Harry and Catherine: A Love Story

by Frederick Busch

Overview

"For years Frederick Busch has been at work on one of the most impressive bodies of American fiction."—Reynolds Price

Here is that rarest and most satisfying of books: a grown-up love story. Harry and Catherine have been falling in and out of love for many years. She is divorced, determinedly raising two sons, and running a small gallery in upstate New York. He is an ex-newspaperman, a wistful drifter, now assistant to a New York senator. After a long separation, Harry is assigned to find out whether a new shopping mall in Catherine's neighborhood will desecrate an historic black cemetery. Catherine is living with another man, a contractor for the mall who finds both his financial interests and his relationship with Catherine threatened by Harry. With penetrating acuity and generosity of spirit, one of our finest writers brings us what David Bradley calls "a book people will love and be proud of loving." "Unsuppressed emotion, painful honesty . . . all of it in the most lively and supple language anyone is writing today."—Rosellen Brown

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393320763
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/17/2000
Pages:	306
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

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.

Editorial Reviews

Fiercely independent divorcee Catherine is courted by her off-and-on lover of over a dozen years, Harry, as well as by a contractor with whom Harry has his differences. Although Busch has a ``tendency to overdo introspection and stint on action,'' said PW , this beguiling tale satisfies thanks to ``his sharp edge of humor, his skill with dialogue and his beautifully nuanced prose.'' (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Harry, a former journalist and poet, is now an aide to a liberal senator with higher political aspirations. Catherine is the owner of a small-town art gallery and the single parent of two teenaged sons. After 12 years these former lovers come together again when Harry travels to upstate New York to investigate a construction project that may disturb the bones of dead slaves. Since Catherine's current lover is a paving contractor involved in the project, the political conflict soon becomes a very personal one. Busch's treatment of love after 40 is both sensitive and highly entertaining. Through small gestures and brief bits of dialog, he skillfully reveals complex relationships. In the posturing of competing males and the bickering of smart-mouthed adolescents, he also provides much comedy. Among Busch's other highly regarded works is Sometimes I Live in the Country (LJ 5/1/86).-- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville

Library Journal