A Hole in the Earth

by Robert Bausch

Book Overview

At the heart of this compelling novel about why men act the way they do is the profound and affecting story of a family, of what tears them apart and what can bring them back together. Henry Porter's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 015100529X
• ISBN13: 9780151005291
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A magnificent novel!

Bob Baush's novel A Hole in the Earth tugs at your heart strings and tickles your funny bone as only he can do. I've never known a better storyteller. When you meet his main character, Henry Porter, you have to like him, because he is all of us - with our addictions, our baggage, our flaws - offering ourselves to the world in hopes of finding a little peace and a little love in the mirth and madness that is life. As if just being born wasn't traumatic enough, we are then asked to go out into the world to make our mark and to give our lives meaning. We live, as Henry does, as if we are in the middle of a hurricane: everything whirling and swirling around us at breakneck speed while we attempt to stand calming at the center, in the eye of the storm. Unfortunately, the hurricane sparks off tornadoes that take everything we know and everything we have and toss it all around, and when it's done, we are left to search for the remnants of our lives. And while we're reeling from the experience, people expect us to be rational and in control of ourselves. HA! It's a wonder we aren't all living underground like moles. As with all of Bob's novels, when I'm done reading them, I feel that I am a better person just for having been given the privilege.

Absorbing, complex, so very wise - I couldn't stop!

Wow.When I heard Robert Bausch had written his best book to date, I never expected this absorbing, complex, so very wise novel to swallow me whole. Once I started, I simply could not put it down; I read late into the night, knowing I had to get up early the next morning and not caring at all.The narrator, Henry Porter, is a mess: a compulsive gambler, non-committal lover, absent father. But he has a big, confused heart and that's what makes him lovable. He wants to do the right thing, and can't. His estranged daughter, now eighteen, shows up at his door with her male friend just as Henry learns his girlfriend is pregnant. Henry has so much baggage from his childhood and brief stint as a husband that he can't cope with these developments. That Bausch makes his readers not only care about such a man but root for his happiness demonstrates Bausch's talent as a novelist. The plot, far more complicated than I can describe here, has ends flying everywhere that touch and spark whenever they cross, culminating in one of the most electrifyingly emotional conclusions I've read all year. You have to read this book. It's one people will be talking about for months.

Couldn't put it down!!

This is the second book I have read by Bob Bausch. Having discovered his works, I will now go back and read the rest of his books. This book grabs you from the first, then builds. Just when you think things are working out,the wheels come off, one at a time. His last few chapters draw you into the book past the point of putting it down, so make some coffee! This is the work of a master storyteller. Tell me another one!

READ THIS BOOK!

This book is aptly named " A hole in the Earth" because I felt I had fallen into the story. The characters grab your interest ( and your heart ) and do not let go until the very last sentence. If you have a child or have been a child, or are a parent or have a parent, have been in love or in despair.....this book will touch you. It hits home on so many levels! This is a GREAT book...a book I wanted to pick up and read again the second I finished it. I will read this book yearly, just for pure pleasure, along with my copies of " To Kill A Mockingbird" and " Gone With The Wind".