If you saw and admired M. Night Shyamalan's 1999 film "The Sixth Sense," you may be attracted to "Crossing the Meadow"...

...it does for ghosts what Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire" did for the blood-sucking living dead a couple of decades back. It gives them a social strata all their own, complete with a new set of behavioral guidelines for the spooks among us.

It takes him quite a while to figure out the nightmare. Long before he does, he figures out something even more startling: He's all grown-up now and he's a ghost.

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Personally, I never thought I'd get more than a chapter or two into "Interview with the Vampire," but, once I did, I was off on a vampire quest that took me several years and a whole slew of Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" novels before I finally cried "uncle."

The appeal of Luzzatto's novel is similar. It's not the brisk pace of George's quest for truth that pulls you along. It's the detailed construction of Luzzatto's "ghost world" that does the trick.

For instance, he spells out the subtleties of ghostliness that you've always wondered about, such as, "Why do spirits rattle chains and make all those noises in the middle of the night?" Luzzatto applies concentrated logic to such questions. The answer seems obvious once you have it pointed out to you: They're trying to attract your attention, dummy!"

...you can relax: "Crossing the Meadow" is not a sex book. Luzzatto doesn't go in for ghosts doing nasty things, in or out of sheets...

I was also very favorably impressed by another Luzzatto concoction in terms of ghostly behavior. It has to do with where ghosts "stay" when they're not out haunting people. (You'll notice I didn't say, "where ghosts live, since dead people don't actually live, do they?) Early in the book, George meets the ghost of his Uncle Harry, who "stays" in an abandoned building with a bunch of other ghosts. These ghosts are a breed apart from the usual homeless types who inhabit such dwellings. For instance, they have what amounts to a "condo committee" that sets rules for them, so they can get along together in such close proximity. Very amusing.

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I won't tell you more because you really need to discover all the other charming aspects of "Crossing the Meadow" on you own. But I will tell you where you may get a copy: Buy it online by going to www.amazon.com and typing in the title "Crossing the Meadow" in their search engine. It's now available there for the bargain price of $9.59. It's well worth the price.

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