Frederick Busch

Start Free Trial

Baby Power

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

Busch's craft, imagination, and versatility are impressive, and his work has met with critical praise, yet he has not found the wide audience he deserves. Rounds, more conventional than his earlier work, may change that; although I don't think it is his most interesting book, it may be the most fully realized.

In a sense, [The Mutual Friend] also pays homage to Dickens, who was similarly preoccupied with domestic complexities as well as being a master of certain plot devices Busch employs here. There are important differences. Busch's scope is not Dickensian; he explores grand themes—love, birth, and death—but on a small canvas. Contemporary social issues are peripheral. And there are no monsters … in this gentle and very human book. Busch's characters are victims of time, biology, and misguided affections….

[Scrupulous] attention to detail marks all of his work, but here it is put at the service of structure to produce a traditional well-made novel. The wealth of medical detail that surrounds pediatrician Eli Silver is impressive, and lends dimension to the central and prime mover in this novel of intersecting lives. (p. 40)

Rounds becomes a novel of suspense, as carefully constructed as any Agatha Christie. The atmosphere of impending doom thickens, lifts, descends agains with a whimper…. Busch uses a Dickensian cliffhanger technique—switching from character to character and scene to scene—until the whole cast, minor and major, comes together for a classic blowout and resolution. However creaky the device, it works, fashioning a frame for a novel of rare grace and generosity.

Busch is writing here about some of the domestic issues that engaged John Irving in Garp, but if Busch's approach is less spectacular, it has more substance. Irving asked important questions; Busch tries to answer them. Some readers may have reservations about the apparent facility of his solutions, which veer perilously close to contrivance, but his characters have genuine dignity and contend with real issues; their struggles leave little time for fashionable anomie or brittleness. Rounds celebrates the family as unabashedly as Dickens ever did, with a conviction and authenticity that should command recognition. (pp. 40-1)

Judith Gies, "Baby Power," in The Village Voice (reprinted by permission of The Village Voice; copyright © News Group Publications, Inc., 1980), Vol. XXV, No. 2, March 17, 1980, pp. 40-1.

Get Ahead with eNotes

Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.

Get 48 Hours Free Access
Previous

Death and Love

Next

Books in Brief: 'Rounds'