In this book, Frederick Busch once again shows an incredible mastery of the short story as a vehicle to convey the deepest and most intimate personal feelings, even through the ephemeral nature of a short story as opposed to a novel. Yet, Busch has a talent shown by only a few present day short story writers. His ability to convey human feeling and emotion with the most elegant constructions is clearly demonstrated with this collection.

The intensity with which Busch presents his emotionality is enhanced by his incredibly insightful portrayal of the processes of the human mind. His stories are so rich with the deepest of our hidden thoughts that they become almost palpable. In these stories, Busch portrays highly intelligent people working with personal intimacies that are highly personal, yet so universal at the same time.

Particularly attractive is his "novella" in the book, "Handbook For Spies." Not only is the story captivatingly well written, but it is a virtual social commentary beyond the basics of the plot he lays out. In addition, his implication seems to be, that in one way or another, we are all 'spies' in some sense or another, or at least we act like them. In an editorial moment, his comment that Philip Roth is "careless about his character's lives ... he's frivolous about them..." portrays an unusually striking ability for Busch to develop his characters in a more mature emotional manner than he feels that Roth does.

Any person who enjoys the short story genre will not be disappointed by this book by Busch. For those with a high level of sensitivity toward human introspection, this book is a true revelation.

[Note: This review was originally published October 15, 2000, in the Seattle Times ...

For a volume thick with stories, "Don't Tell Anyone" is a quietly ironic title. The characters talk -- to friends or strangers, to themselves, even to ghosts -- trying to make sense of things and relieve their isolation. Like the protagonist in the opening story, "Heads," the characters throughout Frederick Busch's 20th book of fiction are filled with "half-remembered words, tatters of statement, halves of stories, the litter of alibis, confessions, supplications, and demand."

Talking sometimes closes more doors than it opens, or taps into buried rages that erupt in threats of violence. As if improved expression could solve the problem, characters correct their own and each other's phrasing. But language has a life of its own, confusing and concealing even when a speaker is being careful or terribly honest, and what one tells oneself can be the most treacherous story of all. The title urges silence for strong reasons. Yet secrets cut the characters off from people they love, as well as from themselves.

Busch's world is problematic, but his stories awaken deep joy in the reader. In the gorgeous, heart-rending story "Malvasia," a woman brings all sorts of comforts to her recently widowed father, who wants nothing except to believe that when night falls his wife will greet him in the room they used to share. In "Timberline," the narrator's flashback to a dangerous hike with his father won't let the reader go, and this memory is only one dimension of his gripping present crisis. Some of an old man's haunting, half-realized wisdom in "Machias" comes from once having held together a broken telephone wire in a blizzard, so that a doctor could be called to help birth a baby. In the old man's recollection, the message passed through his veins.

Most of the stories are about the things that happen to everyone -- a love lost, a child in trouble, a parent understood -- but that never come with directions or guiding principles attached. The rules and regulations of bureaucracies, on the other hand, are plentiful.

In "The Baby in the Box," the legislature controls the police department budget, so the hapless and terrified night dispatcher at the station, Ivanhoe Krisp, is the only person available when a midnight caller says a newborn was left in a dumpster. Our hero has to ride a poorly maintained, not-at-all-trusty SUV through the darkness to the rescue, and his wrenching question at the end ("Who ' would throw a person away?") won't be answered by any bureaucrat.

Nor, apparently, by any God. The book's title could be a mischievous deity's instructions to the universe: Don't tell anyone what things mean. Don't even tell people who they are. Is Krisp a hero like the great Scots warrior Ivanhoe, or just a flaky snack for the hungry night? When the narrator in "Timberline" has an amazing conversation with a stranger, has his life changed, or hasn't it? "Nobody tells him which."

Sometimes knowledge arrives, although in bizarre forms. In "Bob's Your Uncle" a psychotic young man ("wily and odd-looking, very large and a little arrested-sounding, and coated with the grime of the world") drops in on long-ago friends of his parents and won't leave. His misery and menace become a coded message to the host about himself.

Busch's understanding and compassion are generous and energetic. So is his fascination with how life goes wrong and how irrationally, impossibly, we keep trying to make things right. Each of his very different characters speaks in a unique yet natural voice. His plots move like good horses with expert riders -- a touch here, a subtle shift of weight there -- through dauntingly broken terrain. His phrasing is often brilliant; his syntax does effortless heavy lifting; his humor is a constant, unexpected grace and delight.

"Don't Tell Anyone" is a hugely satisfying book, and its author (this isn't news, but do tell everyone) is a genius of a storyteller.

