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The Girls
Pete Chickery is dead. It was sudden, it was violent, and it was by his own wife's hand. Why would Jessie Chickery, the prettiest, most enviable "girl" in her fortysomething set, take the life of the charming, sexy husband she obsessively loved?
Everyone loved Pete. All the guys he grew up with--and their wives.
Especially their wives, his wife's best friends. They are home-loving Ellen, tough-talking Tee, New York actress Frances, Jessie's sister Anne, and Pete's sister Anita--and now each tells the untold story of how Pete meant the world to her, how he made her feel adored, special, and satisfied. He was everything to everyone, but he wasn't enough--or he was just too much of a good thing.
Everyone loved Pete. All the guys he grew up with--and their wives.
Especially their wives, his wife's best friends. They are home-loving Ellen, tough-talking Tee, New York actress Frances, Jessie's sister Anne, and Pete's sister Anita--and now each tells the untold story of how Pete meant the world to her, how he made her feel adored, special, and satisfied. He was everything to everyone, but he wasn't enough--or he was just too much of a good thing.
324 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 110 reviews
March 4, 2017
Girls: A Novel by Frederick Busch is a 2011 Ballantine publication.
This is an older novel, which was recommended to me from a book group I decided to join.
The synopsis sounded different, but promising-
While the book is absorbing in many ways, the focus is mostly centered on Jack and Fanny’s relationship and grief and less on the missing girls for the most part. The last quarter of the book does begin to concentrate on that thread more, but the relationship issues are still overpowering.
As the story progresses, it becomes darker and very disturbing. I found some of the subject matter and thought processes of the main characters very concerning.
Jack and Fanny lost their only child and are trying unsuccessfully to hold their marriage together. Along the way, Jack gets sucked into the disappearance of a teenage girl from a neighboring town. He is asked to help the girl’s family cope with the grief, but he also decides to do a little investigating on his own.
The deep winter climate adds a more sinister and bleak atmosphere to a story that is already pretty gloomy. The mood never lifts, even once the questions are answered.
The personal dramas was drawn out far longer than it should have been which compromised the level of suspense, and the subdued tone may have backfired a little in this case.
Despite that, I still felt exhausted by the time I got to the end of the book. The slow pacing, the agonizingly slow trickle of information, and the desolate note the story ended on left me feeling somber and a little disappointed at some of the personal developments.
The writing is jarring, almost disorganized, if that makes any sense, and took me out the story at times.
I can see why this book would make a good book club read, however, as there are quite a few conflicting characterizations and actions that are slightly controversial and could spark a little healthy debate or conversation, which is the redeeming quality of this book, and is the reason for bumping my rating up a notch.
2.5 stars
This is an older novel, which was recommended to me from a book group I decided to join.
The synopsis sounded different, but promising-
While the book is absorbing in many ways, the focus is mostly centered on Jack and Fanny’s relationship and grief and less on the missing girls for the most part. The last quarter of the book does begin to concentrate on that thread more, but the relationship issues are still overpowering.
As the story progresses, it becomes darker and very disturbing. I found some of the subject matter and thought processes of the main characters very concerning.
Jack and Fanny lost their only child and are trying unsuccessfully to hold their marriage together. Along the way, Jack gets sucked into the disappearance of a teenage girl from a neighboring town. He is asked to help the girl’s family cope with the grief, but he also decides to do a little investigating on his own.
The deep winter climate adds a more sinister and bleak atmosphere to a story that is already pretty gloomy. The mood never lifts, even once the questions are answered.
The personal dramas was drawn out far longer than it should have been which compromised the level of suspense, and the subdued tone may have backfired a little in this case.
Despite that, I still felt exhausted by the time I got to the end of the book. The slow pacing, the agonizingly slow trickle of information, and the desolate note the story ended on left me feeling somber and a little disappointed at some of the personal developments.
The writing is jarring, almost disorganized, if that makes any sense, and took me out the story at times.
I can see why this book would make a good book club read, however, as there are quite a few conflicting characterizations and actions that are slightly controversial and could spark a little healthy debate or conversation, which is the redeeming quality of this book, and is the reason for bumping my rating up a notch.
