I read American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work
by Susan Cheever many years ago. I remember enjoying it very much and being inspired by these intellectuals, poets, and deeply sensitives spiritualist to read more classics. When I requested The Ice Harp from LibraryThings early reviewers I was very interested in reading about Mr. Emerson's last years suffering from dementia. I am glad the author wrote in the forward that the writing style was not traditional and at times was written as a long train of thought as someone with dementia might be talking. It was confusining at first and I wasn't sure I was understanding the book at all but when I decided to just read along and not try to figure out what was true or in Mr. Emerson's head I began to be moved by the book. My lack of literary knowledge bothered me in the beginning. I did spend some times looking up things to help me understand what he was speaking about which I do enjoy doing but again, after awhile I just began to see Mr. Emerson as just any other person struggling with knowing they are loosing their memory. Having 3 close relatives suffer from different types of memory desease, I felt great compassion for Mr. Emerson as well as for people I know in real life. This book helped me understand the frustration and feelings of loss they are going through and how the mind works in the throws of confusion. I feel Mr. Lock did a wonderful job putting the reader inside the mind of someone suffering from dementia. I feel this book will resonate with people who have loved ones in this position. It might help friends and family members be more empathetic and patient with their loved one.

The mythical "ice harp" is a powerful symbol Norman Lock employs in his fictional account of the memory loss and aphasia that accompanied Ralph Waldo Emerson’s latter years. His mind and voice, once capable of making the most transcendent music, now are freezing up. “Strange that the kind heavens” Emerson poignantly ruminates, “should keep us on earth after they have destroyed our connection with things.”

Lock gives us an Emerson who is only a weak imitation of his former self. The “sage of Concord” is now frustrated by his physical losses and what he perceives as his failings in life. He no longer recognizes his own work and is often incapable of retrieving words. However, in rare moments of lucidity, familiar to dementia caregivers, Emerson meditates on his loss of faith and reverence for nature. He regrets his failure to be more active with respect to the preservation of liberty and responsibility for the oppressed. Much of this becomes concrete when a former slave and Union soldier appears at his gate. James Stokes has killed a white man following racial slurs. He is clear-eyed about his chances for a fair trial in America and thus is fleeing to Canada. Emerson feels compelled to act but much of the narrative concerns his dithering about whether he should and how he should go about it. When the Concord sheriff shows up to take Stokes into custody, Lock presents a resolution that is not only humorous but also imaginative because it demonstrates the counterpoint between Emerson’s ineffectual response and what it requires to really take charge in a crisis.

With his protagonist, Lock masterfully portrays the realities of aging. Emerson’s dialogue reflects a person whose long-term memory seems reasonably intact. He has no trouble remembering puns and nursery rhymes from his youth, much of which is clever and often unintentionally profound. Cameos of famous ghosts from Emerson’s past also are particularly engaging because they highlight his thinking while providing historical context. This “Greek chorus” includes luminaries of the period like a lighthearted Thoreau, a rigid John Brown, a tragic Margaret Fuller, a nature loving John Muir, and the lesser-known Samuel Long, a runaway slave, who Emerson tried to help escape. The two living minor characters in the book are both strong women, a clear homage to feminisms. Emerson’s neighbor, Louisa May Alcott, is portrayed less as a thoughtful writer and more as a medical savior. Likewise, Lidian, Emerson’s dour second wife, is portrayed as energetic and imbuing tough love.

The narrative is an imaginative blend of historical fiction and philosophical introspection. Lock gives his readers a view of Emerson that invites them to consider him in a new light. Through its carefully crafted prose, introspective pacing, and imaginative elements, Lock offers a thought-provoking and immersive reading experience, but may limit its accessibility for the average reader. While not bound by historical accuracy, the novel’s imaginative storytelling captures the spirit of Emerson's philosophy and his times while exploring the challenges of aging. ( )

