War Babies

by Frederick Busch

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.

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

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

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peters father was convicted of treason. Peter didn’t get to know his father so he searches out people who served with him. He finds Hilary, the daughter of the hero of the group. The narrative is confusing, a lot is left unsaid. Scenic descriptions are the bright spot of the book. There are allusions to Thomas Hardy unfortunately I don’t remember enough about his novels to gain anything from the comments.

[Annie M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost half way through and I've gone from 2 stars to 4 out of 5. The more I get to know these characters the more I appreciate the book.

The first scene with Peter and his mother was quite confusing yet intriguing at the same time. You know when you've dropped into a conversation between two people who have known each other for a long time? There's a secret language, specific references completely unique to them, that you will never really understand. This is the feeling I got from both Peter and his mother, and also strangely between Peter and Hilary. Even though they had just met, I got the underlying feeling that there was a mutually shared pain and sadness. The strange, disjointed and choppy (as Serena described it) conversations between Peter and Hilary at first were confusing. But then I started reading between the lines, it wasn't so much as what was actually said but the strange way it was expressed - going from blunt and to the point, then straight to random trivia, and even the quickness of them sleeping together. Nothing seems to be said yet everything is said (just not in the way convention would allow). I've known a few people like this in my time, so maybe if you've never met anyone like these characters, they would just confound you!

Some will find the characters hard to read and even harder to sympathize with. But for me, these are the most interesting characters because everything isn't always revealed directly, and they don't fit neatly into a 'likeable' two dimensional character (everyone has a dark side!). Busch seems to know people very well, maybe too well.

I feel this is an emotional book. I'm not sure how to describe it or if that even makes any sense. What people say literally isn't necessarily in sync with what they feel. All three seem to be lost and wondering souls. Fox has given in to his demons and, I would say, is a product of his time. I thought Hilary was a lot older than Peter, but maybe that's because her experiences have made her cynical of the world and that pain she's been carrying around has aged her. Peter seems on the surface less affected, but is still troubled by the shadow of his father. I think the way he is almost led by Hilary, in conversation and into bed reveals he is vulnerable. But it is mutual, and I think Peter knows it deep down. I liked the playful tete-a-tete they had in the garden, they almost seemed like an old married couple!

The 'mystery' of what exactly happened in Korea is almost secondary to how these characters are coping with the aftermath. These are the war babies after all, and even Fox had to come back and live his life forever changed by his experience.

Looking forward to seeing where this is going...

[Timothy Bazzett · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Krystal EVHS Tran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that this book was going to be quite interesting when I started to read it, but it became a very confusing for me. There is some sexual content within the book. When the characters started to talk about the lives of those involved in the Korean War, I wasn't able to keep up with what they were saying. As the story was ending, so many things were going on that I got lost. I read this book for my research project about the Korean War. I wouldn't really recommend this book. This book didn't really help me with the project.

[Meter]

Didn't care for this book.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was quite interesting. I got to learn a lot about the Korea War. This book helped me on my researched project.