Greenwich [Hardcover]

Howard Fast (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2000

On a quiet night in the best part of Greenwich, Connecticut, eight people assemble for a convivial dinner. But after that night, their lives will never be the same, as death erupts into their lives. They are a disparate group, including a former State Department employee, a Catholic nun, a linguistics professor, and a successful novelist. They, and the people they love, portray the arrogance and innocence, brutality and compassion in America today. Each character becomes a thread-dark, light, or a shade in between-in a carpet of intricate design, and as Howard Fast weaves them together, they embody the interdependence of human life and human guilt and the eternal work of redemption.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At 85, Fast has lost none of his storytelling skills, and one of the pleasures of reading his fast-paced later novels is to note how they are trimmed of excess. This outing, his latest after Redemption, is set in the wealthy Connecticut town of the book's title, where Fast has lived for many years, and as usual shows many traces of Fast's lifelong populist leftism. Richard Castle, a successful Wall Street hustler, was once an assistant secretary of state who gave the orders for a massacre of nuns and priests in El Salvador. Now word of possible American involvement in the murders is beginning to leak out, and higher-ups in Washington are determined to silence him, if necessary with "extreme prejudice." Richard, meanwhile, married to beautiful and sweetly innocent trophy wife Sally, is trying to ascertain, through a local Jesuit monsignor and a nun who was in El Salvador, just how much is known about his role. These two are guests, along with a representative selection of Greenwich citizens, at a dinner party at the Castles' home, through which Fast portrays the social and political currents of the town. Among the people who play roles in his tale are a self-sacrificing doctor, a successful author, an embittered academic, a plumber tortured by memories of Vietnam, an open-eyed nurse and a black chef to the wealthy. Their juxtapositions are a bit schematic, and they have more value as symbols than as breathing characters, but there is no denying the aplomb with which Fast manipulates his large cast and has them face up to the issues that interest him: common guilt for horrors committed in our nation's name, racial and religious intolerance, the elusive comforts of faith, the corrupting effect of too much money. This novel may not be the last word in sophistication, but it's an exhilaratingly rapid read that deals with some far from negligible ideas. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Dinner is at 7:30 p.m. on a rainy night in a luxurious home in the best section of tony Greenwich, CT. Eight people are expected--the host and hostess, the priest, the nun, the author (his wife declines at the last minute), the professor and his wife, and the neighbor (who has had an affair with the host), standing in for the author's wife. It is a disparate group, unaware of the thread of murders, past and future, that touches each of them. In this tightly woven novel, not only the characters but the readers must consider each person's impact, including the part each may play in others' deaths. The message is individual responsibility; the question is how each individual responds. Fast's faithful readers anticipate each new novel, and Greenwich meets all expectations. Recommended for all fiction collections.
---Annelle R. Huggins, Univ. of Memphis Libs.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt; 1st edition (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151006202
• ISBN-13: 978-0151006205
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,873,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't Even Finish This One, August 12, 2000

By 

S. Wheeler (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Greenwich (Hardcover)

Hate to say I wasted part of a Friday evening reading this book. Cardboard characters, the attempt to deal with huge issues in the space of a paragraph--totally unconvincing. I didn't even care whether or not the murder attempt was successful. My favorite scene was in the hospital when, supposedly devastated by his father-in-law's death, the writer was still able to wonder if his wife had had time to peruse his manuscript for the fourth time. I guess deciding not to ask right at the moment was real sensitive of him! And he was one of the good guys! Don't bother.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Fast Should Have Gone Fishing for a Better Editor, May 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Greenwich (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed several of Howard Fast's other books, but this one is a disappointment. Although many of the characters are interesting, and the setting is of special interest to me (since I grew up in Stamford, CT, only a few miles from Greenwich), the book fails to make the larger point that it is so obviously trying to make. It fails so badly that I'm not even sure what that larger point is. The book is also very clumsily edited. Misuses of words abound. Perhaps the worst example is when the author refers to Sally as a socially inept person who makes many "gaffs" when she speaks. A "gaff" is a piece of fishing equipment. Social errors are "gaffes." Mistakes like this distract from the story. Mr. Fast should go fishing for a better editor for his next book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars One more notch on the gun belt, November 13, 2000

By 

Christopher J. Vance "cargostar" (Winter Park, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Greenwich (Hardcover)

The plot is "thin" because Fast's characters are rather plain everyday people. If you thought this book was about the excessiveness of the Hamptons and its lively inhabitants --- forget about it. Howard Fast has spent his career writing about normal people whom become entangled within events that they cannot control or foresee. I recommend this book for readers who are interested about people and how they try to understand human nature without losing hope or faith.