This collection of sixteen short stories and a novella is yet another first-rate effort by Frederick Busch. His characters have the kind of humanity that make them seem deeply real, with lives so flawlessly imagined that you can be swept away by them. Even if the short stories weren't so good (and believe me, they are excellent), it would be worth reading this book just for the novella "A Handbook for Spies." The longer format allows Busch to delve more thoroughly into his subject matter and characters, thus expanding the protagonist Willie's life in a way not possible in a short story. We are treated to Willie's loves, his fears, his peculiar relationship with his Holocaust survivor parents and their peculiar relationship, and what it all means to a man who escaped service in the Vietnam War.

Busch writes the kind of dialogue you might wish you encountered in your own conversations: sharp, witty, wise, intriguing. His language is impeccable, with descriptions so memorable I sometimes stopped reading in admiration, to savor the words. Busch can be as funny as he can be melancholy, and every last story in this book has tremendous emotional range.

I feel a little inadequate writing a review of this book - think of this as a letter of appreciation. I just completed reading these ten stories and found them all very touching and masterful. There is much here that I need to read again and consider more thoughtfully . It is a little scary to me that anyone can be as perceptive as this author. Certain things you can only see from certain angles, and you are almost surely never going to find those angles on your own... you need help. I felt closer to finding a path to some of those angles here. I read to learn and enjoy, but I am rarely able to learn and enjoy as much in one place as I did with this book. One thing that might improve the sale of this book would be to get rid of the stupid reference to Ernest Hemingway on the dust cover. In my mind, it created a false comparison. Frederick Busch's insights are much more humane and free than the dust jacket insight from Hemingway. Read this book.

"Ralph the Duck", the second item in ABSENT FRIENDS, is my favorite short story. This first-person account by a Vietnam veteran hooks the reader with a funny golden retriever who loves what makes him sick (Think about it). The narrator is a part-time college student, taking one free class a session in partial payment for his job as a security guard. He figures it'll take him sixteen years to graduate.
The story is heavily laced with irony in that the student tests the teacher. The narrator (I couldn't find a name) turns in a paper entitled "Ralph the Duck", which seems entirely inappropriate for an assignment in rhetoric and persuasion (You'll need to read the story several times before you figure out why he felt it met the assignment).
We've all met teachers like the professor. He never wears a suit. He sports khakis and sweaters, loafers or sneakers. Ironed dungarees.
There's lots of sardonic humor. The narrator says, "Slick characters like my professor like it if you're a killer or at least a onetime middleweight fighter."
The story picks up pace when a red-headed co-ed takes some pills during a snowstorm and disappears, and our hero is off to the rescue. The redhead is the professor's "advisee".
Although the story is twenty pages long, it is very sparely written. As I was reading it, I thought to myself, "This would make a really good novel." Apparently Busch did, too. It's called GIRLS. If you can't figure out "Ralph the Duck", read the novel.

RALPH THE DUCK is simply one of the best short stories I've ever read. It is absolute MUST reading for the developing writer, though it may make you feel miserable, as its level of mastery is intimidating. It is simple and unforgettable.

I'm actually sorry Frederick expanded the story into "GIRLS". It works far better as the punch to the stomach it is in short-story form.

This collection of stories will whet your appetite for more from this fine, fine upstate New York writer.

In "From the New World," the first of the fourteen stories in this collection by Frederick Busch, a producer with a liking for Melville encourages a writer to develop a script where people learn things without overhearing them. Busch follows his character's advice: these stories are about loss -- the loss, by sympathetic, everyday people, of a parent, spouse, sibling, or child -- and yet the dimensions of their loss, sometimes even the fact of the loss itself, are only hinted at. The stories are remarkably affecting, the characters are credible and interesting, and the dialogue is right on.

Just as Clement Moore gave us the definitive Santa Claus in "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (a.k.a. "The Night Before Christmas"), Charles Dickens gave us the definitive Christmas spirit in his simple but charming novella "A Christmas Carol". First published in 1843, this supernatural story of an elderly man's redemption from his mean-spirited, miserly ways takes place in Victorian London, but its universal theme of charity towards our fellow man has endeared this classic to many a generation around the globe. In addition to its priceless role as a morality tale, the book colorfully describes the Yuletide customs practiced in England during the early nineteenth century. This Washington Square Press edition of "A Christmas Carol" is unabridged, yet you can understand why so short a book is yet published in abridged versions, especially for schoolchildren. Not infrequently, Dickens veers from the main story line and goes into tangents of a philosophical or descriptive nature, much like the converser who abruptly changes the subject only to return to it with the familiar "Anyway, ... ". I assume children (and some adults) may find these tangents cumbersome and distracting, but they are still useful in that they reflect Dickens' thoughts while writing the book. It may still be difficult for some of us to think that cold-hearted Christmas-bashers like Ebenezer Scrooge exist, but look at human nature around you, and it will be difficult no more. At a time when "Merry Christmas" is being supplanted by a more vague "Happy Holidays", and the season gives way to coarse behavior and unchecked materialism, "A Christmas Carol" is the perfect guidebook to put things into perspective.

