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Thanksgiving Night
Richard Bausch calls this, his tenth novel, "a love comedy with sorrows." The story is set in the small Virginia valley town of Point Royal, where several of Bausch's other novels and many of his stories take place. It is 1999; predictions of catastrophe blare on the radio, and religious fanaticism is everywhere on the rise. The millennium is approaching.
Oliver Ward and his divorced daughter, a young policewoman named Alison, and Oliver's two grandchildren become involved with Holly Grey and Holly's aunt Fiona, elderly ladies with a marked propensity for outlandish behavior. Holly's son, Will Butterfield, and Elizabeth, Will's second wife by that name, have been happily married for ten years but are about to discover how fragile happiness is.
And in the middle of all of them is an old priest, Father John Fire, who is a good man, thinking of leaving the priesthood. He is called "Brother Fire" by everyone who knows him, after the famous words of Saint Francis when confronted with the burning brand with which he would be martyred. Close to both Holly and Fiona, Brother Fire also has a part to play in the rapidly unfolding family drama.
Thanksgiving Night is a touching and empathetic portrayal of family—the one we have, and the ones we make. The people who populate these pages are flawed, wounded, stubborn, willful, scarred, often wildly eccentric, and all searching, in one way or another, for love.
Oliver Ward and his divorced daughter, a young policewoman named Alison, and Oliver's two grandchildren become involved with Holly Grey and Holly's aunt Fiona, elderly ladies with a marked propensity for outlandish behavior. Holly's son, Will Butterfield, and Elizabeth, Will's second wife by that name, have been happily married for ten years but are about to discover how fragile happiness is.
And in the middle of all of them is an old priest, Father John Fire, who is a good man, thinking of leaving the priesthood. He is called "Brother Fire" by everyone who knows him, after the famous words of Saint Francis when confronted with the burning brand with which he would be martyred. Close to both Holly and Fiona, Brother Fire also has a part to play in the rapidly unfolding family drama.
Thanksgiving Night is a touching and empathetic portrayal of family—the one we have, and the ones we make. The people who populate these pages are flawed, wounded, stubborn, willful, scarred, often wildly eccentric, and all searching, in one way or another, for love.
403 pages, Hardcover
First published October 3, 2006
62 people are currently reading
347 people want to read
About the author
Richard Bausch
92 books217 followersAn acknowledged master of the short story form, Richard Bausch's work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Harper's, The New Yorker, Narrative, Gentleman's Quarterly. Playboy, The Southern Review, New Stories From the South, The Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories, and The Pushcart Prize Stories; and they have been widely anthologized, including The Granta Book of the American Short Story and The Vintage Book of the Contemporary American Short Story.
Richard Bausch is the author of eleven novels and eight collections of stories, including the novels Rebel Powers, Violence, Good Evening Mr. & Mrs. America And All The Ships At Sea, In The Night Season, Hello To The Cannibals, Thanksgiving Night, and Peace; and the story collections Spirits, The Fireman's Wife, Rare & Endangered Species, Someone To Watch Over Me, The Stories of Richard Bausch, Wives & Lovers, and most recently released Something Is Out There. His novel The Last Good Time was made into a feature-length film.
He has won two National Magazine Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Fund Writer's Award, the Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The 2004 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story and the 2013 John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence . He has been a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers since 1996. In 1999 he signed on as co-editor, with RV Cassill, of The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction; since Cassill's passing in 2002, Bausch is the sole editor of that prestigious anthology. Richard Bausch teaches Creative Writing at Chapman University in Southern California
Richard Bausch is the author of eleven novels and eight collections of stories, including the novels Rebel Powers, Violence, Good Evening Mr. & Mrs. America And All The Ships At Sea, In The Night Season, Hello To The Cannibals, Thanksgiving Night, and Peace; and the story collections Spirits, The Fireman's Wife, Rare & Endangered Species, Someone To Watch Over Me, The Stories of Richard Bausch, Wives & Lovers, and most recently released Something Is Out There. His novel The Last Good Time was made into a feature-length film.
He has won two National Magazine Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Fund Writer's Award, the Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The 2004 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story and the 2013 John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence . He has been a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers since 1996. In 1999 he signed on as co-editor, with RV Cassill, of The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction; since Cassill's passing in 2002, Bausch is the sole editor of that prestigious anthology. Richard Bausch teaches Creative Writing at Chapman University in Southern California
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
November 30, 2018
Yes, I'm afraid I am one of THOSE people. I read horror books for Halloween, Christmas books in December, and I did indeed manage to finish this book on Thanksgving night. I will seek professional help soon.
