Spirits and Other Stories
Files
Document Type
Book
Description
These nine stories all deal with the failure of the spirit, all, indeed, with aspects of a single personality. Although the protagonists differ, each suffers from self-doubt, perhaps self-abnegation. In "All the Way in Flagstaff," a man recalls a picnic with his wife and children on a day when his compulsive drinking signaled the end of his marriage. The very old protagonist of "Wisemen at Their End" always held his family at arm's length and now is unable to accept the proffered help of an elderly woman. In "Police Dreams" a husband, content with his family and job, slowly feels his wife slipping away, refusing to communicate, losing interest even in their children. She leaves him, for no reason except that he is himself, and that's not good enough. Disconsolate and wary, an 18-year-old whose father has died a few months before spends Christmas with his mother and aunt in "Ancient History." Eventually, he realizes that his father had been preparing to leave them.
Publication Date
1987
Publisher
Linden Press/Simon & Schuster
City
New York
State
NY
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Creative Writing | Fiction | History
Repository Citation
Bausch , R. (1987). Spirits and Other Stories. New York, NY: Linden Press/Simon & Schuster.
