Sarah abandons her family to search for her biological mother, while her husband takes off across country in pursuit, leaving their son to stay with his in-laws. National ad/promo. Tour.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Kirkus Reviews
Responding to a magazine ad that may have been placed by her biological mother, Sarah Barrett abandons her Bucks County family and runs slowly to disaster--in this sedate, ruminative thriller from Busch (Closing Arguments, 1991, etc.). No sooner does Sarah's husband Barrett find his wife gone than he parks his six-year-old son Stephen with his in-laws in Burroughs, New York, and goes west to Santa Fe, inspired only by a vague feeling that Sarah's headed back to her spiritual roots there. But Sarah, driven by ``that emergency feeling'' (as she calls it in a cryptic note to Stephen), is much closer than that: she's gone only as far as western Pennsylvania, where her birth mother, Gloria Dodge, makes her meddlesome rounds as an herbalist/nurse. As Barrett sinks deeper into oblivion via a masochistic liaison with Santa Fe barfly Marylinn Conover and her unappreciative husband, Sarah decides that she doesn't like Gloria (``Call me Mother''), resents her own abandonment, and wants out of this woman's life for good. Too late: drawn by the promise of a grandson she's never seen, Gloria takes off for Burroughs, where she lures Stephen into her car and immediately starts to demonstrate why her giving away Sarah wasn't such a bad idea. Unlike Closing Arguments, which had the energy of authentic pulp, this one is weighed down by the characters' enervation; the pulpish plot is mainly an armature for Busch's reflections--mostly through Sarah's anguish over her impossible status as daughter, adopted daughter, and mother--about commitment, forgiveness, and the loss of innocence. Only Sarah's adoptive mother, Lizzie Mastracola (returning from Rounds and Sometimes I Live in the Country), has the starch to stem the general tide of lassitude. At his best, Busch seems to press for new ways to register characters, their language, and their relationships--but his best shines out only fitfully in this murkily conceived fable. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"Absorbing, fast-paced and a joy to read."
--The Boston Globe --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
--The Boston Globe --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The perils of finding your birth mother,
By
This review is from: Long Way from Home (Paperback)
Bringing together adoptive mother, birth mother, recalcitrant daughter, pawn grandchild and throwaway father, Busch seems to suggest that abortion has adoption beat hands down in this passionate but disjointed novel.As the story opens, Sarah has abandoned her familywithout explanation. Distraught, her husband, Barrett, leaves son Stephen with Sarah's adoptive parents and heads for Santa Fe because Sarah liked the pottery. But Sarah is on a quest to meet her birth mother. Shifting viewpoints speed the plot and explore character. Busch's depiction of 6-year-old Stephen is heart-rending. Outwardly calm, he is terrified. His grandparents, Lizzie and Will, cope as always, putting their private concerns on hold. Sarah's quest unfolds as one long harangue and Barrett's search degenerates unreasonably. Gloria, the birth mother, is crazed -- because she gave up her child? It's hard to care what happens to any of them. There are also some simple plot problems. Sarah heads home and Gloria, bent on kidnapping, follows. Hours behind, lost and without a map, Gloria still manages to beat Sarah. Then Lizzie and Sarah take off after Gloria and Stephen -- without a thought of informing the police and simply having her stopped. Only Busch's writing could keep this turgid plot going. The words tumble and run, the characters steer by venal desires and lofty intentions. Yet Lizzie and Sarah -- apparently hurtling toward an explosive or illuminating climax -- banter as if their pursuit of Gloria is a cathartic girls' night out. An odd book which gripped me until the last page when I picked it up and threw it against the wall -- figuratively of course.
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