This was an enjoyable book, peopled with many likeable characters. My favorite was Father Fire, a priest questioning his faith after hearing a parishoner's disturbing confession. He's also tormented by his housemate's hilariously awful poetry. (Best line - "Like running from a bull, with my eyes covered by wool.")
The characters deal with all things human - illness, abandonment, adultery, longing, and loneliness.
And of course, they all gather together for a feast, but deep resentments and a need for forgiveness keep the occasion from becoming too sentimental. All in all, a warm celebration of a holiday where everyone around the table becomes family, if only for one meal.
This was an enjoyable book, peopled with many likeable characters. My favorite was Father Fire, a priest questioning his faith after hearing a parishoner's disturbing confession. He's also tormented by his housemate's hilariously awful poetry. (Best line - "Like running from a bull, with my eyes covered by wool.")
The characters deal with all things human - illness, abandonment, adultery, longing, and loneliness.
And of course, they all gather together for a feast, but deep resentments and a need for forgiveness keep the occasion from becoming too sentimental. All in all, a warm celebration of a holiday where everyone around the table becomes family, if only for one meal.
March 30, 2009
Oy. Note to masters of short fiction everywhere: The novel and the short story are two entirely different crafts. Just because you write brilliant, sensitive stories don't think this gives you free reign to waste my time with two hundred odd pages of stilted, turgid rambling.
"Thanksgiving Night" tells the story of a kooky set of charachters living in suburban Virginia in 1999. (Bausch makes all kinds of presentiments about the zeitgeist of Y2K, Clinton scandal, etc. with absolutely zero follow-through.) The novel centers around the lives of two families. The Butterfields are an upper-middle-class family facing the typical trials and tribulations of the not-quite-rich. Will, the husband, was abandoned by his first wife when his children were small. He has found a kind of happiness with his second wife, Elizabeth, but something is still amiss. She works as an elementary school teacher and is burned out and somewhat dissatisfied with her hum-drum life and strained relationship with her (now grown) step-children. Will's response to his wife's ennui is typical of the disaffected-in-suburbia novel (and, actually to be honest, probably the real world): He has an affair with the crazy, bohemian bartender next door who is saddled with a drip of a husband and an insatiable (and obnoxious) joie de vivre. Add to the mix Will's near-senile mother and her equally nutso housemate/niece, who are always at each other's throats and decide to divide their house down the middle a la "I Love Lucy," and you have a regular ABC dramadey to be cancelled midseason in the making. Oliver Ward, the contracter hired to do work on the old ladies' house, and his family supply the "working class" prespective. He's a loveable aging drunk whose harried, hard-working cop daughter worries about him on top of paying bills, fussing over her kids, musing about her semi-deadbeat ex, and (of course) having the requisite awkward lesbian sexual encounter with her best friend.
Some of the plotlines are actually fun. Some of the characters are actually three dimensional and relatable. The real problem here is that the writing feels loose and diffuse. Bausch meanders for pages through dull, limbering descriptions of "settings" and entire chapters are devoted to "character development." So much of this novel feels like detailed notes for a well-crafted, insightful short story that it is almost comic. Stick to what you know, Bausch! To cop a turn of phrase as trite as the themes of this so-called novel, the only thing "Thanksgiving Night" left me thankful for was the fact that it was finally over.
"Thanksgiving Night" tells the story of a kooky set of charachters living in suburban Virginia in 1999. (Bausch makes all kinds of presentiments about the zeitgeist of Y2K, Clinton scandal, etc. with absolutely zero follow-through.) The novel centers around the lives of two families. The Butterfields are an upper-middle-class family facing the typical trials and tribulations of the not-quite-rich. Will, the husband, was abandoned by his first wife when his children were small. He has found a kind of happiness with his second wife, Elizabeth, but something is still amiss. She works as an elementary school teacher and is burned out and somewhat dissatisfied with her hum-drum life and strained relationship with her (now grown) step-children. Will's response to his wife's ennui is typical of the disaffected-in-suburbia novel (and, actually to be honest, probably the real world): He has an affair with the crazy, bohemian bartender next door who is saddled with a drip of a husband and an insatiable (and obnoxious) joie de vivre. Add to the mix Will's near-senile mother and her equally nutso housemate/niece, who are always at each other's throats and decide to divide their house down the middle a la "I Love Lucy," and you have a regular ABC dramadey to be cancelled midseason in the making. Oliver Ward, the contracter hired to do work on the old ladies' house, and his family supply the "working class" prespective. He's a loveable aging drunk whose harried, hard-working cop daughter worries about him on top of paying bills, fussing over her kids, musing about her semi-deadbeat ex, and (of course) having the requisite awkward lesbian sexual encounter with her best friend.
