Absent Friends by Frederick Busch

In this anthology of fourteen stories, Frederick Busch explores how individuals deal with the missing parts of their lives, whether they attempt to rediscover it, to move past it, to be crushed by it or to move on to discover something else to take its place.  In the first story, From The New World, a man deals with the fact that his family will never accept the woman he loves and will try to control him even from beyond the grave through their money and influence.  In the last story, To The Hoop, he deals with a man and his son who are dealing with the aftermath of their mother and wife committing suicide and choosing to leave them.  Between, the dozen stories talk about loneliness, the aching to belong and the lengths individuals will go to in order to fill the voids in their lives.

Frederick Busch is known as an author's author; he is respected by those who know writing and are amazed at his ability to eloquently outline the human condition.  He has written several anthologies and several novels such as The Night Inspector or Girls.  This fifth book of stories is dedicated to Reynolds Price, another author who falls in the same category of a writer admired by other writers.  Busch was a professor of literature at Colgate University and a winner of the 1991 PEN/Malamud Award for short stories.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.