Prolific Busch (War Babies, Absent Friends, etc.) here offers a
love story set in Upstate New York and combined with some political
intrigue. Though it sags melodramatically in places, it's his best
fiction in some time: complex feelings are modulated while the
political and romantic plots dovetail to good emotional effect.
Harry is an ex-newspaperman, assistant now to a New York senator
with presidential ambitions. He's assigned to see whether a
shopping-mall parking lot will damage a pre-Civil War slave
graveyard. Years ago, Harry was Catherine's lover and, in his 40s,
he never married but carried the torch: "I live alone because of
love." Catherine, meanwhile, runs a small gallery and sees Carter,
who (too coincidentally) happens to be the contractor responsible
for the controversial mall parking lot. The point of view shifts
among these three, with minor digressions elsewhere. As Harry
begins again to claim the attentions of Catherine and becomes her
lover, the two men have it out - Harry to Carter: "You think a man
like me can steal a woman like that?. . .Who ever told her what to
do?" Carter to Catherine: "Were you waiting all this time for
Harry?" The love story drives forward on the fuel of such
implausible but affecting fidelity as Catherine and Harry make up
their minds about each other; the political intrigue occasionally
bogs down, but finally Harry visits archrival Carter to admit that
the senator wants to make "a fuss over buried black people" in
order "to be president." Carter, his big contract ruined, digs up
the bones and reburies them with the help of Harry and Catherine
and her son Bobby. "Need's need," Catherine says to Harry. A book
about digging up old bones is seldom so literal, but here at least
Busch has it both ways: a moving love story with social resonance.
(Kirkus Reviews)
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"
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