I absolutely loved the novel Jamesland by Michelle Huneven, which was loaned to me by a cherished and bookish friend. I am glad to have sneezed all over the book, for now I can keep it for myself — and I have ordered a brand-new copy for my friend.

Jamesland tells the story of two descendants of Henry and William James: Kate, an elderly aunt who has been writing a novel based on the life of William James for the past fifty years, and her niece Alice (there are many “Alice”s in the James family, as any good James fan knows) who has been linking up with the wrong men for too long and works at a dead-end job serving drinks. Pete, an overweight, sometime-suicidal but deeply talented chef stumbles into their lives, along with Helen, a smart and bouncy Unitarian Universalist minister; Foster, a scientist studying transcendental phenomena (and using mediums in at attempt to reach William James, a transcendentalist himself) and Dewey, his very handsome and sweet assistant; Jocelyn, the wife of Alice’s latest married liaision; and Beth, Pete’s mother who is also a Catholic nun. One more unforgettable character: Dr. Freeman, Pete’s unorthodox psychiatrist.

All the characters are struggling to figure out how to live; Pete asks the question most succinctly and most often: how do people live in this world? The irony is that for William James, the question was more on the lines of “how do we go on living beyond it?”

The answers the group come up with, individually and collectively, provide great food for thought — and great lines for flagging, including this beauty: “Joy was rarely free-floating. It was tethered to sorrow, which rarely existed where joy had never dwelt; and vice versa. Joy and sorrow were the balancing weights in the dance of human emotions. Joy without sorrow was mania…sorrow without the memory of joy was depression.”

In turns both laugh out loud funny and tear-inducing, Jamesland is a novel I will always remember and a place where I will most definitely want to return. I wish that both Alice and Helen could be my friends (yes, I would most definitely sit through midweek service at the Unitarian Universalists) and that Pete could cook dinner for me every night of the week. A great book, with great ideas, people, and existences to discover.