Rescue Missions: Stories

by Frederick Busch

Stories of mercy and need among lovers, family, and friends by "one of our very best short-story writers" (Anne Beattie).

Some of the stories in this "brilliant" (Library Journal, starred review) collection feature the war in Iraq, and others feature domestic wars; in every case, a character seeks to comfort or to save someone. Physical love, familial love, the need to give comfort—and the need for comfort—are themes skillfully rendered by this "master of the genre" (Booklist, starred review), whose achievements earned the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award of Merit for lifetime achievement in short fiction.

Genres: Short Stories

318 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Frederick Busch (1941–2006) was the recipient of many honors, including an American Academy of Arts and Letters Fiction Award, a National Jewish Book Award, and the PEN/Malamud Award. The prolific author of sixteen novels and six collections of short stories, Busch is renowned for his writing’s emotional nuance and minimal, plainspoken style. A native of Brooklyn, New York, he lived most of his life in upstate New York, where he worked for forty years as a professor at Colgate University.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

frederick busch writes masterful prose

he doesn't write a single word he doesn't need to, and his sentences dig into your heart

only problem is, all of these stories are about rescuing people, and how it never works out because life is terrible and sad and we are all ultimately alone

these stories are incredible

i just can't read them right now

last night i dropped this book on my cat while going to bed because it was so sad my brain decided to turn off rather than read it

this isn't just because i was tired, it happens on the train too - my attention just drifts

this book is great, just don't read it unless you have a solid happiness foundation in your life right now

[Angelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although 3/5 in terms of readability, I did not really enjoy this collection of stories. The only story I can say I enjoyed was "The Hay Behind the House".
I found a lot of the stories to be over-sexualized in unnecessary ways. Lots of the stories contained unrealistic sexual encounters as well as irrelevant remembered sexual events. It felt like the female characters in the stories were written by a man; they were not realistic. I found this to hugely take away from the stories individually, and as a collection. I also found some stories to be just plain confusing. Busch is not the best at transitions, thus forcing the reader to continue in confusion hoping things will become clear in the future or to go back and re-read sections looking for a connection to the new setting/characters/events. This became frustrating and ruined the flow of the stories.
Also why are so many of the women named a variation of the name Clare?

[Eric Gillis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un recueil de quinze nouvelles. Déroutant. Une écriture plongée dans un brouillard permanent, alternant sans frontière évidente le passé et le présent, le monologue et le récit, la première et la troisième personne, la résignation et l’espoir. Beaucoup de résignation. Des corps remplis de larmes face au deuil, face à l’expérience de la fin, face à l’inexplicable de leur origine, mais qui prennent garde à bien étouffer leur sanglots. Rien de trash. Une détresse trop digne, trop respectable. Est-ce que quelqu’un peut crier sa douleur!? Non. Pour moi, un roman noir. A conseiller avec prudence.

[Sabrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

short stories again... but really depressing- stories revolve around death. think he wrote this after he was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

[Yvonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

some of these are great, some not so much but overall a must-read.