Well, I finally read it (instead of just watching it on the TV screen).

This is what you can call a simple idea, well told. A lonely, bitter old gaffer needs redemption, and thus is visited by three spirits who wish to give him a push in the right direction. You have then a ghost story, a timeslip adventure, and the slow defrosting of old Scrooge's soul. There are certain additions in the more famous filmed versions that help tweak the bare essentials as laid down by Dickens, but really, all the emotional impact and plot development necessary to make it believable that Scrooge is redeemable--and worth redeeming--is brilliantly cozied into place by the great novelist.

The scenes that choke me up the most are in the book; they may not be your favourites. I react very strongly to our very first look at the young Scrooge, sitting alone at school, emotionally abandoned by his father, waiting for his sister to come tell him there may be a happy Christmas. Then there are the various Cratchit scenes, but it is not so much Tiny Tim's appearances or absence that get to me--it's Bob Cratchit's dedication to his ailing son, and his various bits of small talk that either reveal how much he really listens to Tim, or else hide the pain Cratchit is feeling after we witness the family coming to grips with an empty place at the table. Scrooge as Tim's saviour is grandly set up, if only Scrooge can remember the little boy he once was, and start empathizing with the world once again. I especially like all Scrooge's minor epiphanies along his mystical journey; he stops a few times and realizes when he has said the wrong thing to Cratchit, having belittled Bob's low wages and position in life, and only later realizing that he is the miser with his bootheel on Cratchit's back. Plus, he must confront his opposite in business, Fezziwig, who treated his workers so wonderfully, and he watches as true love slips through his fingers again.

It all makes up the perfect Christmas tale, and if anyone can find happiness after having true love slip through his fingers many years ago, surprisingly, it's Scrooge. With the help of several supporting players borrowed from the horror arena, and put to splendid use here.

Master storyteller and social critic, Charles Dickens, turns this social treatise on shortcomings of Victorian society into an entertaining and heartwarming Christmas ghost story which has charmed generations and become an icon of Christmas traditions. Who, in the Western world has not heard, "Bah, Humbug!" And who can forget the now almost hackneyed line of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one!" or his cheerfully poignant observation, that he did not mind the stares of strangers in church, for he might thus serve as a reminder of He who made the lame, walk and the blind, see. Several movie versions: musical, animated, updated, or standard; as well as stage productions (I recall the Cleveland Playhouse and McCarter Theatre`s with fondess.) have brought the wonderful characterizations to the screen, as well as to life. This story of the redemption of the bitter and spiritually poor miser, and the book itself; however, is a timeless treasure whose richness, like Mrs Cratchit`s Christmas pudding, is one that no production can hope to fully capture.

Familiar with his stories for years, I finally decided to buckle down and read one of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories of Sherlock Holmes, and "The Hound of the Baskervilles," the most famous of the novels, was the one I decided to pick up. To my surprise, I tore through it. It was a simple read, yet a complicated and satisfying mystery.

As with all the Holmes stories, his assistant Dr. Watson is charged with telling the tale of the bloody Baskerville curse. Sir Charles Baskerville, who was the charge of the family estate, has recently been gored to death by some sort of animal, and Sir Henry, the new heir to the household and the family fortune, fears that the mythic curse of a hellhound stalking the family grounds is true.

A strange twist occurs in this investigation, though, for it's not Holmes who goes to investigate the house. It's Watson, who studies the suspicious neighbors and staff, keeps close watch over Sir Henry and begins to notice that some very odd things are lurking about the moor.

Is the curse behind this killing, or is it a villain of flesh and blood?

The lead characters are defined well, and, though this is my first Holmes story, I understood the basics and the rhythm almost immediately. The narrative structure that Doyle is famous for is, as expected, charming, and the characters are well-defined. The mystery is properly twisted, and I didn't really guess the middle or the ending.

