Girls [Hardcover]

Frederick Busch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 1999

Frederick Busch has built a reputation as a master storyteller, a magician with words, and a writer who deserves to be a household name. In his new novel, Girls, he once again treats readers to the "ice-clear, dagger-sharp" (Seattle Times) writing he's become known for and a story that's deeply affecting, terrifying, and tragic.

Jack is a security officer at an upstate New York college.  When 14-year-old Janice Tanner vanishes from a neighboring town, he reluctantly becomes involved in the search as a favor to a friend of the girl's parents.  A suicidal young woman, a teenage runaway, and two more missing girls make it impossible for Jack to drive resurfacing memories of his own daughter's death from his mind.  In the course of the investigation, as he comes to confront Janice's murderer, Jack comes to realize just how dangerous it is to be a girl: "I wondered if girls had been kidnapped, murdered, preyed upon for years.  Maybe it was the times, and therefore everything human and otherwise from when we began might not be at fault."

Girls is  a novel that is both a thriller and a stylistic wonder, and, like its protagonist, is tender and tough at the same time.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Frederick Busch's 18th work of fiction, Girls, is a novel whose roots lie buried in an earlier short story. In "Ralph the Duck," Busch introduced Jack and Franny, a young couple trying to recover from the recent death of their baby daughter. In Girls Busch expands Jack and Franny's lives beyond this single personal tragedy to encompass a greater loss: the disappearance of a 14-year-old girl, daughter of the town minister and his dying wife, from the community.

Propelled by his own loss, Jack, a security guard at a local college, begins investigating the disappearance, and thus Busch's novel becomes a literary detective story. In the course of solving the mystery, Jack must grapple with his attraction to a professor at the college, the disintegration of his marriage, and the impossibility of outrunning the past. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Busch (Closing Arguments; The Children in the Woods) deserves greater success than he has so far received-though connoisseurs of clean, dynamic American prose already know and admire his work. His latest novel is a tour de force in which the setting, a college in upstate New York in deepest winter, the characters and the situation are blended so seamlessly that the reader becomes a hapless part of its grim world. Jack, the narrator, is a hard-bitten, decent campus cop who, with wife Fanny, is working out the bitter legacy of the death, years before, of their only child, a little girl. When another girl, one who seems like a model teenager, vanishes in a nearby town, he throws himself desperately into a hunt for her and whoever may have done her violence; in the process, he is so deeply hurt, both physically and emotionally, that he barely survives. It is a dark tale, but it's told with an economical mastery and intensity that only a few current novelists can command. Busch even manages to create a dog who is real, touching but never cute, and the perfect life-enhancing foil for the human sorrows around him. In its very different way, this is the finest literary thriller since William Trevor's Felicia's Journey-and shares the same passionate concern with the helplessness of young women when they become prey to predatory men.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing (March 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517361612
• ISBN-13: 978-0517361610
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,764,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling Read, March 3, 2002

By 

Deacon Brodie (Livonia, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girls: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

I came upon this book quite on accident, yet I'm pleased that I did! Frederick Busch, a prolific writer who has written over a dozen works since the 1970's does a wonderful job of telling the story of Jack, a Vietnam vet, who is struggling with the loss of his daughter, and the gradual loss of his marriage. Jack is a compelling character, with a wonderful narrative voice. There is a mystery of dead/missing girls which Jack gets wrapped up into, and yet, there is so much more here, like the healing process which Jack so needs to experience.

If you're looking for a pure thriller/mystery about missing girls, then look elsewhere. If you want a richly layered novel with believable characters, a great plot, and with some unexpected surprises thrown in, READ THIS. I, personally, have just purchased two new Busch novels, and I can't wait to see how they stack up with Girls.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely riveting, March 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Girls: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is one of those rare books where you have to just keep saying to yourself, "Wow! This author can WRITE! " Busch's command of the language is exquisite, and I thought his lead character was so wise and compassionate. I loved the way he cared so deeply about the kids on the campus he was hired to protect. The ending totally caught me by surprise-- and like the main character and his psychiatrist, I couldn't see a way through the paradox. If I had to change one thing, it would be to get rid of the professor/love affair thing. I didn't really feel it added anything to the story. I can't wait to get my hands on other things this author has written!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Controversial and Glorious, November 28, 2001

By 

E. Keats (Grayslake,, Il USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Girls: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

Our college has a mystery book club. I don't read mysteries generally, but I liked the idea of all of us talking about books. When I recommended they read Girls, I figured everyone would love it as I did. Silly me. My colleagues (with only one exception) hated it. They hated Jack. They hated the story. They hated everything except the dog. I felt so bad until I realized that this is not a book for mystery lovers. Mystery lovers want tidy stories; there's comfort in a good mystery that makes life seem to have some sense, some logic. But Busch's writing is not a mystery of that type. It's a love story. It's a religious tract. It's a war story. It's the kind of book that grabs you by the throat and shakes you alive, whether you want to be or not. And readers who, for whatever reason, would prefer not to be shaken, hate the book. Busch is one of my favorite writers. He is magical and honest and always moves me deeply. But he does not write mysteries.