The Ice Harp, Norman Lock
Often, I was tempted to give up reading this book. Each sentence required a double reading to get its meaning. As metaphors flew off the page, my lack of literary knowledge was exposed. I wished that I was more literate with regard to the authors Emerson spoke to, so colorfully, in his imagination. Nathanial Hawthorne, Henry Thoreau, Walt Whitman, John Muir are just some of the familiar and unfamiliar names that appeared as he conjured them up or actually engaged with them. John Brown and he debated about slavery. Louisa Mae Alcott appears and nurses his injured guest who is a runaway slave. Lidian, his second wife, supports women’s rights and the Underground Railroad. The history of the times is exposed through his ramblings. Even some of the vocabulary words required me to have a dictionary at hand, since I had no idea what promulge meant, or taphophobia, or defalcator, or aspergillum, to name just a few of the words that confounded me.
Yet, I found the prose so brilliant, as Lock painted images on each page with his words, that I found that I could not give up on the book. Today one is hard pressed to find a book that is so well written, yet not dependent on politics, even though it appears throughout, not dependent on eroticism, though there are sexual innuendos, so not influenced by the “woke world”, though dysfunction existed then, as well as today. It was a welcome relief; so as hard as it was to read and comprehend, requiring extra time to reread and research some of the references and the language, it was one of the most positive experiences I have had in recent times. It restored my faith in the magic of good literature. Simply put, the author truly created a performance in the theater of my mind.
The author described his version of Emerson’s descent into the darkness of the aging process as Alzheimer's/dementia, which he may or may not have truly suffered from, or succumbed to, took over his life. One cannot help but appreciate and commiserate with the victim who suffered the indignity and trauma associated with the failure of the mind. The loss of words was very painful to Ralph Waldo Emerson, a man who lived for his words, who put them down on paper and influenced everyone who read them.
In this book, that imagines Ralph Waldo Emerson as a victim of hallucinations, his confusion and frustration are palpable to the reader. As he attempts to continue to function while he knows perfectly well that he is failing drastically in that effort, he is a catastrophe always waiting to happen. He starts fires, breaks windows, talks to strangers and to the friends in his imagination, some who are long dead. The tender and heartbreaking description of this brilliant man, as he falls deeper into a world without memories, feels very authentic. The author has deftly interwoven the political and social atmosphere of the day, and in one of Emerson’s final acts, he is conflicted about slavery and whether or not he should struggle actively against it, even if it is against the law to do so.
There is humor and pathos, both, in this incredible illustration of a mind that is failing as a life nears its end. Because there are no defined chapters, there is little opportunity for respite in much the same way as Emerson’s decline is occurring. His discomfort becomes the reader’s discomfort. ( )

Earlier I read another book in Norman Lock's American Novels stand-alone series, Voices in the Dead House, and I really liked it. The two main characters from that book, poet Walt Whitman and novelist Louisa May Alcott, appear in this one as well (the former as a spirit, the latter in real life), but the main character and focus is essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson (a neighbor of Alcott's in Concord, Massachusetts).

The book is set in Concord on October 21-22, 1879, less than three years before Emerson's death. He is suffering from memory lapses and aphasia. He sees and has conversations with friends who aren't there - some of them deceased - such as Whitman, naturalists Henry David Thoreau (who also lived in Concord) and John Muir, journalist Margaret Fuller, and abolitionist John Brown. There's also an escaped slave named Samuel Long, who was the main character in an earlier book by Lock, A Fugitive in Walden Woods. Lock's forward notes that "Italicized passages set off by quotation marks represent Emerson's 'conversations' with his special guests. They are unheard by any actual persons present."

In this book, Emerson faces a moral dilemma with the arrival of a Black soldier named James Stokes, who deserted after provocation from racial slurs and killing a white soldier in self-defense. Emerson is torn between hiding Stokes, a former slave, and turning him over to the authorities, where Stokes would face likely execution. Emerson spends much of the novel (and the night) thinking this through, talking with his "special guests," and visiting the Sleepy Hollow cemetery and Walden Pond.

The book's title comes from the December 10, 1836 entry in Emerson's journal, The Wide World:

"At Walden Pond, I found a new musical instrument which I call the ice-harp. A thin coat of ice covered a part of the pond, but melted around the edge of the shore. I threw a stone, upon the ice which rebounded with a shrill sound, and falling again and again, repeated the note with pleasing modulation. I thought at first it was the “peep, peep” of a bird I had scared. I was so taken with the music that I threw down my stick and spent twenty minutes in throwing stones single or in handfuls on the crystal drum."

I'm not as familiar with Emerson's work as I should be, but I could appreciate this book for its observations on an older person witnessing and fearful of his own decline (something most of us experience as we age), as well as its Concord setting and period details. ( )

In and out of dementia memory ghost trope is carried on way too long and with too much confusion
around who is a spirit and who still lives.

It also took Emerson nearly the entire book to finally (geez, he's near death!)
decide to protect the slave he is too long sheltering. Why didn't he just get him to Canada with Louisa's help?

Emerson's early interactions with his wife drag down the plot as do Henry and Emerson's disgusting nose problems.

Why his wife would leave him alone for days after he again nearly burned down the land and house again makes no sense.

Lovely quotations from all the disappeared friends enliven the action even after Walt Whitman
survives being poetic target. ( )