The best twist, to me, wasn't the reveal of any villain or method. It was the twist involving the shadowy figure on the moor. I didn't see it coming at all, and, when I read it, I realized that this old novel still had the narrative tools to surprise me.

It's a classic for a reason.

[This is a review of the Dover thrift Edition of 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'] Dover Thrift Editions have done a lot to get me to read great literature: classic lit at an *incredibly* affordable price (at the time I'm writing this review the book retails for a *buck fifty*...even if it goes up, that's still one of the best book values you'll ever find!).

Dover's no-frills approach (generic jackets, inexpensive paper) belies the classic range of their thrift editions, and this is one of my favorites: Conan Doyle's best-known Sherlock Holmes adventure, genuinely chilling and moody. If you haven't read it in a long while, you might have forgotten how well-drawn and detailed this is. Conan Doyle's characters, dialogue, cliffhangers (Chapter Two's end is, in my opinion, one of English lit's best example of suspenseful cliffhangers that will have you flipping the page), setting and the suspenseful climax have made this a mystery classic for over a hundred years. If you're familiar only with Nigel Bruce's humorous but bumbling portrayal of Doctor Watson, you'll enjoy the *true* Watson of the novel...intelligent man of action, trusted by Holmes to investigate the scene ahead of him.

The price makes this an excellent gift (aw, at this price, go ahead and pick them up a few more Dover Thrift editions, including 'Six Great Sherlock Holmes Stories') or a great book to take on a trip (at this price, you can afford to give it away to a fellow traveler when you've finished).

Follow Sherlock Holmes and his trusty colleague, Watson, in one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's best murder mystery ever, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Watch while Sherlock Holmes uncovers the mysteries of the Baskerville Hall of London.

You and Sherlock Holmes get to discover all the clues of Charles Baskerville's mysterious death and protect Henry Baskerville from being murdered. You listen to stories of the notorious hound. Finally, before its too late, decide who is behind the murder of Charles Baskerville. Was it the baronet, Mr. And Mrs. Stapleton, or was it possibly Laura Lynes? Find out in the end.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle keeps you in suspense throughout the book. He keeps bringing in more leads to the story. The author also provides an interesting and intriguing topic with a tall tale creature tied in.

This book is wonderful and would be best appreciated by all readers 10 and up.

I hate to say it, but i struggled through this book. I was looking for a book with more advice; more substance---a book I could sink my teeth into. "A Dangerous Profession" was NOT the one.

For us [brave enough to ADMIT it] wannabe 'writers', there are better books than this:.....There are too many books about creative writing to mention. But if I had the chance to 'do-it-over', I would NOT buy this book.

The very title is a challenge. "A Dangerous Profession." About writing? What's so dangerous? Suffocation by towers of manuscripts? Rejection of your work by editors? Paper cuts? Who does Frederick Busch think he is; Richard Branson?

No, what this university author's talking about in this collection of pieces are those writers who take risks with their works. Not to write the next potboiling, page-turning best-seller, but something more lasting and more personal. These are writers who live out their lives according to a sort of literary DNA, doing what they must at whatever cost to themselves.

There's Herman Melville, who felt himself finished at age 33 because the book he believed in, "Moby Dick," had earned him "the scorn of reviewers -- they questioned his sanity as well as his skill -- and, by the end of his life, a total of $157." There's Graham Greene's exquisite career writing about how we betray love, loyalty, ourselves. Or, as Busch puts it: "follies were his subject matter, finally -- how, in love, we betray the beloved; how, worshiping God, or a god, or a hope of one, we betray that hope or wish; how, striving to do good, we cause damage."

There's Charles Dickens, whose "David Copperfield" is nothing less than a novel about writing and the power of the written and spoken word can hold over its audience. The novel is also a reflection of the man himself, who carried on stage readings of his works that would leave him exhausted and probably hastened his end. That's writing capable of killing.

But Busch doesn't sustain the promise implied by the title, so the book's not a dirge. He leavens it by including essays on bad popular writing and bad literary criticism, memoirs recalling his early literary career, and a short humorous look at the writer's life from the point of view of the (usually) long-suffering wife.

It's tough to explain to someone who doesn't write why putting words on paper can be so difficult, why writers can turn into divas in their self-absorption and why those who work so hard to become so good seem capable of sacrificing so much. Busch's look at the writing life reminds us why it is so.

You should read this book if you are a beginning writer who wants assurance that others too have written and been rejected over and over again. IF you think you would like to be a novelist to have glamour, fame, and fortune, than read on so that you can persuade yourself to go into another line of work.

