Harry and Catherine: A Love Story [Paperback]

Frederick Busch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2000

"For years Frederick Busch has been at work on one of the most impressive bodies of American fiction."—Reynolds Price

Here is that rarest and most satisfying of books: a grown-up love story. Harry and Catherine have been falling in and out of love for many years. She is divorced, determinedly raising two sons, and running a small gallery in upstate New York. He is an ex-newspaperman, a wistful drifter, now assistant to a New York senator. After a long separation, Harry is assigned to find out whether a new shopping mall in Catherine's neighborhood will desecrate an historic black cemetery. Catherine is living with another man, a contractor for the mall who finds both his financial interests and his relationship with Catherine threatened by Harry. With penetrating acuity and generosity of spirit, one of our finest writers brings us what David Bradley calls "a book people will love and be proud of loving." "Unsuppressed emotion, painful honesty . . . all of it in the most lively and supple language anyone is writing today."—Rosellen Brown

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A highly intelligent writer with romance in his soul, Busch ( Absent Friends ) here depicts middle-aged love between two beguiling characters. Off-and-on lovers for more than a dozen years, the eponymous protagonists reencounter each other when Harry, former idealistic journalist turned press-aide hack to a liberal senator, journeys to a small community in upstate New York to investigate rumors that a local developer plans to pave over an old cemetery for runaway slaves in order to create a mall parking lot. That the contractor just happens to be Catherine's current lover is an ironic wrinkle that plagues Harry's conscience--but not too much. Fiercely independent since her divorce, Catherine has done a fine job of raising her two sons; now she is not sure that she wants to share her life with either of her suitors. Busch's ease and joy in accreting descriptive detail into a scene rich in metaphor (as when Harry and Catherine prepare her garden for the winter) is somewhat vitiated by his tendency to overdo introspection and stint on action. (His characters--including the men--also have an unfortunate tendency to giggle at dramatic moments.) But his sharp edge of humor, his skill with dialogue and his beautifully nuanced prose make Busch's novels as satisfying as the hearty meals his characters cook.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Harry, a former journalist and poet, is now an aide to a liberal senator with higher political aspirations. Catherine is the owner of a small-town art gallery and the single parent of two teenaged sons. After 12 years these former lovers come together again when Harry travels to upstate New York to investigate a construction project that may disturb the bones of dead slaves. Since Catherine's current lover is a paving contractor involved in the project, the political conflict soon becomes a very personal one. Busch's treatment of love after 40 is both sensitive and highly entertaining. Through small gestures and brief bits of dialog, he skillfully reveals complex relationships. In the posturing of competing males and the bickering of smart-mouthed adolescents, he also provides much comedy. Among Busch's other highly regarded works is Sometimes I Live in the Country (LJ 5/1/86).
- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393320766
• ISBN-13: 978-0393320763
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,520,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Much Talk!!, November 4, 2010

By 

shelly silver (The Big Apple) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harry and Catherine: A Love Story (Paperback)

Busch is obviously a good writer, and, to be fair, I haven't finished this book as yet...

The trio, Harry, Catherine and Carter talk and talk and talk without advancing the plot very much. This is , more or less, a mood and character piece. However the characters whine and complain constantly. I'm pushing through it, however. I realize there are some people who love this book. So maybe it's just not my cup of tea, as it were.

If you weren't crazy about "The Corrections" from-aside from the marvelous use of language-you'll see where I'm coming from.

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay, a little dated, September 15, 2010

By 

Book Club Mom - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harry and Catherine: A Love Story (Paperback)

Some books can stand the test of time, but Harry and Catherine, published in 1990, has a dated feel about it and that made the story less believable from a 2010 point of view.

Harry, Catherine and Carter, members of this grown-up love triangle, are only in their early forties, hardly old by today's standards.

I found it difficult to like Catherine, who was busy trying to show how she could handle the cold upstate NY winters on her own. And something prevented me from understanding what kind of great love Harry and Catherine shared in the past. It was hard to get to know these characters. I thought Carter's character was the most believable and cheered for him.

The conflict of commercial development versus keeping our countryside beautiful, with the additional layer of the black cemetery being unearthed and moved seemed contrived, or maybe that too was just dated.

But in the end, I thought the final chapters were the best and I enjoyed the references to upstate NY. Likewise, the garden discussions and cooking references made me want to go out into my own garden and pull together a good meal.

5.0 out of 5 stars A love story for grownups, February 18, 2009

By 

Timothy J. Bazzett "ReedCityBoy" (Reed City, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harry and Catherine: A Love Story (Paperback)

If you crave traditional, standard sorts of love stories - you know what I mean, the Elvis formula flick kinda thing: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back - then this book will simply exasperate you. But if you do crave that formula crap, then you don't deserve Harry & Catherine. I first read this book more than ten years ago, and I remember I thought about it for weeks after I finished it. Catherine Hollander is possibly one of the strongest women I've met in modern fiction. She is also, as I said, exasperating and, at times, none too likeable. But the truth is, Catherine is probably like a lot of women in this age of nearly forced equality. She values her independence to a fault. She needs her "personal space" so much that she seems thorny and unapproachable, or even indifferent, to the men who love her - or try to. Harry, on the other hand, is simply a man in love, a man who keeps on trying, on and off, for literally years to understand how to please this woman. Like most men, he's not terribly complicated. He may even be Everyman. Even at the end of this book, you're not quite sure whether these two will make it, but in Harry & Catherine, Frederick Busch has created some very memorable characters. Even the secondary players are carefully developed into real and very believable characters - the two teenage sons, the jilted lover Carter, the chubby sex-tinged temptress Olivia. There is heartbreak and humor in this story and there is also gritty graphic sex of all sorts, as well as a strange juxtaposition: a parallel theme of the importance and sacredness of family. (It would make a terrific film.) I found that I was just as mystified and charmed by this book in 2009 as I was the first time I read it in the 1990s. I have read several of Busch's other books too - all excellent (GIRLS is my favorite). But here's the oddest thing I felt as I finished reading this book again: I miss Fred Busch. He died three years ago this month. I never met the guy, but I felt an overwhelming sense of loss as I closed this book last night. Yes, I miss him. - Tim Bazzett, author of the Reed City Boy Trilogy