A Memory of War

Busch, Frederick

ISBN 10: 1585473502 ISBN 13: 9781585473502

Publisher: Center Point Pub, 2003

Synopsis

Psychologist Alexander Lescziak savors a life of quiet sophistication on Manhattan's Upper West Side, turning a blind eye to the past of his Polish emigre parents. Then a new patient declares that he is the doctor's half-brother, the product of a union between Lescziak's Jewish mother and a German prisoner of war. The confrontation jolts Lescziak out of his complacency: suddenly, his failing marriage, his wife's infatuation with his best friend, and the disappearance of his young lover and suicidal patient, Nella, close in on him. Lescziak escapes into the recesses of his imagination, where his mother's affair with the German prisoner comes to life in precise, gorgeous detail. The novel unfolds into a romance set in England's Lake District in wartime, as Busch shows how our past presses on the present.

About this title

Review

"Powerful . . . Compelling . . . Hypnotic . . . A profound exploration of a man at war with himself."
"--The Boston Sunday Globe
""Exquisite prose, at once delicate and muscular. This deeply felt novel adroitly juxtaposes the intellectual, the emotional, and the sensual. Probing questions of who we are merge seamlessly with the tumult of emotional upheaval and the sensation of flesh caressing flesh."
"--Chicago Tribune
""Busch examines many facets of memory, guilt, love, forgiveness, denial, holding on, and letting go. In this way, he takes a narrowly focused narrative--one man's worries, real and imaginary--and transforms it into a peek into the emotional legacy of the twentieth century."
"--Richmond Times-Dispatch
""Irresistible . . . A novel of startling psychological intensity that explores the rewriting of history, or the imagining of it. . . . It's to Busch's credit that he's able to turn his kaleidoscope with such graceful, tantalizing precision; as Alex's search for morsels of truth turns obsessive, Busch's snapshots become addictive."
--Salon.com
"Beautiful, harrowing . . . In Busch's skilled hands, past and present merge to become a sublimely haunting yet gorgeously uplifting account of one man's need to bridge the great gulf dividing heart and mind, body and soul."
--"Elle
""SOME OF THE STRONGEST WRITING OF BUSCH'S RICH CAREER."
--"Book" magazine
"Busch is a mature, elegant writer who is particularly good at exposing the vulnerabilities of male-female relationships. . . . He's also a master of narrative understatement. . . . [He] has an extraordinary ability to observe and describe the subtext of what goes on between friends, colleagues, and couples. He understands the way the human mind dips, dives, and makes astonishing associations, while on the outside people behave in familiar, even predictable ways."
"--The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"""A Memory of War" draws its power from its chara

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Center Point Pub
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1585473502
• ISBN 13: 9781585473502
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 432