Some of the plotlines are actually fun. Some of the characters are actually three dimensional and relatable. The real problem here is that the writing feels loose and diffuse. Bausch meanders for pages through dull, limbering descriptions of "settings" and entire chapters are devoted to "character development." So much of this novel feels like detailed notes for a well-crafted, insightful short story that it is almost comic. Stick to what you know, Bausch! To cop a turn of phrase as trite as the themes of this so-called novel, the only thing "Thanksgiving Night" left me thankful for was the fact that it was finally over.
December 18, 2014
Usually when I read a novel, no matter how fine it is, I want to "get through it," and to get on to the next book on my "to read" list. I do not know why this is so, but it is. Strange, since reading novels is purely recreational for me. Why do I want the experience to be done with, over, accomplished? To check the book off the list...
Along comes Thanksgiving Night, a book I never planned to read. I visited our local library, with its limited collection, and as it happened, nothing caught my eye. As I've been planning to read Bausch's newest book (Before, During, After), when I saw a worn copy of Thanksgiving Night on the shelf, I picked it up..."ok, let's give this a try." And so I found myself in Point Royal, Virginia, in 1999. A small town. Ordinary human problems. Nobody I can really "identify with." And yet, I loved reading about them.
The old priest, "Brother Fire," struggling to maintain a priestly detachment in the confessional...the bookstore owner, Will Butterfield, who cannot say "no" when his life and marriage turn on his ability to summon a strong will...the handy man Oliver Ward, who cannot quite keep himself from embarrassing his police-officer daughter by winding up in the drunk tank...the two old ladies, Holly and Fiona (a/k/a the "Crazies"), who love life and both love and hate one another...well, if you like "ordinary" (albeit eccentric) people, read the book and meet them.
The varied posted Goodreads reviews of Thanksgiving Night make it clear that this book is not for everyone. I've heard the book described as "old-fashioned." Maybe it is. Lovely prose descriptions, plenty of dialogue, chronological presentation, all leading to a climax in the event proclaimed in the title, Thanksgiving night.
Some say the book is too much like a bunch of short stories, bundled together. I strongly disagree with that critique - to the contrary, the connections among the characters and story lines are well established. The humor is wonderful - especially that surrounding the relationship between Brother Fire and his naive curate, Father McFadden.
My recommendation - if you want to read this book, read through at least the first three chapters or so. Do not quit after the first chapter - that is not enough to provide a "taste" of what the book will be. But after three or so, if you hate it, put it down. If you like it, keep going and maybe, like me, you will find a book to savor, not just to "finish."
Along comes Thanksgiving Night, a book I never planned to read. I visited our local library, with its limited collection, and as it happened, nothing caught my eye. As I've been planning to read Bausch's newest book (Before, During, After), when I saw a worn copy of Thanksgiving Night on the shelf, I picked it up..."ok, let's give this a try." And so I found myself in Point Royal, Virginia, in 1999. A small town. Ordinary human problems. Nobody I can really "identify with." And yet, I loved reading about them.
The old priest, "Brother Fire," struggling to maintain a priestly detachment in the confessional...the bookstore owner, Will Butterfield, who cannot say "no" when his life and marriage turn on his ability to summon a strong will...the handy man Oliver Ward, who cannot quite keep himself from embarrassing his police-officer daughter by winding up in the drunk tank...the two old ladies, Holly and Fiona (a/k/a the "Crazies"), who love life and both love and hate one another...well, if you like "ordinary" (albeit eccentric) people, read the book and meet them.
The varied posted Goodreads reviews of Thanksgiving Night make it clear that this book is not for everyone. I've heard the book described as "old-fashioned." Maybe it is. Lovely prose descriptions, plenty of dialogue, chronological presentation, all leading to a climax in the event proclaimed in the title, Thanksgiving night.
