June 30, 2014
Set amid the chaos of 9/11, this novel from Bausch (Peace) is an adequate addition to the author’s oeuvre. After meeting at a fundraiser, D.C. congressional aide Natasha Barrett and disillusioned Episcopalian priest Michael Faulk fall into a whirlwind romance. Engaged, and intending to relocate to Memphis, the couple find themselves separated when the 2001 terrorist attacks occur: Michael is in New York City at a wedding; Natasha is in Jamaica, vacationing with a friend. As Michael frantically tries to escape the city, Natasha, fearing that her fiancé is dead, wanders the beach heavily intoxicated and is raped by a fellow vacationer. Once home in Memphis, Natasha keeps the assault to herself, and Michael grows frustrated with her new emotional distance as their wedding day nears. He suspects Natasha has been unfaithful, but is afraid to ask. A tale of trust and loss, the novel strives to fit Natasha and Michael’s personal problems into the greater story of America’s turmoil. Bausch excels at capturing the mood of Americans in the days and weeks following 9/11—equal parts camaraderie and suspicion—but only rarely engages the reader emotionally.
July 15, 2014
Thehorror of 9/11 intersects with the horror of rape in this latest from Bausch (SomethingIs Out There, 2010, etc.).Natasha Barrett and Michael Faulk meet at a dinner party in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. She's the top aide to a Republican senator; he's an Episcopalpriest in Memphis. Natasha's still recovering from the messy end of an affair;Faulk's been bruised by a divorce. There's an age gap (she's 32, he's 48), butlove leaps across it; they will marry and leave their professions. Natashaisn't credible as a political animal; Faulk has lost "something unnameable" incarrying out his pastoral duties. The future looks rosy (Faulk's trust fundwill cushion them), but hard times are coming for this pleasant, fuzzilydefined couple. It's September 2001. Faulk is in New York for a friend'swedding and has mentioned visiting the twin towers. Natasha is vacationing inJamaica with Constance, an older woman, when the news breaks. Is Faulk safe? Thephones are down; Natasha is frantic. She starts drinking heavily, as do theother hotel guests. On the beach at night, she allows a handsome Cuban-Americana kiss. Things get out of hand; he rapes her. She can't confide in the cynicalConstance, who's seen that consensual kiss but not the aftermath. By the timeshe reunites with Faulk in Memphis, she's a nervous wreck. Bausch faithfullyreproduces the high anxiety of the time, having us ponder the irony thatstrangers, rubbed raw, confide in each other while Natasha, consumed byirrational guilt, cannot confide in her darling Faulk, who knows something isterribly wrong. As the situation drags on, it's hard not to become impatientwith Bausch's failure to force a resolution.Disappointing; the 9/11 material is a distraction from Bausch's core story: theplight of the rape victim.
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March 1, 2014
Winner of everything from a PEN/Malamud Award to the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Bausch offers a 20th work of fiction that blends private and public trauma to devastating effect. Disaffected congressional aide Natasha and faith-challenged Episcopal priest Michael Faulk fall in love instantly, but shortly before their wedding, while Natasha is vacationing in Jamaica, Michael appears to have been lost to 9/11. Though they are reunited, the pain they've endured--Natasha had her own awful experience in Jamaica--splinters their life together. With a reading group guide; West Coast tour.
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Starred review from July 1, 2014
The premise is simple: two people find each other relatively late in life after having been unsuccessful in love for many years. She is Natasha Barrett, a thirtysomething congressional aide. He is Father Michael Faulks, a divorced Episcopalian priest pushing 50. Both are dissatisfied with their careers. She would love to be an artist; he wants to leave the priesthood. After the proverbial whirlwind courtship, they set a wedding date for the fall of 2001. But first, she reluctantly goes on a preplanned vacation to Jamaica, and he attends a friend's wedding in Manhattan. Then September 11 happens, and they are unable to contact each other. Natasha assumes Michael has been killed. Bereft, she drinks too much and lets down her guard with another vacationer, who viciously rapes her. When Natasha and Michael are finally reunited, Natasha takes advantage of the general post-9/11 malaise to hide her trauma. Michael suspects something is wrong, yet neither can honestly broach the obvious breach in their relationship. Sublimely probing what it means to lose trust in one's self and in those one loves, the masterful Bausch (Something Is Out There, 2010) delicately ponders the consequences of devastating loss on both a grand and personal scale. A luscious, sweeping heartbreak of a novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)
March 1, 2014
Natasha Barrett and Father Michael Faulk, an Episcopal priest, had at least one thing in common the evening they met at Mississippi Senator Norland's house: neither wanted to be there. Yet within a few alcohol-fueled months of dating, they chose to ignore their misgivings, 17-year age difference, and dearth of information about each other's pasts and planned a September wedding. As each tied up loose ends, Michael in New York City and Natasha in Jamaica, the unthinkable happened: September 11, 2001, which gave Americans a collective case of post-traumatic stress disorder. For Natasha, stranded in Jamaica and convinced that Michael is dead, an assault of a different nature has a similar effect. When they finally reunite in Memphis, they seem like strangers to each other. Michael's loss of faith in both his vocation and himself coupled with Natasha's inability to trust him with her devastating secret, threaten the relationship. The author deftly illustrates the strain between them through maddeningly tepid, inconsequential conversations that disguise their agonizingly painful and authentic interior monologs. VERDICT Recipient of the Pen/Malamud Award for his short fiction and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the American Library Association's W.Y. Boyd Prize for Peace, Bausch has created flawed characters searching for the courage to move forward through uncertainty. This dark, emotionally exhausting novel has the feel of a Tennessee Williams play, and though at times Natasha's stubbornness may test the reader's patience, it is a compelling read.--Sally Bissell, Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.