THE FIREMAN'S WIFE And Other Stories

by Richard Bausch ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 24, 1990

Some lesser stories here take family complication, head-on, as their too-strict text (""The Brace,"" ""Equity""), but Bausch is not exactly a domestic chronicler. As in his previous collection, Spirits (1987), he has a more universal way with the small motions of connection, of expectations in the act of changing. The best stories here--a very moving epistle about marriage, ""Letter to the Lady of the House""; an unlikely honeymoon tale, ""Wedlock""; and a braced pair of stories about a young widow, ""The Fireman's Wife"" and ""Consolation""--have marriage as their base but are more directed toward emotional relationships in periods of overuse, of fatigue. Bausch's eye is good at finding the bumps beneath the stresses that indicate new growth. What is perhaps the most haunting piece here, though, happens to be the oddest: ""Design,"" about two clergymen in neighboring churches, one of whom is convinced the other is dying. The stoicism of the ever more frail minister drives his friend the priest crazy, into full-scale panic attacks even--and as the story unfolds you realize that Bausch is setting up a mirror-model of humanity: that we learn what to want and hate and love and fear by watching someone else momentarily be unconscious of all that. A strong, subtle collection by one of the more underrated American writers.

Pub Date: Aug. 24, 1990

ISBN: 0393307905

Page Count: -

Publisher: Linden/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1990

Categories: FICTION