Some say the book is too much like a bunch of short stories, bundled together. I strongly disagree with that critique - to the contrary, the connections among the characters and story lines are well established. The humor is wonderful - especially that surrounding the relationship between Brother Fire and his naive curate, Father McFadden.
My recommendation - if you want to read this book, read through at least the first three chapters or so. Do not quit after the first chapter - that is not enough to provide a "taste" of what the book will be. But after three or so, if you hate it, put it down. If you like it, keep going and maybe, like me, you will find a book to savor, not just to "finish."
February 27, 2014
I am giving this book zero stars. It was a boring and regrettable waste of my time. I don't know why I slogged through 'til the end but I wouldn't want any of my loved ones or friends to do the same. His "Out of Season" book was great and "Hole in the Earth" was pretty good but stay away from Thanksgiving Night. It's even more boring than its title.
May 15, 2012
I'm not quite sure what to think of this book. It was basically 400 pages of family members being crappy to each-other. I was physically stressed out by the end. On the other hand, it was well written. So I guess if you like that kind of story, I'd recommend this book.
November 24, 2023
Strange read. Almost like mini stories with a tiny thread interlocking them...also like 350 pages of backstory to get to the Thankgiving part 🤷♀️
December 13, 2025
I read this in two parts. It took me 21 days to read the first half (over 200 pages). When my library loan was up, I couldn't renew as there was actually a waitlist of this book. I put myself back on the waitlist and read another book in the meantime. The second half of this book went SO MUCH FASTER than the first half.
I had been searching for a Thanksgiving book that was neither a murder mystery nor a children's book. This was one of the few books that fit that bill.
HOWEVER!!!
This was a very strange story. There were several sets of characters whose storylines finally intersected one Thanksgiving night. These were not happy people, and this was not an uplifting story. As a matter of fact, the ending felt really unfinished. And not in a way that you might expect a sequel. It felt like the author just lost interest and wrapped things up. Not a colossal waste of time, but certainly not a book I would recommend.
I had been searching for a Thanksgiving book that was neither a murder mystery nor a children's book. This was one of the few books that fit that bill.
HOWEVER!!!
This was a very strange story. There were several sets of characters whose storylines finally intersected one Thanksgiving night. These were not happy people, and this was not an uplifting story. As a matter of fact, the ending felt really unfinished. And not in a way that you might expect a sequel. It felt like the author just lost interest and wrapped things up. Not a colossal waste of time, but certainly not a book I would recommend.
January 3, 2015
This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland
Thanksgiving Night was my second Thanksgiving book I was going to read and well...I just couldn't finish it. It is not like it was absolutely terrible and I hated it per say. It is more that I found it really boring I would fall asleep trying to read it. I will not give up on a book until I have read at least half of it, and this book being 400 pages I read over 200 before it was due back at the library and I just had to call it quits. It was taking me forever to get anywhere in it, though I don't think it was a terrible book. The writing was fine and everything. It was just, as I said, a bit boring to me.
Part of the problem with this book? I didn't like any of the characters. I really didn't like the crazies, Holly & Fiona, and got tired of reading about them fighting. It was tedious and I just didn't care. Really I wanted everyone to just leave them and not give them the attention they are looking for. Will and Elizabeth should just not answer the phone or go over when they are arguing, which is always. It just...I didn't understand. I didn't like them and it made me tired reading their same nonsense over and over and over again. Elizabeth is starting to tire of them, but I would have not been able to put up with it as long as she has.
Then you have Oliver who makes lots of poor decisions. He can't seem to not drink too much then drive even though he doesn't really seem to be an alcoholic or anything. His daughter is not very happy, Father Fire is not very happy, really no one in the story is very happy. They are all a mess, unhappy, and not great people. It just seems to go on and on and on and nothing really happens. Or it does, but it is written in such a way that I don't really care much. Like Will cheating, or contemplating, cheating on his wife. Or the teacher who reaches out to Father Fire for his issues. Or anything that was part of the plot in the first half. I did look at some other reviews to see if it seemed to get better, but based on them it sounds like the same thing for another 200 pages so I called it quits.
