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Original Essays | November 9, 2009

Jesse Bullington: IMG Abash'd the Devil Stood



I don't believe in evil. It's a word I use, certainly, because words are shortcuts and we all take the short way round from time to time, but that's... Continue »
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The Blood of the Lamb

by Peter De Vries

The Blood of the Lamb Cover

ISBN13: 9780226143880
ISBN10: 0226143880
All Product Details

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The most poignant of all De Vries's novels, The Blood of the Lamb is also the most autobiographical. It follows the life of Don Wanderhop from his childhood in an immigrant Calvinist family living in Chicago in the 1950s through the loss of a brother, his faith, his wife, and finally his daughter-a tragedy drawn directly from De Vries's own life. Despite its foundation in misfortune, The Blood of the Lamb offers glimpses of the comic sensibility for which De Vries was famous. Engaging directly with the reader in a manner that buttresses the personal intimacy of the story, De Vries writes with a powerful blend of grief, love, wit, and fury.

Review:

"With luck, a writer capable of producing both Slouching Towards Kalamazoo and The Blood of the Lamb will not remain unappreciated for long."-Adam Kirsch, New York Sun

Review:

"A masterpiece of realism and literary craftsmanship. It tells a poignant story without relying on sentiment or sacrificing humor."

Review:

"My favorite novel of [2005] is the University of Chicago Press reprint of Peter DeVries' The Blood of the Lamb, a tirade against faith inspired by the death of the author's daughter. Not since Graham Greene's The End of the Affair has a book rendered man's rage against a hostile God so visceral.... DeVries' Don Wanderhope moves deftly from manic hilarity to manic fury, and back again, as he tells his story. At the end, all humor drains away in a strange, explosive and utterly hopeless confrontation with the divine."-Maud Newton, Newsday

Review:

"A masterpiece of realism and literary craftsmanship. It tells a poignant story without relying on sentiment or sacrificing humor."
(J.E. Bruns, Catholic World)

About the Author

Peter De Vries (1910–1993), the man responsible for contributing to the cultural vernacular such witticisms as "Nostalgia ain't what it used to be" and "Deep down, he's shallow," was, according to Kingsley Amis, "the funniest serious writer to be found on either side of the Atlantic." But De Vries's life and work was informed as much by sorrow as by wit, and that dynamic is nowhere better seen than in his classics Slouching Towards Kalamazoo and The Blood of the Lamb. First published in 1982 and 1965, respectively, these novels reemerge with their sharp satire and biting pain undiluted by time.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
blewskye, November 13, 2009 (view all comments by blewskye)
Unflinching, raw exploration of a heartbreaking story - told in clean, sparse prose. There are several moments when this prose descends on you like a lightning bolt and leaves you forever altered. Being insidie the thoughts of the main character as he travels his journey of intellectualism to the ultimate in human suffering, witnessing one's child die a painful death, offers a window on one of life's biggest, if not the biggest, question. The horrible suffering of the innocent. The reading of this book requires courage.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780226143880
Subtitle:
A Novel
Foreword:
Frank, Jeffrey
Foreword:
Frank, Jeffrey
Author:
de Vries, Peter
Publisher:
University Of Chicago Press University Of Chicago Press
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Children
Subject:
Death
Subject:
General Fiction
Edition Description:
1
Publication Date:
20050601
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
248
Dimensions:
8.00 x 5.25 in

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