- Hardcover: 279 pages
- Publisher: Harmony (Mar 4 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0517704552
- ISBN-13: 978-0517704554
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.5 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 544 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,272,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Frederick Busch's 18th work of fiction, Girls, is a novel whose roots lie buried in an earlier short story. In "Ralph the Duck," Busch introduced Jack and Franny, a young couple trying to recover from the recent death of their baby daughter. In Girls Busch expands Jack and Franny's lives beyond this single personal tragedy to encompass a greater loss: the disappearance of a 14-year-old girl, daughter of the town minister and his dying wife, from the community.
Propelled by his own loss, Jack, a security guard at a local college, begins investigating the disappearance, and thus Busch's novel becomes a literary detective story. In the course of solving the mystery, Jack must grapple with his attraction to a professor at the college, the disintegration of his marriage, and the impossibility of outrunning the past.
From Publishers Weekly
Busch (Closing Arguments; The Children in the Woods) deserves greater success than he has so far received-though connoisseurs of clean, dynamic American prose already know and admire his work. His latest novel is a tour de force in which the setting, a college in upstate New York in deepest winter, the characters and the situation are blended so seamlessly that the reader becomes a hapless part of its grim world. Jack, the narrator, is a hard-bitten, decent campus cop who, with wife Fanny, is working out the bitter legacy of the death, years before, of their only child, a little girl. When another girl, one who seems like a model teenager, vanishes in a nearby town, he throws himself desperately into a hunt for her and whoever may have done her violence; in the process, he is so deeply hurt, both physically and emotionally, that he barely survives. It is a dark tale, but it's told with an economical mastery and intensity that only a few current novelists can command. Busch even manages to create a dog who is real, touching but never cute, and the perfect life-enhancing foil for the human sorrows around him. In its very different way, this is the finest literary thriller since William Trevor's Felicia's Journey-and shares the same passionate concern with the helplessness of young women when they become prey to predatory men.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A powerful and honest Story.,
By patty (San Francisco , CA,USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Girls: A Novel (Paperback)
A wonderful and emotional ride. In "Girls", the reader becomes part of the autors world , feeling the pain, happiness and sorrow that go along with the theme. Not only does the reader become attached but it feels as if the reader is living the story being told. The novel depicts real life situations and focuses very much on those who try to leave the realities of their lives behind them.When i fist read the title of the book, "Girls", i never thought that it would be more than just a simple book on the lives of girls living in America. The novel was powerful in the sense that the writer focused on the internal strength and guilt that comes along with adulthood. It invisioned real life situations such as drugs,marriage, self image and death. Frederick Busch really depicted the reality of life through the lives of each character.It was mysterious and intriguing,a powerful story that leaves us wondering and feeling each characters pain. It is impossible to put the book down it keeps you reading each page wanting to know what will happen next.The novel is mysterious and suspensful, filled with emotional struggles and life changing events. A story that deals with one's endless battle with life and reality. I recommend this book to anyone who has suffered or lost someone they love. Anyone who wishes to understand the tragities of life a little better. This book really is an eye opener and can teach us alot about moral values and the fragilties that life bestowes upon us.Frederick Busch has written a wonderful novel that reaches deep into your soul.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A disturbing little book,
By frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Girls: A Novel (Paperback)
I admired _Girls_ for many of its qualities, not the least of which is the strong characterization. At its heart, it tells the story of the effect that a child's death has had on a marriage, and all the ways that people try to cope with and understand what happened. Jack and Fanny and Rosalie are sad and wise and believable, as are the landscapes they move in (both physical and emotional).For me, what limited the novel was the whodunnit aspect of the disappearance of Janice Tanner. While I understand how Busch tried to build it into the emotional plot, and while I think that the effect on Jack of her disappearance was a believable way to trigger the events of the story, I was disappointed with its eventual resolution and the neat way that the questions of guilt that it raised tied into Jack's own marriage. The completeness of the story felt contrived, as Jack seemed to me the sort of character who is never really complete. I picked up the book in a fairly random way, and am glad that I did. I grew up in upstate New York, and Busch captured the atmosphere in a way that made the time to read the book worth it for that alone. I'll probably read more Busch as I come across it, but I think that the next time I will go for the short stories, as the best part of this novel was the part that I thought of as a very good short story.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Boring,
By A Customer
This review is from: Girls: A Novel (Paperback)
I found this book extremely boring. Although the book was well written, I found the characters underdeveloped and uninteresting. I quit reading after a painful 130 pages.
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