Then my other issue? There is a lot of drinking and driving in the book. There is one scene that I think is supposed to be humorous, but I didn't find it funny at all. Really drunk driving is not funny to me ever. I have lost people to drunk drivers so that is just a super definite no go for me. The story is retold of when Fiona drove to the bar and had a few drinks, too many to be able to drive home. She tries to be more responsible and gets a ride with someone else, only he has had too much to drink as well. Somehow, while driving home, the car goes off the road and flying into a tree and lands in said tree upside down. They found Fiona and the guy just sitting strapped into the seat upside down and asleep. No one was seriously injured which is great, but it seemed like it was supposed to be comical and I just can't. There is just too much drinking and driving in this book for me. Really once is too much, but to have the characters keep doing it? Not cool.
So even with all of this (not liking the characters, the story being boring, tedious, and seemingly nothing important happening, the drunk driving) I still didn't hate the book. I just couldn't seem to make my way through it in the 3 weeks I had to read it. And it is not good enough for me to want to wait to check it out again to finish it. It's alright, but I am fine not finishing it.
Thanksgiving Night was my second Thanksgiving book I was going to read and well...I just couldn't finish it. It is not like it was absolutely terrible and I hated it per say. It is more that I found it really boring I would fall asleep trying to read it. I will not give up on a book until I have read at least half of it, and this book being 400 pages I read over 200 before it was due back at the library and I just had to call it quits. It was taking me forever to get anywhere in it, though I don't think it was a terrible book. The writing was fine and everything. It was just, as I said, a bit boring to me.
Part of the problem with this book? I didn't like any of the characters. I really didn't like the crazies, Holly & Fiona, and got tired of reading about them fighting. It was tedious and I just didn't care. Really I wanted everyone to just leave them and not give them the attention they are looking for. Will and Elizabeth should just not answer the phone or go over when they are arguing, which is always. It just...I didn't understand. I didn't like them and it made me tired reading their same nonsense over and over and over again. Elizabeth is starting to tire of them, but I would have not been able to put up with it as long as she has.
Then you have Oliver who makes lots of poor decisions. He can't seem to not drink too much then drive even though he doesn't really seem to be an alcoholic or anything. His daughter is not very happy, Father Fire is not very happy, really no one in the story is very happy. They are all a mess, unhappy, and not great people. It just seems to go on and on and on and nothing really happens. Or it does, but it is written in such a way that I don't really care much. Like Will cheating, or contemplating, cheating on his wife. Or the teacher who reaches out to Father Fire for his issues. Or anything that was part of the plot in the first half. I did look at some other reviews to see if it seemed to get better, but based on them it sounds like the same thing for another 200 pages so I called it quits.
Then my other issue? There is a lot of drinking and driving in the book. There is one scene that I think is supposed to be humorous, but I didn't find it funny at all. Really drunk driving is not funny to me ever. I have lost people to drunk drivers so that is just a super definite no go for me. The story is retold of when Fiona drove to the bar and had a few drinks, too many to be able to drive home. She tries to be more responsible and gets a ride with someone else, only he has had too much to drink as well. Somehow, while driving home, the car goes off the road and flying into a tree and lands in said tree upside down. They found Fiona and the guy just sitting strapped into the seat upside down and asleep. No one was seriously injured which is great, but it seemed like it was supposed to be comical and I just can't. There is just too much drinking and driving in this book for me. Really once is too much, but to have the characters keep doing it? Not cool.
So even with all of this (not liking the characters, the story being boring, tedious, and seemingly nothing important happening, the drunk driving) I still didn't hate the book. I just couldn't seem to make my way through it in the 3 weeks I had to read it. And it is not good enough for me to want to wait to check it out again to finish it. It's alright, but I am fine not finishing it.
July 30, 2011
I enjoyed Richard Bausch's short stories immensely. He is a true master at capturing the moments of grace and humanity in true-to-life situations and presenting that slice of life within a short story.
Sadly this does not translate well into a more prolonged form like this novel. There were many characters jostling to take centre stage in this book, and they look interesting enough to be expanded on, and the end result is dispersed bits and storylines that try to weave themselves together.
