Thanksgiving Night - by Richard Bausch (Paperback)

About the Book

From Pen/Malamud winner Bausch comes a rich and moving novel about two eccentric families in a small Virginia town, set during the Thanksgiving season.

From the Back Cover

Will Butterfield can't believe it. His 75-year-old mother, Holly, is drunk and threatening to jump off the roof. Again.

Holly and Fiona, another elderly relative, won't stop tormenting Will and his wife Elizabeth with their bizarre (though often amusing) antics. Between Will's worries about his bookstore, The Heart's Ease, and Elizabeth's troublesome high school students, dealing with "the crazies" has become just too much.

But then something unexpected happens -- Henry Ward, a neighborhood handyman, meets the two old women, and he, his daughter Alison, and grandchildren are drawn into the Butterfields' lives in surprising ways. Both a comedy and a love story -- a first for Bausch -- Thanksgiving Night is about the real meaning of family, and one particular clan that has many reasons to be thankful.

Review Quotes

"Not unlike Raymond Carver, Bausch gets his hands dirty when he's writing." - Entertainment Weekly
"Kooky relatives, drunken antics, and near-death experiences are fodder enough for three tomes. For this, we are thankful." - Entertainment Weekly
"Bracing, unapologetically old-fashioned. Bausch's novel is also filled with sudden displays of emotion." - New York Times Book Review
"(A) satisfying feast of a book that feels authentic and wise." - Washington Post Book World
"Bausch's engagingly deranged characters hold our attention . . . in one of his more interesting and readable longer fictions." - Kirkus Reviews
"Beautifully told. ... Bausch supplies plenty to go around, just as one would wish on any Thanksgiving night. " - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"It's a subtle, slyly accomplished feat, and Bausch brings his disparate storylines together in a powerfully moving finale." - Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Bausch has long been one of the most expert and substantial of our writers." - Boston Globe