2.5 stars
July 13, 2010
I’ve always liked the way that Joyce Carol Oates has been able to capture the “quiet desperation” of muddling through in the average lives of New England and New York. I had never read anything of Frederick Busch before and this story of a nearly-broken former-cop-turned-security-guard and his near obsessive investigation into the disappearance of a local girl is impressively haunting.
Not really a whodunit – the investigation is almost secondary – but the book follows the protagonist's inexorable drag into obsession and its effects on him, his marriage and his life. Real and raw – and with amazing prose – this book stays with you long after finishing it. (Note: the main character appears again in North, which was FB’s last book published before he died in 2006. It was also very good, but of the two, I enjoyed Girls more.)
Not really a whodunit – the investigation is almost secondary – but the book follows the protagonist's inexorable drag into obsession and its effects on him, his marriage and his life. Real and raw – and with amazing prose – this book stays with you long after finishing it. (Note: the main character appears again in North, which was FB’s last book published before he died in 2006. It was also very good, but of the two, I enjoyed Girls more.)
August 11, 2009
When I finished this book last night at 2:00am, I got choked up. This was such a riveting, rhythmic literary work that if in movie form would be considered a classic film. Needless to say, it’s tied with “Sharp Objects” for the best I’ve read – though they are both in different categories so to speak.
Busch’s pace and structure was amazing and it was as if I was reading off silk. The prose was simple and beautiful, loaded with imagery and absolutely stellar dialogue. The characters were well developed, especially the protagonist, Jack, along with Fanny, Archie and Rosalie – who I adored. Overall, however, it was Busch’s subtleties in language and inference that made this novel explode in its richness.
Theses subtleties truly shined in his phenomenal, totally realistic dialogue. The dramatic interchange between characters was quite astounding to say the very least. Whenever Jack spoke to his wife, it was as if they were dancing at a distance during a chess match. He had a much easier go with conversations when being with Rosalie, but even here, the meanings the reader could cull from between the lines were paramount. Busch is one hell of an amazing craftsman.
The tone of the novel was rich and subdued, matching the bitter cold landscape in which the story takes place, capturing its somberness and fully engulfing atmosphere. The mood of the piece was perfect.
I could see many readers making some comparisons to Hemingway because of Busch’s sentence structure and almost seemingly plain delivery. And although I love Hemingway, Busch outshined him – and this is something I thought I’d never say since comparing authors is ludicrous for so many reasons.
What I enjoyed most, however, were the subplots and little mysteries that weaved their way throughout the tale. In the beginning, I was confused a bit, until I wrapped my head around Busch’s wonderful style, and I kept reminding myself that this was a mystery and all would be revealed – and it was. As an author, Busch delivered on his promise and left no loose ends for the reader.
Busch’s narrative, much like Flynn ("Sharp Objects"), fully swims around the main character, their actions and flaws, while the mystery is almost secondary, though it permeates all things. Needless to say, the subplot(s) are vital for the story’s survival. In reality, the mysteries both Busch and Flynn create are fairly simple but extremely well executed. But Busch’s mystery is the best above all: it’s honest, sincere and logical. Most importantly, it rings of plausibility.
Busch’s pace and structure was amazing and it was as if I was reading off silk. The prose was simple and beautiful, loaded with imagery and absolutely stellar dialogue. The characters were well developed, especially the protagonist, Jack, along with Fanny, Archie and Rosalie – who I adored. Overall, however, it was Busch’s subtleties in language and inference that made this novel explode in its richness.
Theses subtleties truly shined in his phenomenal, totally realistic dialogue. The dramatic interchange between characters was quite astounding to say the very least. Whenever Jack spoke to his wife, it was as if they were dancing at a distance during a chess match. He had a much easier go with conversations when being with Rosalie, but even here, the meanings the reader could cull from between the lines were paramount. Busch is one hell of an amazing craftsman.