There is the pair of eccentric old ladies who cannot live with or without the other, unaffectionately called the Crazies by one of the ladies' son, Will Butterfield, a bookstore owner who has a seemingly perfect marriage with school teacher Elizabeth at the beginning of the novel. Oliver Ward, a building contractor and his single-parent/police officer daughter Alison. Throw in a disillusioned priest who is an old friend of the old ladies, and Butterfield's discontented children from his previous marriage, a mysterious sexy new neighbor who tempts straight-laced Will, and you have the beginnings of a middle-class neighborhood soap opera about suburban discontent that culminate in some denouement in the Thanksgiving scene.
The predictability of the plot is somewhat salvaged by the fine writing, and the descriptions of the neighborhood that sets the scene for each part of the novel (demarcated by the months leading up to Nov of 1999). The premise of the approaching catastrophic millennium is hinted at and then clumsily abandoned, which makes one feel Bausch shouldn't try to do a DeLillo.
A pity, because this novel would have done well if they were short stories that examined the lives of some of these characters or showed a part of their lives. The whole, alas, is less than the sum of its parts for this novel.
Sadly this does not translate well into a more prolonged form like this novel. There were many characters jostling to take centre stage in this book, and they look interesting enough to be expanded on, and the end result is dispersed bits and storylines that try to weave themselves together.
There is the pair of eccentric old ladies who cannot live with or without the other, unaffectionately called the Crazies by one of the ladies' son, Will Butterfield, a bookstore owner who has a seemingly perfect marriage with school teacher Elizabeth at the beginning of the novel. Oliver Ward, a building contractor and his single-parent/police officer daughter Alison. Throw in a disillusioned priest who is an old friend of the old ladies, and Butterfield's discontented children from his previous marriage, a mysterious sexy new neighbor who tempts straight-laced Will, and you have the beginnings of a middle-class neighborhood soap opera about suburban discontent that culminate in some denouement in the Thanksgiving scene.
The predictability of the plot is somewhat salvaged by the fine writing, and the descriptions of the neighborhood that sets the scene for each part of the novel (demarcated by the months leading up to Nov of 1999). The premise of the approaching catastrophic millennium is hinted at and then clumsily abandoned, which makes one feel Bausch shouldn't try to do a DeLillo.
A pity, because this novel would have done well if they were short stories that examined the lives of some of these characters or showed a part of their lives. The whole, alas, is less than the sum of its parts for this novel.
November 19, 2016
When I first started reading this, I thought I was going to like it. I was a fan of the movies that came out in the late 80's, early 90's that had little sub-stories that connected all of the stories together somehow. I think the one I like the most was called $20 or something like that. It basically followed this $20 bill around and there was a story for each time it transferred hands. I thought this was going to be something like that.
I was probably a third of the way through when I figured out this was not a plot driven book but more of a slice of time in the day to day life of the characters in this town.
The characters were all connected, but really, they were all connected. They weren't loosely connected, but for the most part there was very real interaction between them.
So now we have these characters. For the most part, few of their actions seemed based in reality. The cop in particular seemed to be making all sorts of choices that didn't seem logical for a single mother, police officer.
In the end, my favorite character was at the end of the book. The last chapter brings in a new character for a scene - the Sikh who talks with the priest about God. It was the most meaningful exchange in the whole book for me and it amounted to 2 pages. Two out of 403.
I was probably a third of the way through when I figured out this was not a plot driven book but more of a slice of time in the day to day life of the characters in this town.
The characters were all connected, but really, they were all connected. They weren't loosely connected, but for the most part there was very real interaction between them.
So now we have these characters. For the most part, few of their actions seemed based in reality. The cop in particular seemed to be making all sorts of choices that didn't seem logical for a single mother, police officer.
In the end, my favorite character was at the end of the book. The last chapter brings in a new character for a scene - the Sikh who talks with the priest about God. It was the most meaningful exchange in the whole book for me and it amounted to 2 pages. Two out of 403.
November 27, 2015
On the back of this book, Bausch's writing is compared to that of Raymond Carver, and I can see that as a valid comparison. The characters, like Carver's, are not ones with which the reader can form attachments. They are flawed, and this book is really a story of how relationships don't quite work, like spluttering, misfiring engines that manage to run, but the trip with them isn't pretty, efficient, or elegant. The novel's conclusion is more of a stopping point than an ending to the story.
The writing is not, as described on the book cover, minimalist. The prose flows well, but this is not a quick read. At almost 400 pages, it required some time for me. It wasn't a work that I didn't want to put down, and I didn't find myself wanting to read large chunks at a time. I didn't find the situation with the "Crazies" as humorous as I thought it might be. The relationships between characters were all pretty depressing, and there was little levity to break the mood.
