Good Evening Mr. & Mrs. America, and All the Ships at Sea: A Novel [Hardcover]

Richard Bausch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

Richard Bausch, whose previous works of literary fiction have won him numerous awards and high acclaim, tells the heart-warming and riotously funny coming-of-age story of Walter Marshall, whose fumblings toward manhood coincide with cataclysmic change in the country.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Richard Bausch's 19-year-old protagonist, Walter Marshall, is a naive young man in a time when cynicism has not yet hardened the American spirit. He reveres the recently assassinated Jack Kennedy, is a complete idealist, and wants to be president so that he can change the world. He is also an inept innocent with little chance of making it in politics, a realization that fails to keep him from trying to please everyone, including the two young women to whom he is simultaneously engaged. Bausch handles Walter's unworldliness with gentle comedy, as if he somehow pines for a bit of the before-the-flood innocence irrevocably lost to his own generation in the Vietnam War. In the end, Walter gives up on the White House but fails to lose his endearing optimism.

From Publishers Weekly

Bausch is a wily and subtle writer. Readers may initially wonder why he has made his new protagonist a naive, ingenuous, acutely self-conscious and foolishly idealistic young man with grand aspirations. Lacking qualifications or ability, Walter Marshall, 19, dreams of becoming President of the United States. But halfway into the novel, when a birthday party?meant also to announce Walter's reluctant engagement to a woman older but not much more worldly than he?becomes a carnival of eccentric characters and mysterious events, the hook is in. Then, when Walter finds himself participating in a black sit-in that is menaced by a white mob, our consciousness is raised along with his. Readers who don't recognize the title as an echo of broadcaster Walter Winchell's signature salvo will find a bravura passage bringing it into perspective as a revelation of how society receives what one character calls "a show biz" version of government activities, which substitutes for what may be sordid truth. The novel is set in Washington, D.C., in 1964. In chronicling Walter's coming-of-age, Bausch holds a mirror up to 1960s America, whose vague dreams of Camelot were soon to sour in the debacle of Vietnam and the ensuing political scandals. Walter's slide from idealism to disillusionment is revealed through brilliant passages of mundane (but revealing) conversations, hilarious comic moments and characters' poignant attempts to communicate with one another. Within a few days, the devoutly Catholic, sexually repressed and excessively polite Walter proposes to yet another woman, makes an unrealistic commitment to a desperate man, discovers that his mother will marry a suitor he loathes and comes to understand that the world isn't the misty, patriotic vision he has always believed it to be. Bausch's (Rebel Powers) ability to make us empathize with his pathetically artless character is as flawless as his evocation of the political and social issues of the time. $30,000 ad/promo; author tour; first serial and dramatic rights: Harriet Wasserman.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 342 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060173327
• ISBN-13: 978-0060173326
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,158,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything in one story!, January 11, 2003

By 

"rheishman" (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Evening Mr. & Mrs. America, and All the Ships at Sea: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is a coming-of-age story of a young man who is lost in the idealism of the early 60's, and having lived the era, I feel the pathos of this character, as well as the humor in the life he leads. The protagonist Walter Marshall,is nineteen years old,innocent,a devoted Catholic with a reverence for his struggling mom, a deep patriotism,and a lingering insecurity about his place in the world. The book is laced with great, laugh-out-loud humor. The characters are rich and believable.And the book has a very surprising ending. And believe it or not, some of us really were that innocent back in those days!This was a nostalgic look back for me. But this book is an enjoyable way to transport yourself to the uncertainties of this era if you weren't around to experience them. Get it, and enjoy!

4.0 out of 5 stars A Sentimental Journey into the Past, July 13, 2004

By 

Larry Hand (Woodstock, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Good Evening Mr. and Mrs. America, and All the Ships at Sea: Novel, A (Paperback)

Good Evening Mr. and Mrs. America, and All the Ships at Sea was a joyous romp in the past, when people -- especially the young -- still had ideals. The age of innocence was already over, but the hero of this novel just didn't know it yet. But he would find out, painfully; and when he does, he opts for an ironic way-to-forget change of plans. Read Bausch's coming-of-age tale for the pure entertainment of it, but when you finish laughing, quietly consider what it says of our nation's changed morality. Perhaps those of us who lived through it wonder: were we really just naive, or were we better then than what we became? P.S.: This would make a great movie!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bausch's best gets better, January 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Good Evening Mr. and Mrs. America, and All the Ships at Sea: Novel, A (Paperback)

This novel mixes an innocent protagonist, an older and socially-inept girlfriend, organized crime, radio personalities, and "love at first sight" to become one of the funniest books I've ever read. In the tradition of his story, "Aren't You Happy For Me?" Bausch really throws the reader a curveball.

The hero wants to grow up to be President. In the meantime, he's taking radio broadcast classes at the local community college while trying to make time with an attractive German student. The hero's girlfriend is a wealthy girl, slightly older than him, overbearing and obtuse and totally insensitive. When Our Hero's school gets into trouble with the local loan shark, he steps in to save the day. This novel was my introduction to Bausch and still my favorite of his long fiction. Read it.