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About
In the summer of 1957, two writers are immersed in their craft at an artist's colony nestled in upstate New York when chance brings them together. Frances, a country northerner, as committed to her solitude as she is her faith, and Bernard, a gregarious Bostonian with a propensity towards mania and grand gestures, find themselves forming a friendship, and then a courtship, as they each discover a kindred spirit beneath the obvious differences between them. But, as they become inexorably entwined in each other's lives, they struggle with the dependence of their romance and the conflict it causes with their own dreams.
Inspired by the lives of Flannery O'Connor and Robert Lowell, who formed an unlikely connection after meeting at Yaddo in the late fifties, and told in a series of intimate letters between the protagonists, Francis and Bernard is a touching and bittersweet look at what happens when love, desire, hope, faith, and friendship collide.
Inspired by the lives of Flannery O'Connor and Robert Lowell, who formed an unlikely connection after meeting at Yaddo in the late fifties, and told in a series of intimate letters between the protagonists, Francis and Bernard is a touching and bittersweet look at what happens when love, desire, hope, faith, and friendship collide.
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Reviews
"Frances and Bernard portrays two writers drawn into a friendship sparked by mutual admiration. They elegantly convey their reflections, encouragements and chastisements in letters written over a span of 11 years... Bauer captures the style and language of the period with gleeful dexterity.... Bauer is masterful in whipping up the frenzy of Bernard's unstable certainty that she is the answer to hi
The Washington Post
"A story of conversion, shattered love and the loss of faith, recalling 20th century masters like Graham Greene and Walker Percy…Frances is refreshingly down-to-earth in her spiritual convictions…Bauer gets right… the shifting balance of literary ambition and emotional need, Yeats's old choice between perfection of the life or of the work. Bauer is herself a distinctive stylist who can write about
New York Times Book Review
"Graceful and gem-like.... Through Bauer's sharp, witty, and elegant prose, [Frances and Bernard] become vibrant and original characters.... These are not your typical lovebirds, but writers with fierce and fine intellects.... We are reminded of the power of correspondence-the flirtation of it, the nervousness, the delicious uncertainty of writing bold things and then waiting days, weeks, or even
The Boston Globe