Overall, not a holiday book.
The writing is not, as described on the book cover, minimalist. The prose flows well, but this is not a quick read. At almost 400 pages, it required some time for me. It wasn't a work that I didn't want to put down, and I didn't find myself wanting to read large chunks at a time. I didn't find the situation with the "Crazies" as humorous as I thought it might be. The relationships between characters were all pretty depressing, and there was little levity to break the mood.
Overall, not a holiday book.
November 28, 2014
Bausch's characters are both believable and engaging, and the quiet weaving together of their stories is masterful in Thanksgiving Night. From the comical to the heartbreaking, the mundane to the crazy, the book creates a peak into another small world, and it becomes more and more compelling as it moves forward. For some, the book's subjects might be too ordinary, too centered on the day-to-day living of people who may as well be our neighbors or even ourselves, but Bausch's powers of language and description are beautiful enough that this becomes one of those books which uncovers the extraordinariness of emotions we might otherwise overlook as too average for thought, if not our own. He is a master of prose and creation, and this book is a wonderful excursion.
Recommended.
Recommended.
November 15, 2023
I just couldn't with this book. I felt lost from the very beginning, and just as I felt I was actually getting into it, and getting to know the characters, it went back to feeling off. It was like 3 or 4 mini-stories in one, which made it a bit hard to follow in my opinion. I would have been happy if the author would have just focused on Butterfield and his family issues. Also, what was the point of throwing in the gay daughter??!! I mean, it was talked about for probably a total of one page (spread out over more than that), but for what reason? It dropped out of the story as fast as it was brought in.
I could go on, but won't. I guess this one just wasn't for me.
I could go on, but won't. I guess this one just wasn't for me.
November 21, 2014
I really struggled with this book. It seems to come from the worst of the Literary Novel tradition of having all of the main characters wallowing.... wallowing in their own misery and/or causing misery to others. I kept waiting for it to get better, and it never did. There were a few moments of hopeful thoughts expressed by some of the characters at the end, almost the last few pages, in fact, but it was hardly to be believed.
December 1, 2011
Are you kidding me? Did I really pick a book simply because it has the word Thanksgiving in the title? Yes, I did. Ugh. This book defines the two-star rating label "It was OK". Funny at times, touching at others.. the rest of the time is spent bored out of your gourd. I'll be finished on Thanksgiving Day and I doubt my review will change at all. Update: My review did not change in the slightest.
March 7, 2018
This book was a hot mess. I don't think that I liked any of the characters. I only chose this book to read as it was considered to as a book club book. This book took me three months to read. I wish that I could stop reading a book if it doesn't appeal to me but I can't. I have to see if there is any redeeming qualities to the book. Sadly, this was not the case.
August 10, 2008
This book had the potential of being a great story and it had really likeable characters, but in the first eigth of the book it about 30 swear words, sex scenes, gay scenes, and a lot of alcohol and drug use. I threw this book away.
November 13, 2010
I just couldn't read this book...made it to 100 and some odd pages and began to wonder why I was reading it...so I quit
November 14, 2013
I could not get into this book. The first 80 pages are going nowhere, and doing it incredibly slowly. Maybe it gets better, but I'm not going to find out.
Life is too short to read cruddy books.
Life is too short to read cruddy books.
November 24, 2025
seems to play on people's weakness. a bit confusing jumps around alot.some of characters were interesting
May 14, 2018
Put this one off for nearly a year. In the end I really enjoyed it. Complicated relationships, eccentricity and the occasional chuckle.
