The problems Disch must deal with in The Businessman are especially challenging.

A story of ghosts and hauntings could easily become a one-dimensional tale of routinely spooky scenes in dark houses.

The mixture of everyday life and the world of spirits could be awkward, with neither everyday life nor the world of spirits becoming believable. Disch overcomes the problems in two ways: first, by carefully creating realistic characters, and second, by using techniques from science fiction for creating plausible explanations for how spirits and the living could interact.

Disch develops his characters by showing them in action, rather than by straight description. For instance, Joy-Ann is shown to be a courageous woman by the way she handles terminal cancer; she is shown to be loving by the efforts she makes to help her daughter; and she is shown to be goodhearted by her lack of guile and her...