Buffalo Afternoon: A Novel

by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer

Overview

"Remarkable....The entire Vietnam experience [in] one epic narrative."—New York Times Book Review

Buffalo Afternoon is the story of three generations of the Bravado family—Italian American, working-class, determined, proud, troubled. At the heart of this enthralling novel is Pete, a Vietnam vet whose fate is shaped by his grandfather's beliefs about America and reshaped by a cataclysm of American history. Reading group guide included.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393325225
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/17/2004
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Susan Fromberg Schaeffer (1940 - 2011) was a Professor of English and author of fourteen novels, six poetry collections, and other works.

Date of Birth:

March 25, 1941

Date of Death:

August 26, 2011

Place of Birth:

Brooklyn, New York

Place of Death:

Chicago, Illinois

Education:

B.A., University of Chicago, 1961; M.A., University of Chicago, 1963; Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1966

Website:

http://www.susanfrombergschaeffer.com

Editorial Reviews

``Schaeffer has again produced a tour de force in this stunning Vietnam chronicle, in which she conveys the emotions and actions of men in battle and the anguish of those who survive and are irrevocably scarred. She does this in a narrative of epic length that moves, with few lapses, with the implacable power of fate,'' commended PW. Author tour. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

At novel's open in Vietnam, young Li is standing on her water buffalo's back when he is shot by American soldiers; emblem of her brutalized country, she haunts what follows like a conscience. Meanwhile, in America, Pete Bravado grows up lonely and confused in an Italian-American family that has just missed the American dream. The two are ``wandering souls'' who meet briefly when Bravado serves in Vietnam. His service is the centerpiece of the novel, and though initially Schaeffer seems only to be telling and not showing us what happens to him, eventually the telling becomes immensely powerful. For Bravado--as for America itself--there is no explanation for what he has seen, and no absolution; the war ``is never going to be over.'' Only on the final page of this swift if densely detailed novel does Schaeffer offer us some hope: after this war, ``Maybe we're new Americans.'' But what she has shown us so wrenchingly is the old America in agony, and if her reach sometimes exceeds her grasp, still she is to be commended for her vision.-- Barbara Hoffert, ``Library Journal''

Library Journal