Rebel Powers [Hardcover]

Richard Bausch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1993

This is the author's sixth novel. The author was the winner of the 1993 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The novel is about the Boudreaux family: the father, a Vietnam veteran, is sentenced to two years of hard labor for stealing; a mother copes with life at this time with a son and daughter; the son, Thomas, soft-voiced, obsessively attempts to understand the unraveling of the family. The novel is devoted to the PROCESS of perception. Wendy Lesser, in USA Today, says this novel succeeds miraculously: "A testament to his [Bausch's] extraordinarily sympathetic powers of narrative."

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: New York, NY, U.S.A.: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993; First Edition edition (1993)
• ISBN-10: 0395595088
• ISBN-13: 978-0395595084
• ASIN: B001V60AUM
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,956,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unknown gem - male tragedy, July 29, 1998

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, May 25, 2011

By 

IRA Ross (LYNDHURST, NJ United States 07071) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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."