The tone of the novel was rich and subdued, matching the bitter cold landscape in which the story takes place, capturing its somberness and fully engulfing atmosphere. The mood of the piece was perfect.
I could see many readers making some comparisons to Hemingway because of Busch’s sentence structure and almost seemingly plain delivery. And although I love Hemingway, Busch outshined him – and this is something I thought I’d never say since comparing authors is ludicrous for so many reasons.
What I enjoyed most, however, were the subplots and little mysteries that weaved their way throughout the tale. In the beginning, I was confused a bit, until I wrapped my head around Busch’s wonderful style, and I kept reminding myself that this was a mystery and all would be revealed – and it was. As an author, Busch delivered on his promise and left no loose ends for the reader.
Busch’s narrative, much like Flynn ("Sharp Objects"), fully swims around the main character, their actions and flaws, while the mystery is almost secondary, though it permeates all things. Needless to say, the subplot(s) are vital for the story’s survival. In reality, the mysteries both Busch and Flynn create are fairly simple but extremely well executed. But Busch’s mystery is the best above all: it’s honest, sincere and logical. Most importantly, it rings of plausibility.
March 4, 2008
I wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't get into it. At first it was the subject matter, because I hate dead baby things, but then I didn't care for the protagonist. The big reveals were so drawn out and late that I guessed them; that always puts me a little out.
I felt like I was walking through an architecture museum: beautiful examples of structure and counterbalance and fascia, but nothing wholly formed to transport me to another place.
I felt like I was walking through an architecture museum: beautiful examples of structure and counterbalance and fascia, but nothing wholly formed to transport me to another place.
November 20, 2018
It's an interesting premise, the demise of one man, Pete, as told by a group of friends who all saw him in a different light, but the execution makes for an unenjoyable, and at some points, incredibly boring read. Whilst it's clear that Kagan has so desperately tried to create variation in her characters, they all end up sounding exactly the same with her overtly conversational writing style and it becomes tricky to keep up with who thinks what about which character and who they're even married/divorced to.
The characters are all fairly boring housewife-type stereotypes and you come away not knowing and not even caring what Pete was actually like, aka, the whole big mystery of the book. Whilst I appreciate Kagan's desire to write in an ultra-realistic way, the conversations between characters become tedious and unnecessary as they ramble on and on.
I was tempted to give up with the book half way through, especially when you lose the character perspective chapters, but I thought I'd read on to reveal the truth behind the so-called mystery. I wish I had stopped, don't waste your time.
The characters are all fairly boring housewife-type stereotypes and you come away not knowing and not even caring what Pete was actually like, aka, the whole big mystery of the book. Whilst I appreciate Kagan's desire to write in an ultra-realistic way, the conversations between characters become tedious and unnecessary as they ramble on and on.
I was tempted to give up with the book half way through, especially when you lose the character perspective chapters, but I thought I'd read on to reveal the truth behind the so-called mystery. I wish I had stopped, don't waste your time.
October 29, 2023
This was good. It was almost like a mystery within a mystery between characters. It's very atmospheric. This book was written in such a cold tone to match the setting. Even at the end, I'm left with questions.
October 23, 2025
I have complicated feelings about this book. The most glaring issues for me are that I could barely remember anything about the character who ended up being the killer, so though the narrator lays out how he came to his conclusion, I was lost; and the narrator has a very dark perspective of his love interest, viewing her as childlike, and that is never addressed with any meaning. In my opinion, if a writer is going to go there, it needs to be explained.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 1, 2016
To call a novel messy may be an unusual way to compliment it, but that word comes to mind after I read “Girls: A Novel” by Frederick Busch. What I liked about this 1996 novel is that many of its components are messy. The weather – upstate New York in the winter – is messy, with the seemingly nonstop cloudiness, snow, and cold permeating the atmosphere.
The four main characters are morally and emotionally complex and flawed, indeed messed up, taking actions that hurt others – or, more often, not taking actions that would make life more bearable for themselves and others. Communication is hit or miss. Busch deftly shows how difficult communication is for Jack and his wife, Fanny, and the consequences of this invisible wall between them. It would seem that Fanny and Jack’s unnamed Labrador communicates its feelings better than its owners.
