- Hardcover: 1 pages
- Publisher: New Directions (Oct 1 1989)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0811211037
- ISBN-13: 978-0811211031
- Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 14.2 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
National Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award-winner Busch ( Absent Friends ) here offers a short, gory Gothic novella centering on the goings-on of two fashionably thirtysomething lovers: Peter Santore, a dull-witted American lawyer who is in England trying to unearth information about his father (an American who, during the Korean War, turned informer); and Hilary Pennels, whose own father, a war hero, was perhaps betrayed by the elder Santore. Also figuring in the novel's none-too-plausible plot is a kinky former Sergeant-Major and Korean POW who, we are told at every opportunity, has rotting teeth, terrible breath and weepy eyes. He drinks, toasts "absent friends" and narrates war tales famous for their blood and guts. In this slim volume, Busch fails to reach his usual standard of imaginative pathos leavened by humor. Even his dialogue palls: remarks Pete of Vietnam War veterans, "They had a really bad time," to which Hilary replies, "Didn't we all."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Frederick Busch's novel War Babies is a short, powerful moral tale that sheds light upon the insidious nature of evil and the grip history holds on the lives of the seemingly protected innocent. Peter Santore, the narrator, is an American lawyer in his mid-thirties come to England to track down a certain Hilary Pennels, the daughter of a Korean War hero who died in a POW camp—the same camp in which Peter's own father turned traitor and whose informing became, perhaps, the cause of Hilary's father's death. Only Hilary's guardian, Fox—himself a survivor of the camp—can explain, if he will, the troubling past that haunts the now fully grown "war babies." As Frederick Busch's relentless narrative bears down upon this complexity of betrayals, the lines between exploiter and exploited become eerily blurred.
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First Sentence
Soldiers from England sang a song in the estaminets of northern France in 1916, and they had sung it too in the public houses, I have no doubt, of the Wiltshire I came to invade. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Soldiers from England sang a song in the estaminets of northern France in 1916, and they had sung it too in the public houses, I have no doubt, of the Wiltshire I came to invade. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
War Babies,
This review is from: War Babies (Hardcover)
Frederick Busch has written a supberb 114 page novella that delves into the psyche of two adults born during the years of the Korean War, or forgotten war as called by some. In his thirties and driven by associated guilt from his fathers actions while in a prisoner of war camp, Peter Santore sheds his lawyer suit to leave the States for England where he searches out the daughter of a hero from the same prison camp as his father. He yearns for peace from his troubling past and hopes to find answers from a total stanger. Through twists and turns and the introduction of Fox, an officer who survived the ordeal and lived to tell about it, vivid tales are retold of what life was like as a prisoner of war during this conflict. Busch weaves intrigue and mystery through betrayals and deceit centered around a whirlwind love story, leaving the reader with a surprise grand finale while paying a subtle homage to Thomas Hardy throughout. I encountered difficulty getting into this story with the first chapter but became engrossed as Buschs characters rose from the pages. An interesting fast read for those curious about the Korean conflict.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Busch's best effort, but not bad either,
By Timothy J. Bazzett "ReedCityBoy" - Published on Amazon.com
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This review is from: War Babies (Paperback)
WAR BABIES is probably my least favorite Frederick Busch book so far, and I think I've read a dozen or more of his 27 books by now. The subject here is the residue of the Korean War, or "conflict," as it was officially known. But it was a war, make no mistake, and it had far-reaching personal consequences in countless families from all the countries involved. I learned that the book was initially serialized in two parts (in slightly different form) in a magazine. Maybe that was the problem. It just seemed too damn short. There wasn't enough background - or follow-through - to make me care for either of the book's protagonists. Well, I cared for poor Peter. It was Hillary that was problematic. I could never quite figure her out, and I couldn't bring myself to like her. And Fox, the British Sergeant-Major survivor of the prison camps, well, he just seemed like a sick, twisted pervert. No one would have liked him! I could kinda guess what it was all about - man's inhumanity to man; the cruelties of war, twisted psyches brought about by war, etc. The Busch touch is there, certainly, with all of the usual preoccupations with the darker side of man. But the truth is, I was just glad to get to the end and be done with it. I liked parts of it - the human, vulnerable side of Peter, mostly - but it just didn't quite measure up to Busch's usual high standards. This was NOT typical Fred Busch.
4.0 out of 5 stars
War Babies,
By Vicki Moss - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: War Babies (Hardcover)
Frederick Busch has written a supberb 114 page novella that delves into the psyche of two adults born during the years of the Korean War, or forgotten war as called by some. In his thirties and driven by associated guilt from his fathers actions while in a prisoner of war camp, Peter Santore sheds his lawyer suit to leave the States for England where he searches out the daughter of a hero from the same prison camp as his father. He yearns for peace from his troubling past and hopes to find answers from a total stanger. Through twists and turns and the introduction of Fox, an officer who survived the ordeal and lived to tell about it, vivid tales are retold of what life was like as a prisoner of war during this conflict. Busch weaves intrigue and mystery through betrayals and deceit centered around a whirlwind love story, leaving the reader with a surprise grand finale while paying a subtle homage to Thomas Hardy throughout. I encountered difficulty getting into this story with the first chapter but became engrossed as Buschs characters rose from the pages. An interesting fast read for those curious about the Korean conflict.
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