write-up when I've finished it. But for now, back to the book!