The messiness in the novel is in no way to say that the writing is messy. The novel is well constructed, the writing is precise, the locale and climate well-described, and the dialogue – and silences – echo the mundane conversations of real life.
In addition to the human characters in “Girls,” one could say that the weather is a crucial character in the novel. Busch starts his second chapter with these three sentences: “You can’t say once upon a time to tell a story of how we got to where we are. You have to say winter. Once, in winter, you say, because winter was our only season, and it felt like we would live in winter all our lives.” The wintry climate affects the moods of the characters, especially the first-person narrator, Jack, a 44-year-old military veteran and university policeman. Jack, his mood as dark as the winter skies, wonders if spring will ever come.
The novel revolves around two mysteries. One of them is the cause of death years before of the infant daughter of Jack and Fanny. This event, which the couple can’t even talk about, is fracturing their marriage. The other mystery is the fate of a missing child of the Tanner family, a teenager whom Jack has been asked to find.
The locale of “Girls” is an unnamed university, based on Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., where he was a professor of literature for 37 years. Busch vividly describes the university’s and the town’s geography and the life of students, faculty, and administration.
My only complaint about the book is that Busch put what should have been the last chapter or epilogue at the beginning of the book. I found that confusing; Immediately upon beginning the novel, I was swarmed with characters and situations I didn’t know anything about. However, from the second chapter on to the end, the novel is readable and understandable.
Given what I have said about messiness, I needn’t have to say that the novel does not conclude with everything wrapped up in a neat conclusion. I won’t give away the ending, except to say that the characters are still attempting, on the last page, to achieve some measure of interconnectedness with other characters. All in all, “Girls” is a mixture of a detective story, domestic drama, character study, and campus novel in one, presenting along the way life’s complexity.
The four main characters are morally and emotionally complex and flawed, indeed messed up, taking actions that hurt others – or, more often, not taking actions that would make life more bearable for themselves and others. Communication is hit or miss. Busch deftly shows how difficult communication is for Jack and his wife, Fanny, and the consequences of this invisible wall between them. It would seem that Fanny and Jack’s unnamed Labrador communicates its feelings better than its owners.
The messiness in the novel is in no way to say that the writing is messy. The novel is well constructed, the writing is precise, the locale and climate well-described, and the dialogue – and silences – echo the mundane conversations of real life.
In addition to the human characters in “Girls,” one could say that the weather is a crucial character in the novel. Busch starts his second chapter with these three sentences: “You can’t say once upon a time to tell a story of how we got to where we are. You have to say winter. Once, in winter, you say, because winter was our only season, and it felt like we would live in winter all our lives.” The wintry climate affects the moods of the characters, especially the first-person narrator, Jack, a 44-year-old military veteran and university policeman. Jack, his mood as dark as the winter skies, wonders if spring will ever come.
The novel revolves around two mysteries. One of them is the cause of death years before of the infant daughter of Jack and Fanny. This event, which the couple can’t even talk about, is fracturing their marriage. The other mystery is the fate of a missing child of the Tanner family, a teenager whom Jack has been asked to find.
The locale of “Girls” is an unnamed university, based on Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., where he was a professor of literature for 37 years. Busch vividly describes the university’s and the town’s geography and the life of students, faculty, and administration.
My only complaint about the book is that Busch put what should have been the last chapter or epilogue at the beginning of the book. I found that confusing; Immediately upon beginning the novel, I was swarmed with characters and situations I didn’t know anything about. However, from the second chapter on to the end, the novel is readable and understandable.
Given what I have said about messiness, I needn’t have to say that the novel does not conclude with everything wrapped up in a neat conclusion. I won’t give away the ending, except to say that the characters are still attempting, on the last page, to achieve some measure of interconnectedness with other characters. All in all, “Girls” is a mixture of a detective story, domestic drama, character study, and campus novel in one, presenting along the way life’s complexity.
