Don't Tell Anyone: Fiction

Another Fred Busch book to read, savor and remember. DON'T TELL ANYONE is one of several short story collections Busch published during his lifetime. It was a NY Times notable book and was lavishly praised by numerous publications and other authors. Busch has been often described as a "writers' writer," which often translates, sadly, as a writer whose work does not do well commercially. Well, "tant pis," as Busch has his characters say more than once in "A Handbook for Spies," the novella that caps this exquisitely crafted collection. It is indeed too bad that short stories don't sell, because this one contains some of the very best examples of that complex genre.

So which story did I like most? All of them. But okay, I loved show more "Domicile," because in its character of wall-building David I recognized shades of a young Benjamin Busch, the author's son, who was also the model for an even younger protagonist in an earlier Busch novel, SOMETIMES I LIVE IN THE COUNTRY. (And Benjamin Busch told his own story in his 2012 memoir, DUST TO DUST.) Family things turned into art, something Frederick Busch was always especially adept at. And I really loved that final novella, with its nod to Philip Roth in the steamy relationship of Willy and Tony, as well as the intricate weaving of anti-Semitism, the Vietnam war, the office politics of academia and dysfunctional family drama and deceits. It is, quite simply, a triumph of storytelling. In a Q&A included in the Ballantine edition, Busch says it "took me thirty years to get right."

Enough said. I love Fred Busch's fiction, and this is a beautifully written bunch of stories. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

17 short stories

all about the intricate working of the American family