- Hardcover: 279 pages
- Publisher: Harmony Books (Mar 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0517704552
- ISBN-13: 978-0517704554
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.5 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,761,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Frederick Busch has built a reputation as a master storyteller, a magician with words, and a writer who deserves to be a household name. In his new novel, Girls, he once again treats readers to the "ice-clear, dagger-sharp" (Seattle Times) writing he's become known for and a story that's deeply affecting, terrifying, and tragic.
Jack is a security officer at an upstate New York college. When 14-year-old Janice Tanner vanishes from a neighboring town, he reluctantly becomes involved in the search as a favor to a friend of the girl's parents. A suicidal young woman, a teenage runaway, and two more missing girls make it impossible for Jack to drive resurfacing memories of his own daughter's death from his mind. In the course of the investigation, as he comes to confront Janice's murderer, Jack comes to realize just how dangerous it is to be a girl: "I wondered if girls had been kidnapped, murdered, preyed upon for years. Maybe it was the times, and therefore everything human and otherwise from when we began might not be at fault."
Girls is a novel that is both a thriller and a stylistic wonder, and, like its protagonist, is tender and tough at the same time.
Jack is a security officer at an upstate New York college. When 14-year-old Janice Tanner vanishes from a neighboring town, he reluctantly becomes involved in the search as a favor to a friend of the girl's parents. A suicidal young woman, a teenage runaway, and two more missing girls make it impossible for Jack to drive resurfacing memories of his own daughter's death from his mind. In the course of the investigation, as he comes to confront Janice's murderer, Jack comes to realize just how dangerous it is to be a girl: "I wondered if girls had been kidnapped, murdered, preyed upon for years. Maybe it was the times, and therefore everything human and otherwise from when we began might not be at fault."
Girls is a novel that is both a thriller and a stylistic wonder, and, like its protagonist, is tender and tough at the same time.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
I am hoping the author checks these reviews. I would like to hear from him or other readers. I read a lot, mostly fiction. I have never read a writing like this. I write well but I read from my pores I think this may be the best writing I've read. This is my first read from you. How/why can you do this? Why do you feel you can depend on your readers for all the spaces? Why do you trust us ?
Format:Paperback
Beautiful writing, the word dense keeps coming to mind. The story is so thick and dense, I got lost in it. I am impressed with the dreams inside reality. Jack is a flawed and awsome hero and humble enough to give credit to those who aid him. Fanny makes my guts tighten, I want so much for her to explode safely. Thanks to Mr. Busch for the comic relief every now and then, a chance to catch my breath. Am now looking for more of the author's books, since this was my first. Great story. All the characters were defined economically, yet with perfect clarity.
Format:Paperback
This is by far one of the finest books I've read this year. Mr. Busch's chilling description of a winter that will never end, juxtaposed with a small town's fears and depravities, left me sad that it ever ended. Although a mystery, it also put me in mind of Don Robertson's "The Ideal, Genuine Man" for its portrayal of a lonely soul slowly being tightened by life's vise. And the unveiling of the killer (and another...) was a shocker. It takes quite a lot to keep me hooked and unsure of where I'm going, but "Girls" did the trick. I am now officially in Frederick Busch's camp.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Like petting an angry dog
Reading _Girls_ is like petting an angry dog, or like holding onto a power line -- there's so much tension just under the surface, it terrifies you. Read more
Published on 22 Jan 1999
Disappointing, reads like a bad T.V. movie treatment
"Girls" reads like a combination of the worst of Hemingway, DeLillo, Richard Ford and Raymond Carver. How many times do we have to read about what Jack fed his dog? Read more
Published on 22 Aug 1998
Good, well written, interesting and unusual
This is one of the most unusual mysteries, if it can be called that, that I've ever read. It was atmospheric, had offbeat and well drawn characters, and a story line like none... Read more
Published on 11 Aug 1998
Girls, By Frederick Busch: Hemingway Redux?
At first blush, "Girls" by Frederick Busch seems to be a murder mystery with psychological overtones. Read more
Published on 13 July 1998
Worthy Study of Loss
This book is not just about girls, but about girls gone missing; about lives gone missing. The setting is upstate New York where the winters are long and harsh. The snow is deep. Read more
Published on 8 May 1998
a meditation on loss
It is easy to come under the spell of Frederick Busch's almost meditative writings on loss.Girls is no exception. Jack is a security guard on a school campus. Read more
Published on 22 Mar 1998
Good but not a ten
"Girls" is a good novel by a good fiction writer. The dialog is witty (maybe a little too witty, a little too sharp for belief in some places) and the characterizations... Read more
Published on 28 Aug 1997
Girls is Worth Your Time
I'm not going to overly intellectualize on this. What I've always liked best about Busch is his ability to crystallize the truth of a momentary feeling in domestic human... Read more
Published on 13 Jun 1997
A search for one body and two souls in "Girls"
Frederick Busch's "Girls" is one of those rare novels that deftly blends a mystery of great intrigue with a protagonist's even more compelling search for himself. Read more
Published on 31 Mar 1997
The dog steals the show.
This is another book review by Wolfie and Kansas, the boonie dogs from Toto, Guam. This book rises above the level of ordinary novels because of a fantastic supporting... Read more
Published on 28 Mar 1997
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