UNDERCURRENTS plays with the notion of everyday philosophers when Sam Burden reflects on a conversation with Soren regarding the pioneering thinker, Sigmund Freud. Soren was most interested in how Freud interpreted dreams. Sam liked to consider his ideas about narcissism – considerations that are always relevant. In the When Soren leaves home to find her father, she gets side tracked, and opting for a different experience, she connects with poets and painters who live together on a farm. They all share in the division of labor – a fairly modern idea itself, and after chores they work on their craft. At night they explore philosophical issues, including modern questions about who they are and why they are on the planet. When their talk turns to social injustices, they raise questions like what counts and who gets to decide. And, the novel plays with the very modern but gothic sense that the dead are always with us – a presence only absence can create. It occurs by incorporating elements of the supernatural into reality – a superficial state, bereft of thoughts and feelings, trembling with shadows (see John Banville’s Ghosts).  While UNDERCURRENTS may seem removed enough from contemporary experience to be a ghost story and it does take on some ghostly aspects, it may better serve as a cautionary tale, a reminder to be careful what is left behind for others to interpret. Conjuring a ghost is the easy part, reconciling what present day explorers will make of the past is more difficult. Although the back-story deals with the reckless acquisition of mineral rights for the extraction of fossil fuels, it is historical but relevant. The novel itself is set in 1979, which is also an historical but relevant period. And yet, it is what we make of the past that can make all of the difference.