Thanksgiving Night [Hardcover]

Richard Bausch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2006

Richard Bausch calls this, his tenth novel, "a love comedy with sorrows." The story is set in the small Virginia valley town of Point Royal, where several of Bausch's other novels and many of his stories take place. It is 1999; predictions of catastrophe blare on the radio, and religious fanaticism is everywhere on the rise. The millennium is approaching. Oliver Ward and his divorced daughter, a young policewoman named Alison, and Oliver's two grandchildren become involved with Holly Grey and Holly's aunt Fiona, elderly ladies with a marked propensity for outlandish behavior. Holly's son, Will Butterfield, and Elizabeth, Will's second wife by that name, have been happily married for ten years but are about to discover how fragile happiness is. And in the middle of all of them is an old priest, Father John Fire, who is a good man, thinking of leaving the priesthood. He is called "Brother Fire" by everyone who knows him, after the famous words of Saint Francis when confronted with the burning brand with which he would be martyred. Close to both Holly and Fiona, Brother Fire also has a part to play in the rapidly unfolding family drama. "Thanksgiving Night" is a touching and empathetic portrayal of family$#8212;the one we have, and the ones we make. The people who populate these pages are flawed, wounded, stubborn, willful, scarred, often wildly eccentric, and all searching, in one way or another, for love. 1006

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A house in Point Royal, Va., serves to entangle two families in clannish chaos. When local handyman Oliver Ward is summoned for a job at the house of Holly Grey and her aunt Fiona, he has no idea what to make of the two squabbling, headstrong old ladies who want to divide—literally—their house in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The two are known as "the Crazies" by Holly's son, bookstore owner Will Butterfield, and his wife, high school teacher Elizabeth, who are growing weary of their antics. But they pay Oliver, who begins working at the ladies' house. Oliver's daughter, policewoman and single mother Alison, is later called in to help talk Holly off the roof during a drunken dispute. Meanwhile, Will's grown children, Mark and Gail, from his first marriage (to another Elizabeth, who abandoned the family) are in disagreement over whether they should hunt down their long-gone mother. There are digressions: Gail's sexual identity is an open question; Elizabeth's students are fractious; Will finds himself tempted by a sexy, none-too-stable bartender. When Oliver has a stroke on the job, the two families are thrown together at Holly and Fiona's as the Thanksgiving holiday draws nigh. Author of nine novels and five story collections, Bausch (Wives & Lovers) engages stock characters and a predictable theme of holiday forgiveness this time out, but he injects some crackle into the heartwarming elements. (Oct.)
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Review

“Bausch’s engagingly deranged characters hold our attention . . . in one of his more interesting and readable longer fictions.” (Kirkus Reviews )

“It’s a subtle, slyly accomplished feat, and Bausch brings his disparate storylines together in a powerfully moving finale.” (Richmond Times-Dispatch )

“Kooky relatives, drunken antics, and near-death experiences are fodder enough for three tomes. For this, we are thankful.” (Entertainment Weekly )

“(A) satisfying feast of a book that feels authentic and wise.” (Washington Post Book World )

“Bracing, unapologetically old-fashioned. Bausch’s novel is also filled with sudden displays of emotion.” (New York Times Book Review )

“Beautifully told. ... Bausch supplies plenty to go around, just as one would wish on any Thanksgiving night. ” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 403 pages
• Publisher: Harper (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060094435
• ISBN-13: 978-0060094430
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,131,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Holiday Read!, November 11, 2006

By 

Dr. Christopher Wilson (Calgary, Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thanksgiving Night (Hardcover)

Great Read! Couldn't wait to see what happened next to the crazy but loveable characters of Point Royal, Virginia. With Bausch's attention to detail and the myriad of events, you will know them all intimately by the time the turkey is served for Thanksgiving dinner. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of this book and enjoy it with your pumpkiin pie!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More than You Want to Know, August 21, 2010

By 

John Holderness (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Thanksgiving Night: A Novel (Paperback)

I couldn't get through this book. Too much detail about characters I couldn't get to care about. The "Crazies" are not funny, the others not appealing. I also read Bausch's "Peace" and there, too, found way too much detail - not interesting detail, just detail for its own sake, apparently. I skipped sections in "Peace," because the core of the story is interesting, but I skipped the whole second half of "Thanksgiving Night." Bausch makes some good observations and similies. He has skill, but he needs to know when enough is enough.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to like this book, May 17, 2008

By 

K. L. Cotugno (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thanksgiving Night: A Novel (Paperback)

Initially I thought that this would remind me of Richard Russo, whose writings I love. But after slogging through my requisite 100 pages, I found I could not go on. I don't know if the fault lies in the stock situations or characters, but it just seems he takes too many words to say too little.