Frederick Busch knows about the dangers of writing, he is a best selling author of more than twenty works of fiction and non- fiction, but you do not see him on nightly TV. Busch examines what makes him and the writers that he admires including Charles Dickens, Herman Melville and Ernest Hemingway continue to write in the darkest hours. The reason is simply to share stories. Busch is the writer of the sixteen essays that are in the book. If a writer is honest with himself, he hopes that what he writes will be interesting to the readers.

Called a Notable book of 1998 by the New York Times, A Dangerous Profession will captivate writers and readers alike, inspiring them to pick up books that they would not normally want to read, which has been the case with me. I would recommend this book to any one who likes to read.

Love, betrayal, drama, and suspense, the makers of a great novel, are all found in Charles Dickens', A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens not only sets a great foundation for the novel but he also builds an illustrious story with great detail. His creativity explodes in this book.

The book is set in the time before and during the French Revolution. It is about the experiences of two French families and how those experiences later collide with their future. Their experiences not only create a great fictional story but they also dipict the true horrors that occured in France at that time.

Dickens makes the plot very interesting because he incorporates fiction and historical facts and events. For example in the storming of the Bastille scene, he brings to life an actual event and adds the fiction of what the peasants found in Dr. Manette's cell and the inside look on how they may have felt. Two other examples include the scenes where the revolutionaries kill the king and queen of France and the many times they use the guillotine. They demonstrate this mixture because they're true events yet, Dickens adds fictional characters and the feelings and emotions the people might have had.

Another great touch that Dickens adds is all the detail. Although at times it is rather long it helps to make a clear picture in the mind of what is going on. One such example where he does this is when he describes fate and death. He makes two rather hard to picture objects visible in the mind as the Farmer and the Woodsman. Another example of his great use of detail is when he describes Mr. Lorry's trip down the Dover mail. His description gives the feeling of actually being there. These are just two but there are numerous of other examples.

One more thing that made this novel fascinating was how Dickens reveals bits and pieces of the plot mixed together, but then ties every piece together at the end. For example he dipicts the Marquis' cruelness first and does not explain his involvement right away. However, by the end he turns out to be a key character. He also does that with the character of Dr. Manette. He introduces the character but leaves the suspense of that character's involvement until later. The suspense keeps the interest in the novel going. Dickens details, mixture of fact with fiction, and suspense makes the novel a extremely enjoyable book. After reading this book a clear understanding is achieved of why Charles Dickens is such a renowned author. A Tale of Two Cities is a unique and fascinating story which is why it is a must for anyone's bookself.

A Tale of Two Cities is set in the two cities of London and Paris, in the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century. A Doctor Manette is brought from France, where he has been wrongfully imprisoned for 18 years, to England where his daughter has been raised. They testify in a trial against Charles Darnay, who is eventually aquitted and later marries Miss Manette. Darnay is really a French nobleman, the Marquis Evremonde, who has left his estate in France to work for a living in humble circumstances in England. During the French Revolution, his representative in the old country is arrested, and the idealistic Darnay goes home to defend this man only to get himself arrested. This occurs during the Terror, and Darnay must expect to be executed as a treacherous emigrant. The final chapters of the book revolve around the effort to save Darnay and his family from the guillotine. The book seems to have two distinct parts. In the beginning, Dickens mainly describes settings and characters, while the plot is mostly invisible. Then, as the end of the book approaches, focus moves to a chain of more or less surprising events, which bind together other seemingly disconnected events in the first chapters. Towards the end, the Tale is almost a Thriller. Dickens reveals himself as a master of the English language, a genius of style and a great wit early in the book. His descriptions rival those of Turgenev, although his descriptions of misery are in a moralizing tone that is never heard from the more subtle Russian. One problem I found with this book is that the characters seem a little too black and white, there is little of the psychological complexity found in, say, the writings of Dostoevski or Ibsen. Two interesting exceptions are Sydney Carton, a family friend with great ability and potential but a life-long lack of self-control, and Dr. Manette, who we find struggling to repress the memory of his imprisonment. A Tale of Two Cities is certainly great literature from a writer who even in the most gloomy circumstances finds something to amuse us. But I find it hard to suffer with his poor virtuous Ms. Manette/Mrs. Darnay with her blonde hair, blue eyes, unlimited loyalty, and talented interior design. She is simply too much, too perfect, too unreal. As for Dickens' description of the Great Revolution, vivid and engaging as it is, it is plagued by the same hyperbolic tendency. A Tale of Two Cities, then, is a highly enjoyable and fascinating read, but it doesn't have the complexity and insight characteristic of the very best novels (in my humble and subjective opinion).

