A decorated Air Force officer and former POW returns from Vietnam alive but faces a dishonorable discharge and a two-year prison term. By the author of Violence. National ad/promo. Tour.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The reader takes possession of this flawlessly composed novel the way one walks through a house that, while never seen before, is immediately familiar and utterly one's own. Thomas Boudreaux, divorced proprietor of a used-book store in Virginia, writes about his family in 1967, when he was 17 and his father Daniel, an Air Force career man and Vietnam hero, was caught stealing a typewriter from his Maryland base and sentenced to two years of hard labor in Wilson Creek, Wyo. Daniel's surprising act and rapid conviction pitch his family--his wife Connie, Thomas and eight-year-old Lisa--into nearly overwhelming uncertainty. After they move off the base and into a new town, Connie decides that they must go to Wilson Creek. On the train ride across country, they are befriended by young Penny Holt. Thomas's initial interest in Penny becomes obsessive after she moves into their Wilson Creek boarding house, where she will play a central role in the family's drama. With perfectly modulated pitch, Bausch ( The Fireman's Wife and Other Stories ; Violence ) captures the voices of his characters--young Thomas's mingled needs to understand, help, escape and heal, Lisa's sharp rudeness (of them all, she stays most directly related to the reality of their circumstances), Connie's desperate desire to keep her family together without losing herself. Though it is a turbulent time in the world and Thomas's chronicle is full of conflict, the story unfolds with a quiet, commanding authority--it is a literary edifice, from details to grand design, and Bausch is a master builder. Author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The 1960s were a turbulent time in our history, and that turbulence, effectively captured in Bausch's sixth novel (after Mr. Field's Daughter , LJ 5/15/89), reflects the emotional chaos in the lives of his characters. Thomas Boudreaux, a divorced man in his early forties, seems to live a quiet, contented life as a bookstore owner in the coastal village of Asquahawk, Virginia. Yet he is haunted by the desire to understand the events that occurred in 1967, when, as a 17-year-old boy, his parents' marriage unraveled. Thomas uses a journal to help him piece together that humiliating and painful time, when his father, a career Air Force man and former POW, was caught stealing a government-issue typewriter and found guilty of writing bad checks. His mother, Connie, attempts to keep the family together by moving to Wyoming, where Thomas's father is imprisoned. Her decision, however, only magnifies the emotional suffering of each family member. Bausch's lyrical writing style makes for captivating reading.
- Marlene McCormack Lee, Drain Branch Lib., Roseburg, Ore.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Marlene McCormack Lee, Drain Branch Lib., Roseburg, Ore.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unknown gem - male tragedy,
By A Customer
This review is from: Rebel Powers (Paperback)
This sensitive story about an adolescent's surprising, unfolding discovery of his father's motivation in a semmingly sordid past will leave the patient reader with one of the last quarter century's more moving-insight experiences. Clearly written, observant, fully believable, a must for Americans interested in truth..
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An American family in chaos,
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This review is from: Rebel Powers (Paperback)
It was not the best of times but it was very nearly the worst of times. It was 1968: the year of assasinations, urban riots, and the war in Vietnam. It was also a presidential election year. Lyndon Johnson, partially because of the deep divisions in the country had decided to pull out of his race for reelection. Robert Kennedy, along with Senator Eugene McCarthy before him, had entered the Democratic Party primaries to compete for the Democratic party nomination. Robert Kennedy had just been shot to death after having won the California Democratic Party primary.
These incidents form the backdrop of this wonderful and sensitively written character study of a family about to be torn asunder. Daniel Boudreaux, the head of this family, was about to be released from Wilson Creek Prison where he was incarcerated for theft of a typewriter. Daniel was a highly decorated Air Force sergeant who had previously served time as a prisoner of war in the Vietnam conflict. Connie, Daniel's wife and mother of their two children, Thomas and Lisa, has been having recurring thoughts of leaving Daniel. Author Richard Bausch designs an accurate portrayal of comparing the chaotic situations of 1968 America with the crisis within this family. Thomas, 17 years old when the novel starts, keeps a diary of the relationships within this family. Thomas's love-hate relationship with 9 year old sister, Lisa, appears to be right on target. He is both very protective of her while their sibling rivalry is also quite apparent. I felt very badly for Daniel, who endeavors to adjust to life on the outside, but fails miserably. Most interesting is Connie's relationship with Penny, a young woman that the family meets on their train trip to Wyoming. Thomas falls in love with Penny, yet it appears unrequitted. Connie and Penny, who moves into the boarding house where the family is staying near Wilson Creek Prison, become very close. Daniel unwittingly becomes Penny's rival. It is even intimated that Connie and Penny were lovers, although Connie denies this. At the end, Thomas, while contemplating his family's past, says that "it was somehow as though we had been involved in a kind of game, an acting out. And it had gone its own way in spite of us."
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