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Coming in February,
2004 from W.W. Norton:
15th Anniversary Edition of Buffalo Afternoon. |
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In this landmark novel,
Susan Fromberg Schaeffer applies her extraordinary talents to a powerfully
moving American novel of great scope and profound intimacy--the compelling
and ultimately triumphant story of one young man's life and destiny, and
the full, sobering consequences of the Vietnam War. |
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For Pete Bravado, the way begins
with home and family in Brooklyn: his Italian immigrant grandfather's broken
dreams, his father's ice-hard heart, his mother's tragic affection, and Pete's
own disillusionment and delinquency. Pete Bravado is raised against the grain
of his true nature, and he seeks escape in the army. But instead of finding
freedom, he becomes a prisoner within himself, a man who sees too much of
the madness of war, and the madness hidden in his own nature. And when he
comes home a new struggle begins--a struggle to see what the war has made
him, so he can begin to remake himself.
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"Extraordinary..Stunning...A harrowing evocation of the Vietnam
War that portrays its haunting emotional legacy with sensitivity and power.
Schaeffer's recreation of the war as a realistic nightmare is one of her
finest imaginative achievements."
USA Today
"An epic-sized novel of the Vietnam war...Schaeffer is extremely gifted at
portraying madness. Her battle scenes, Bravado's drift into madness when
he tries to forget the war rings true."
Los Angeles Times Book Review
"One of the best treatments of the Vietnam war to date...It is a particularly
American odyssey, all about how one young man and his nation are tested and
reshaped by the cataclysmic event of an era...Mrs. Schaeffer's portrayal
of Italian life in blue-collar Brooklyn is excellent...The war almost explodes
off the page...Remarkable. The entire Vietnam experience in one epic
narrative."
The New York Times Book Review
"Schaeffer spent two years interviewing a group of Vietnam veterans...She
clearly hasgreat affection for some of the men she spoke with and admits
that they opened up for her a world that she could not know from her priviliged
career as an academic. She speaks eloquently for these veterans and transforms
their grueling memories into compelling fiction."
Boston Herald
"Beautifully written, powerful...Schaeffer's compelling prose almost begs
to be read aloud...How she knows Vietnam I don't want to guess, but BUFFALO
AFTERNOON is as horiffically r eal as anything I've ever seen or read on
that subject. In APOCALYPSE NOW, Marlon Brando's crazed Kurtz whispers, "The
horror! The horror!' BUFFALO AFTERNOON makes you understand why."
The Dallas Morning News
"BUFFALO AFTERNOON breaks rules about contemporary fiction, but the result
is an astounding tour de force of writing about Vietnam that ranks high on
the list of the best of such novels...Schaeffer's accounts of combat are
as vivid and as painful as any to be found in other Vietnam novels, and her
perception of combat psychology is penetrating and provocative."
San Antonio Express News
"Powerful and horrifying...The books is incredibly detailed and both believable
and repulsive in its explicit depiction of jungle warfare...Ms. Schaeffer
is a superb and daring writer who takes every emotional risk possible. Perhaps
this book will offer her the recognition she deserves."
The State, Columbia, South Carolina
"Stunning...A tour de force...A narrative of epic length that moves with
the implacable power of fate."
Publishers Weekly
"You would never know that Schaeffer is not herself a Vietnam vet, nor that
she has never even visited that sad country...The combat scenes are the coil
from which the novel springs to life. Incident follows incident, images exploding
from the page...It is a story that has been told before, but rarely this
well."
The Orlando Sentinel
"Beautiful writing...Her descriptions of this Southeast Asian country, as
well as the psychological climate of the American soldiers, are arresting."
Newsday |
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