December 30, 2014
Will and second wife Elizabeth appear to have a near perfect marriage. Holly and Fiona are The Crazies - respectively, Will's mother and great aunt who live together, bicker constantly and drive Will and Elizabeth to distraction. Holly's friend, Father Fire is beginning to doubt his faith and ability to help people. The arrival of new neighbours bring change and tension to Will and Elizabeth's relationship. Divorced Alison lives with her father and two children, battling to overcome the loneliness in her life. Over the course of a year events bring these people together, and Bausch is brilliant in writing of their defining moments. His account of a disastrous dinner party Will and Elizabeth throw for their neighbours is mesmerizing. you have a sense of impending disaster and part of you inwardly cringes at the sheer awfulness of the situation, but you're glued to the page and can't stop reading. About half way through this book, Will, whose life is unravelling asks How does a man whose life, as far as he can see, is quite smooth and even happy, come to such a pass? This marvellous book is a testament to the way apparently small ripples can create huge waves in the lives of basically good people
December 23, 2009
I thought this story was just fine. The characters and structure are too familiar and played out, but there's nothing particularly wrong with the story. It all takes place in some smallish town in Virginia and pulls a "Magnolia" where all the characters lives are intertwined. You have the crazy old ladies, their son who is having an affair with his unstable neighbor, his wife who teaches a boy at the school who is the son of a woman police officer, who has a dad who is working on the old ladies' house, etc etc. The synopsis on the book jacket makes it seem like there's supposed to be quite a bit of Y2K paranoia, but in reality, that aspect barely exists at all.
July 1, 2008
I recently found a list of writers my creative writing teacher handed out to my class back when I was in grad school, so I'm trying to go through the list. I'd maybe read a short story by Bausch before, but that was it.
He's a good, solid writer. In this book, there are a lot of balls in the air, and Bausch makes it look effortless. The story is told from five different points of view and there are several fully-dimensional secondary characters as well that leap off the pages. The story and conflicts felt true, and they were perfectly paced. I want to read more of Bausch's work.
He's a good, solid writer. In this book, there are a lot of balls in the air, and Bausch makes it look effortless. The story is told from five different points of view and there are several fully-dimensional secondary characters as well that leap off the pages. The story and conflicts felt true, and they were perfectly paced. I want to read more of Bausch's work.
December 6, 2010
The third star only comes because I stuck w/ the book out of respect for the author and eventually found some rewards, but the reader longs for a reward much sooner. Peeves: There's never an explanation for the irritating quarrelsomeness of Fiona and Holly; three characters' names are pronounced differently from their spelling; everyone kisses and strokes loved ones' cheeks way too many times, let's find another way of describing affection; the humor is not humorous. By the end, I was happy to be in the company of most of the characters if not all.
November 29, 2018
Never have I encountered so many run on sentences that, by the sheer nature of the author going on a new tangent with what seems like every third paragraph, because the nuance of the choice of words used to describe what in every means is just merely a common observation does the author showcase his extraordinary vocabulary in such a ways to make the reader want to skip pages to get to the actual action of the story. Having read the whole and complete story I am left with the feeling that the author does indubitably dislike people.
December 8, 2020
I read this book for my book club. It was selected for November because of the title. I was highly disappointed in the author’s writing style. As I described it to my husband, if he could use one word, then 3 must be better, why use 1 phrase when 5 fills out your word count, 1 sentence just isn’t enough to get your point across, why not turn every description into a paragraph!
When the author actually wrote dialogue, it was interesting and I enjoyed those parts, but outside of that, I slogged through.
When the author actually wrote dialogue, it was interesting and I enjoyed those parts, but outside of that, I slogged through.
March 10, 2021
"There's so much unexplained process in a hospital, so much surface matter that one is exposed to, it's like a laboratory for the production of paranoia."
This book was tedious -- one that felt twice as long as it was and yet should have been half of what it is. Looks like it took the author several years to finish, too.
Several times I considered skimming, since pretty much it was the same back and forth, no character development, with much so boring, and so much selfishness. The one line above was the only that meant anything to me.
This book was tedious -- one that felt twice as long as it was and yet should have been half of what it is. Looks like it took the author several years to finish, too.
Several times I considered skimming, since pretty much it was the same back and forth, no character development, with much so boring, and so much selfishness. The one line above was the only that meant anything to me.
November 19, 2009
Not horrible, but I agree with other reviewers that it definitely takes a long time to really get moving or grab your interest. Definitely almost entirely character development. Which is interesting to me, but...could have used some of those words to move the plot along. I do like his characters and the way he describes their thoughts and actions. Very deliberate. I like to read seasonal books. I'm a dork.
December 6, 2020
Slow start, got progressively worse as I read on. I had to keep reminding myself that one character wasn’t too bad, and another I did like but then forgot about him by the time he came back into the story. At one point it seemed like the author just decided to throw in a bunch of random words because he was aiming for a certain word count.
Contradicting details, cliché scenes, miserable people.
Contradicting details, cliché scenes, miserable people.
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