Absent Friends (New Directions Paperbook) [Paperback]

Frederick Busch (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These 14 stories represent a master of the genre writing with his customary power and eloquence. Busch, the recipient of several notable fiction awards, is the author of four previous short story collections ( Too Late American Boyhood Blues ), seven novels ( Invisible Mending ) and two volumes of criticism. Here, he explores a breathtaking range of the possibilities of short fiction. He writes of characters at risk, on the brink, or walking wounded. His situations are often bleak. In "From the New World," a man returns to his dead father's house where he must confront his hostile sister and the unknown con tents of his father's last letter addressed to him. In "Ralph the Duck," a Vietnam veteran heroically rescues a suicidal college girl. "People keep dreaming about the dead people they knew, see? You can't make people dream about you like that! It isn't fair!" he tells her. ("I want you to," she says. "I want you all to.") Busch's characters are vivid and real, and their sorrows are the knowable tragedies of real life. Raymond Carver's stories come to mind, but with this difference: where Carver's fiction is limned with flatness and voids, Busch's stories have resonance and depth.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

As its title suggests, this collection of 14 stories focuses on victims of separation. Busch documents the pain and loneliness created by divorce, imprisonment, death, increasing senility, and even terrorist kidnapping. While he identifies some immediate causes of estrangement, he also probes the more complex inner factors that prevent people from establishing or continuing relationships. Though somber, many stories contain comic ironies. A college student earns a D in persuasion and rhetoric but convinces another student not to commit suicide. A young girl in intensive care is given Keats's "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be" as a homework assignment. An accomplished writer of fiction, Busch consistently provides lively, revealing dialogue and telling physical details in his description.
- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation (November 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811211754
• ISBN-13: 978-0811211758
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #848,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Favorite short story, March 6, 2002

By 

Dave Schwinghammer "Dave Schwinghammer" (Little Falls, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Absent Friends (Hardcover)

"Ralph the Duck", the second item in ABSENT FRIENDS, is my favorite short story. This first-person account by a Vietnam veteran hooks the reader with a funny golden retriever who loves what makes him sick (Think about it). The narrator is a part-time college student, taking one free class a session in partial payment for his job as a security guard. He figures it'll take him sixteen years to graduate.
The story is heavily laced with irony in that the student tests the teacher. The narrator (I couldn't find a name) turns in a paper entitled "Ralph the Duck", which seems entirely inappropriate for an assignment in rhetoric and persuasion (You'll need to read the story several times before you figure out why he felt it met the assignment).
We've all met teachers like the professor. He never wears a suit. He sports khakis and sweaters, loafers or sneakers. Ironed dungarees.
There's lots of sardonic humor. The narrator says, "Slick characters like my professor like it if you're a killer or at least a onetime middleweight fighter."
The story picks up pace when a red-headed co-ed takes some pills during a snowstorm and disappears, and our hero is off to the rescue. The redhead is the professor's "advisee".
Although the story is twenty pages long, it is very sparely written. As I was reading it, I thought to myself, "This would make a really good novel." Apparently Busch did, too. It's called GIRLS. If you can't figure out "Ralph the Duck", read the novel.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars deeply felt, April 10, 2000

By 

Sai Li - See all my reviews

This review is from: Absent Friends (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)

Busch is a very perceptive writer and the stories in this book is realistic fiction at its best. He possesses so much wisdom about the pragmatics of life and infuses them with humor and genuine human emotions. I especially love the story Ralph the Duck where he becomes another Holden Caulfield, a lovable loser who eventually becomes a hero. Highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, September 15, 2002

By 

Jerry M. Sander (Hudson Valley, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Absent Friends (Hardcover)

RALPH THE DUCK is simply one of the best short stories I've ever read. It is absolute MUST reading for the developing writer, though it may make you feel miserable, as its level of mastery is intimidating. It is simple and unforgettable.

I'm actually sorry Frederick expanded the story into "GIRLS". It works far better as the punch to the stomach it is in short-story form.

This collection of stories will whet your appetite for more from this fine, fine upstate New York writer.