February 2, 2011
The best word I can think of to describe Frederick Busch’s novel Girls is muscular. The novel has certainly received much higher praise than that. Glamour Magazine called it “powerful,” and went on to describe it as an intriguing crime story although the novel’s real strength lay with the main character’s “growing insight about his marriage, his town, and himself [which] transforms this page-turner about lost children into a tender and eloquent examination of the even greater mystery that is the human heart.”
Jack is a somewhat cantankerous Vietnam veteran who is currently a campus cop at a small college in upstate New York. His wife, Fanny, is an emergency-room nurse. Jack and Fanny are mourning the recent loss of their infant daughter, Hannah. They can barely be in the same room with each other and so they work opposite shifts, drifting past each other in a haze of exhaustion and grief.
Then a local girl goes missing and someone suggests Jack help out with the investigation, ostensibly as a way of working through his own issues.
The characters in Busch’s novel are all messed up. Jack and Hannah are locked in a grief-fueled stalemate and neither seems to know how to make the first move. As Jack observes:
"I thought, as I stayed where I was, that somebody ought to walk around the table and hug this woman hard and just hold on."
Instead, Jack fills his days helping cars up icy hills, rescuing suicidal co-eds, drinking sour coffee with his confessor, Archie, and trying to figure out just what happened to the missing girl.
Girls is a atmospheric and tragic story and the characters, particularly Jack, are well-drawn and convincing. The novel is often funny, too. In one scene, where Jack runs a drug-dealer off the campus, I laughed out loud.
Busch is a new-to-me writer, but he’s written 20 other novels and he’s impressed me enough to look for more.
Jack is a somewhat cantankerous Vietnam veteran who is currently a campus cop at a small college in upstate New York. His wife, Fanny, is an emergency-room nurse. Jack and Fanny are mourning the recent loss of their infant daughter, Hannah. They can barely be in the same room with each other and so they work opposite shifts, drifting past each other in a haze of exhaustion and grief.
Then a local girl goes missing and someone suggests Jack help out with the investigation, ostensibly as a way of working through his own issues.
The characters in Busch’s novel are all messed up. Jack and Hannah are locked in a grief-fueled stalemate and neither seems to know how to make the first move. As Jack observes:
"I thought, as I stayed where I was, that somebody ought to walk around the table and hug this woman hard and just hold on."
Instead, Jack fills his days helping cars up icy hills, rescuing suicidal co-eds, drinking sour coffee with his confessor, Archie, and trying to figure out just what happened to the missing girl.
Girls is a atmospheric and tragic story and the characters, particularly Jack, are well-drawn and convincing. The novel is often funny, too. In one scene, where Jack runs a drug-dealer off the campus, I laughed out loud.
Busch is a new-to-me writer, but he’s written 20 other novels and he’s impressed me enough to look for more.
August 29, 2009
This is the only Frederick Busch book that I've read, so I wasn't sure what to expect. His writing style reminds me a bit of Cormac McCarthy in that both of them can convey so MUCH with so FEW words. It's a gift to find a writer that with a single sentence gives you the feeling of being kicked in the gut with its power, and it happened with this book numerous times.
The subject matter, that of the disapperance of a young girl and the toll it takes on her family and our protagonist, Jack, is very dark and difficult to think about, let alone be willing read about. However, Busch's characters were so REAL to me that I found myself marveling at the people and their choices and it was the authentic humanity of the characters that got me through.
I highly recommend this book, and will definitely be reading more of Frederick Busch's work in the future. His book "North" is a sequel to this, and I've heard that "The Night Inspector" is quite good.
The subject matter, that of the disapperance of a young girl and the toll it takes on her family and our protagonist, Jack, is very dark and difficult to think about, let alone be willing read about. However, Busch's characters were so REAL to me that I found myself marveling at the people and their choices and it was the authentic humanity of the characters that got me through.
I highly recommend this book, and will definitely be reading more of Frederick Busch's work in the future. His book "North" is a sequel to this, and I've heard that "The Night Inspector" is quite good.