Charles Dickens again succeds in bringing to readers another classic tale - this one about France during the Revolution, and the lives of a few particular people affected by it. Dickens intricately develops the storyline, and creates some of the most memorable and characters and quotes in literature. While leading the reader through a world of drama and suspenseful action, Dickens adheres admirably well to historical details and events. This is an incredible book and a must read for almost anybody. I only gave it four stars, because in the beginning, the story is somewhat confusing, since Dickens is throwing out a lot of strings which he creatively weaves together as the story progresses. This, however, can be justified, for the original publication was in serial form; thus, Dickens needed to keep the readers in suspense in order to keep them reading it. Overall, though, this truly was a pleasure to read.

And then burn it! The fancy words and adult themes in this book are scandalous! As a Christian, I just cannot tolerate this muck! Save yourself!

My wife gave this book to me when we were first engaged. I was (and still am) writing an epic fantasy novel and I had never gotten any advice on writing. This book was my first. Believe me it felt like my first. I didn't know myself or why the heck I was writing anything at all until I read this book. All the authors in here have great advice and inspiration for young (and by young we mean aspiring and new) writers. I discovered some very important things about myself by reading this book. It helped covince me to seek out other forms of instruction, read other good fiction novels and really immerse myself in the art and practice of writing.

Frederick Busch's collection of letters is masterfully conceived and edited. This book should be required reading for anyone who has ever considered writing fiction (as well as for anyone who has ever pondered the degree of self and soul that go into creative writing). The insights into the process of such writing are most illuminating, rather like holding a rare diamond up to the light and being struck by its varied points of brilliance as one turns it from one angle to another.

This book is not just about girls, but about girls gone missing; about lives gone missing. The setting is upstate New York where the winters are long and harsh. The snow is deep. Girls are kidnapped or lost and could be just about anywhere. It is a "tough guy" book about a hardened Vietnam vet who now works security at a local college. This is the third tough guy book I've read in a row and I am beginning to notice a formula. A manly man (or a manly woman for that matter) always has to be single. He/she is always divorced or in the process of, but there is a sensitive side that makes the reader feel for the protagonist. No one, it seems, can be a hero with a supportive spouse; that would only undermine the effectiveness of the character. In spite of this somewhat tiresome blueprint for which GIRLS makes no exception, this one is better than the rest. The reason for the hero's split from his wife is better. It is a part of the inner mystery masked by the outer puzzle of the missing girls. Mr. Busch has written a worthy study of loss.

A wonderful and emotional ride. In "Girls", the reader becomes part of the autors world , feeling the pain, happiness and sorrow that go along with the theme. Not only does the reader become attached but it feels as if the reader is living the story being told. The novel depicts real life situations and focuses very much on those who try to leave the realities of their lives behind them.
When i fist read the title of the book, "Girls", i never thought that it would be more than just a simple book on the lives of girls living in America. The novel was powerful in the sense that the writer focused on the internal strength and guilt that comes along with adulthood. It invisioned real life situations such as drugs,marriage, self image and death. Frederick Busch really depicted the reality of life through the lives of each character.It was mysterious and intriguing,a powerful story that leaves us wondering and feeling each characters pain. It is impossible to put the book down it keeps you reading each page wanting to know what will happen next.The novel is mysterious and suspensful, filled with emotional struggles and life changing events. A story that deals with one's endless battle with life and reality.
I recommend this book to anyone who has suffered or lost someone they love. Anyone who wishes to understand the tragities of life a little better. This book really is an eye opener and can teach us alot about moral values and the fragilties that life bestowes upon us.Frederick Busch has written a wonderful novel that reaches deep into your soul.

I came upon this book quite on accident, yet I'm pleased that I did! Frederick Busch, a prolific writer who has written over a dozen works since the 1970's does a wonderful job of telling the story of Jack, a Vietnam vet, who is struggling with the loss of his daughter, and the gradual loss of his marriage. Jack is a compelling character, with a wonderful narrative voice. There is a mystery of dead/missing girls which Jack gets wrapped up into, and yet, there is so much more here, like the healing process which Jack so needs to experience.

If you're looking for a pure thriller/mystery about missing girls, then look elsewhere. If you want a richly layered novel with believable characters, a great plot, and with some unexpected surprises thrown in, READ THIS. I, personally, have just purchased two new Busch novels, and I can't wait to see how they stack up with Girls.