by J. F. Powers
First published 2013
J. F. Powers sits in prison as a conscientious objector, writing letters that will span decades of searching. The National Book Award winner who captured Catholic priests in fiction never wrote his planned family novel, but his thousands of personal letters tell that story instead. Powers courts his future wife through correspondence, marries, and attempts an ill-fated retreat to the woods. He moves his growing family between the American Midwest and Ireland three separate times, each emigration more desperate than the last. His letters reveal encounters with Thomas Merton, Eugene McCarthy, Robert Lowell, and Dorothy Day. Powers struggles with his Catholic faith even as it defines his work. He loves his family yet chafes against domestic life. The letters show a man who achieved literary recognition but remained perpetually dissatisfied with his circumstances. His daughter Katherine selected these intimate documents that reveal both the dedicated artist and the conflicted father, creating a portrait of someone forever seeking the right place to live and write.
Genres: literary-fiction, christian-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, biography-memoir, catholic
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: conflicted-protagonist, epistolary, search-for-identity
Setting: American Midwest, Ireland
Period: 20th Century
480 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Content warnings: depression, mental-illness