August 28, 2010
Overall, I just think I didn't really like the narrator of this book, and that's the real reason I didn't enjoy it. I loved that it was set at my alma mater, and I really wanted to love the whole book, since the author is a Colgate professor, but I just didn't enjoy reading it. I felt that the storyline would make great jumps in time without warning, and somehow we were always waiting for spring (hadn't months gone by?). He would say things like "I think I knew who was behind this" but not actually tell the reader what he was thinking! Come on! Give us some information, even if it's just your guess, man! I accept that the information about his daughter was something we had to earn, so we didn't learn about it until the very end, but anything about the missing girl he's trying to find: dude, we've been here with you the whole time, just tell me.
April 19, 2010
"I was also scared. I had forgotten what the weight of the .32 made me remember--the kind of power a weapon concentrates at the end of your arm. You move it, and you're Mrs. Tanner's heroic Lord. You make decisions. Let this person's chest be opened. Let there be bone fragments in the air. Let his chest breathe, sucking for air through the maroon spittle on his sternum. The fear of his face begins at the end of your arm with the gun's dead heaviness, and you're scared, too. I'd even liked the fear. I had enjoyed it more than I should have. His fear, my fear, the stink of our dry mouths in the back of his car, even the pain in my side and the heartbeat in my fingers, which brushed against the blue-black butt of the pistol. Where I'd gotten to was the cellar of the haunted house, and what was haunting it was me." (238)
September 28, 2019
I liked it, but I probably won't read another. As a mystery it's not too puzzling. The author flagged whodunnit well before the protagonist figured it out. The character was interesting up to a point. By the end I kind of had him figured out too. He's not that different from the good but broken man with a dark past in a lot of other books. Maybe better written than most. I think some of the books appeal was that in my youth I was one of those simple but good-hearted townies portrayed in the book (different college, but not too far from this one). OK, we weren't quite so rural.
October 29, 2014
This was the most introspective and... sedate? thriller I have ever read. So much takes place within the head of the narrator, but I still didn't always understand his motivation. The plot moved slowly, despite chunks of time being totally skipped over. I was intrigued by the portrayal of a relationship under serious strain, but the first person narration made me wish for the other side of the story. So, it was an okay read for me, but left me scratching my head a bit,
July 16, 2014
So, it's a book published in 94 about a group of people who were friends in high school twenty years ago. So, I ask you, why were they all in their fifties two years ago? And why was everyone driving a fifties car in 74?
I baffled.
Anyway, the first chapter has the abusive husband of one friend shot by the wife who's finally over it. the rest is just everyone blathering on.
I baffled.
Anyway, the first chapter has the abusive husband of one friend shot by the wife who's finally over it. the rest is just everyone blathering on.
September 26, 2011
This book was hard to follow for me. Because of the writing style, I found myself re-reading sentences and paragraphs just to get the tone right and really understand what he was talking about. I think the main character was supposed to be sarcastically witty, but it didn't get pulled off...and the wife, although going through a tragic pain..annoyed me.
November 25, 2020
I’ve read a lot of Frederick Busch. Some of its really good, and sometimes his characters are just so breathtakingly real it blows you away. This was one of those. I think the Night Inspector was the same way for me.
Yes...he has one stereotypical male character he uses over and over. But sometimes it really works. This was worth it.
Yes...he has one stereotypical male character he uses over and over. But sometimes it really works. This was worth it.
August 30, 2017
couldn't finish it. stopped 100 pages in. story doesnt grab me.
May 1, 2018
dnf. Disheveled writing and agonizingly slow plot. After 100 pages, I questioned why I'm spending time on a book that makes me cringe. Life is too short for slow books.
January 2, 2019
Somewhat of a bore. Too many characters, confusing dialogues between all these characters. The attempt at the plot was commendable, but just missed the mark. Don't waste your time.
July 22, 2020
149 pages is as far as I could go. What a disappointing protagonist: cheating on his wife, beating on college-aged children and overall serving as quite a self righteous loser. He makes his self deprecating jokes seem so forced. Busch is trying too hard, Jack is trying too hard. His character is meant to be effortless, witty, biting. Instead, Jack and his ego are forced upon us, a muscle being flexed constantly.
