From Publishers Weekly
The 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut provides the crisis element in this moving novel about a family waiting to hear if a son and brother has survived the blast. During the course of the three long days between news of the bombing and the call that they alternately hope for and dread, the Singer family is transformed by the agony of suspense. Held hostage in the limbo of expectation, each of the six other brothers develops his own response to thoughts of Percival's death. The youngest, Simon, born with a missing ear, decides that he will make a deal with God to have reconstructive surgery if Percival has survived. Gideon, long Percival's rival at track meets, develops a phantom paralysis. Their father Patrick has periodic bouts of inexplicable blindness. The central figure, their mother Mag, is riddled with guilt and doubts. "I never wanted children," she says. "This is the punishment." Finally, bone-weary and numb with grief, she vents her frustrations on a neighbor's menacing dog. In these desperate hours, the family first turns on itself but then slowly begins to heal, as if in preparation for the blow, if Percival is indeed among those lying crushed beneath the wreckage. Bache's language is fluid and funny, and one comes to care about every one of her characters. There are echoes of John Irving in her evocation of this all-American family, but she skillfully avoids the cute or disgusting possibilities, and the results are vivid and heartwarming. Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
In October 1983, terrorists bombed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. Debut novelist Bache has used this event as a backdrop and the fictional Singer family as a vehicle in this work, distinguished by a fine sense of irony and comic detail. Starting with each person's own history with Percival, the family member stationed in Beirut at the time of the bombing, Bache unfolds, then layers these perspectives, creating a complete picture of the Singers and their inter relationships. Individuals are demystified and the family organism revealed in richly entertaining, yet poignant and believable episodes. The conclusion brings the reader to an understanding the family has just begun to share. A wonderful character study likely to appeal to adults and young adults. Susan E. Parker, Harvard Law Sch. Lib., Cambridge
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
