Harry and
Catherine's romance isn't the kind you often see portrayed on screen.
They are in their 40s and not glamorous. Harry battles with his weight.
Catherine, who lives in the country, wears flannel shirts, grows her
own vegetables, and chops her own wood. She isn't sure whether she
wants to be tied down; instead of a happily ever after ending, we get
an ambiguous one.
They have a history with one another, and Harry never married because
he's loved Catherine since they were first together 12 years before. A
former journalist now working as a senator's aide, Harry seizes upon a
political issue — the construction of a parking lot might
pave over the graves of runaway slaves — as an excuse to
spend time near Catherine in upstate New York. Catherine, an art
dealer, is a single mother with two teenage sons and a lover, Carter,
the contractor for the parking lot.
Harry's arrival is a double whammy for Carter, displacing him from
Catherine's bed and threatening his livelihood. The Harry-Carter
rivalry is only a part of the story. Catherine's relationships with her
sons and Harry's careful approaches to the boys are insightfully
described as well. The characters are also revealed alone, and author
Frederick Busch manages sympathy even for Carter, whose callousness
about "black corpses rottin" could have made him odious.
Busch's nuanced prose relies on introspection, dialogue, and wit
rather than action. A kitchen, the center of domestic life, is the primary setting, the place where an
independent woman and a man trying mightily to make it work out this
time converse as they cook together and linger over meals.
Not as well know as many modern authors but admired by critics, Busch
produced more than two dozen books and many short stories, most of them
about family life. He died in 2006 at only 64.
.
Home
My
reviews
My
friends' reviews