I am in disbelief that Busch passed by the obvious choice to make Jack an emotionally complex and involved character, given his family’s current circumstance, having lost his first child. Jack cries onto his wife’s shoulder in the kitchen, a real opportune moment to begin unlocking some emotional intelligence for Jack. Nope. I’m sure Busch was attempting at this complexity when he included Archie, the therapist. But Jack doesn’t take his therapy much deeper and remains quite flat and unavailable to the reader. I believe that a protagonist who I do not like or agree with can still be engaging with better writing and planning.
I always finish books. This one was simply bad, a waste of time. 149 pages, ugh.
I am in disbelief that Busch passed by the obvious choice to make Jack an emotionally complex and involved character, given his family’s current circumstance, having lost his first child. Jack cries onto his wife’s shoulder in the kitchen, a real opportune moment to begin unlocking some emotional intelligence for Jack. Nope. I’m sure Busch was attempting at this complexity when he included Archie, the therapist. But Jack doesn’t take his therapy much deeper and remains quite flat and unavailable to the reader. I believe that a protagonist who I do not like or agree with can still be engaging with better writing and planning.
I always finish books. This one was simply bad, a waste of time. 149 pages, ugh.
February 23, 2024
I’ve had this book for a while, having picked it up because it takes place in Upstate New York, and just never felt like it was the right time to read it. After a series of exceedingly cold days in my corner of Upstate New York, it felt like I should pick it up.
I generally love slow-moving, meditative books. However, in order to make a slow-moving book feel compelling, the writing has to be excellent. This writing was not. It wasn’t “bad,” but it certainly wasn’t enough to carry the whole story.
I didn’t end up liking any of the characters, but was mainly bothered by how it felt like the author /wanted/ me to like the main character. Why should I empathize with a university cop who abuses his power? Additionally, some of the thoughts this character had were uncomfortable, and not in a way that advanced the plot. I had trouble believing some of his actions and his relationships with other characters, which again speaks to the writing quality.
It wasn’t terrible, but I don’t think I’ll be reading another book by this author. I’m forgetting the story even as I type this review.
I generally love slow-moving, meditative books. However, in order to make a slow-moving book feel compelling, the writing has to be excellent. This writing was not. It wasn’t “bad,” but it certainly wasn’t enough to carry the whole story.
I didn’t end up liking any of the characters, but was mainly bothered by how it felt like the author /wanted/ me to like the main character. Why should I empathize with a university cop who abuses his power? Additionally, some of the thoughts this character had were uncomfortable, and not in a way that advanced the plot. I had trouble believing some of his actions and his relationships with other characters, which again speaks to the writing quality.
It wasn’t terrible, but I don’t think I’ll be reading another book by this author. I’m forgetting the story even as I type this review.
June 1, 2017
Intense, disturbing and brilliant. 4 1/2 stars, really.
One item of note...Busch's characterization of the dog, the ever-present unnamed dog, was exceptional. If you live with dogs, you will see the truth and beauty of this dog as supporting character. I have been thinking over the past couple of days why the author would emphasize the dog, even though he is never called by name in the story. I think the main character needs someone who loves him unconditionally for him to continue onward in his search to mend his marriage and find a missing girl. He is so emotionally closed, he can't say the dog's name (he can barely say his daughter's name or the professor's name). He must have someone in the story who doesn't care. Brilliantly played.
The more I mull this story in my head, the more I think it's a 5
One item of note...Busch's characterization of the dog, the ever-present unnamed dog, was exceptional. If you live with dogs, you will see the truth and beauty of this dog as supporting character. I have been thinking over the past couple of days why the author would emphasize the dog, even though he is never called by name in the story. I think the main character needs someone who loves him unconditionally for him to continue onward in his search to mend his marriage and find a missing girl. He is so emotionally closed, he can't say the dog's name (he can barely say his daughter's name or the professor's name). He must have someone in the story who doesn't care. Brilliantly played.
The more I mull this story in my head, the more I think it's a 5
October 30, 2019
For years I have seen Frederick Busch books on bookstore and library shelves and never thought to read him. So this novel, picked up by chance from my daughter's extensive book collection, came as a pleasant surprise despite its being on 2 tough subjects: the death of a baby daughter and the disappearance of a young girl. Busch is a smart, feeling writer. His protagonist, a campus cop at a NY state college, is a smart feeling man, a father who has lost his baby daughter and as a result his wife. He is asked by the college psychiatrist to do some checking up on the disappearance of a 14 year old girl which he tries to do while being campus cop. A very moving double mystery. Frederick Busch is a fine writer, the dialog is original, the characters true. An excellent novel.
December 18, 2022
Campus security, Jack who is a military veteran, gets drawn into helping a local family investigate the disappearance of their young daughter.
Jack and his wife Fanny are grieving the loss of their own infant daughter and are holding on to their marriage by a thread. Fanny is a nurse at the local hospital and takes the night shift in order to give them both breathing room. Their dog is the glue that keeps them bonded and talking.
The investigation takes place during the harsh winter months, an environment that forces stoicism and discipline to survive within the small college town. This provides Jack and Fanny a period of time to divert their emotions from their daughters death, until they realize they have to acknowledge the pain or go their separate ways.
Jack and his wife Fanny are grieving the loss of their own infant daughter and are holding on to their marriage by a thread. Fanny is a nurse at the local hospital and takes the night shift in order to give them both breathing room. Their dog is the glue that keeps them bonded and talking.
The investigation takes place during the harsh winter months, an environment that forces stoicism and discipline to survive within the small college town. This provides Jack and Fanny a period of time to divert their emotions from their daughters death, until they realize they have to acknowledge the pain or go their separate ways.
April 20, 2024
This is a very dark and melancholic novel with two main plots, both involving Jack, who is a campus security guard freelancing looking for the kidnapper or killer of 14-year-old Janice Tanner, whose mother is dying of cancer, and he is also the husband of Fanny and the father of Hannah, their daughter who died as an infant, and there is murkiness around that death. There's a lot of violence, some of it "real" and more of it imagined by Jack. There's also a dog, Fanny and Jack's dog, who is prominent in the story. I found the pacing slow, definitely too slow in places, and yet it seems appropriate in some ways to the desolation of the plot and the torture that is Jack's mind.
May 11, 2018
Professor Fred Busch taught at Colgate while I was a student, before his literary talent emerged in full. This book is "set" at Colgate, although the names of school and some of the towns have been changed. Literary noir, as bleak and cold as an upstate New York winter, about a campus security officer roped into helping a couple whose 14 year old daughter has gone missing, because he too lost a daughter. I appreciated the reference to Wampsville, as it brought back warm feelings about my days as a part-time amateur bail bondsman.
September 22, 2018
The loss of his infant daughter and the resulting unraveling marriage, are the catalyst for Jack to try to recover other girls who are lost: girls whose faces show up on bulletin boards, telephone poles and milk cartons. Jack becomes obsessed with a case: a missing 14 year old the daughter of a local minister and his terminally ill wife. It's an interesting story; part detective story; part the story of the inner workings of a beleaguered mind. There's a lot going on in this quick read. Set in Upstate New York again. My Upstate friends might find it particularly interesting.
July 14, 2020
Hard-boiled, backchat writing in a tragedy about grief and marriage and dogs and protecting the young and foolish student, the daughter, the wife, at the expense of the self. There are multiple mysteries here, with the splashier one being quite secondary and functioning as a facet of the equally devastating primary one. So very different from my first read by this author, The Night Inspector. I’m looking forward to finding out if he did even more genre and style hopping in other books.
January 7, 2021
This book left me feeling bleak, depressed, angry and confused. It was trying to do a lot of *literary* things, but I think they fell flat. I only cared about the dog. The affair infuriated me. I felt like the resolution was rushed, while other parts dragged on... I get that there’s a lot of meaning behind Jack protecting the college students because he couldn’t save his daughter... but again. Fell flat.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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