An Unfinished Season
“The book seems to fly by. Credit also goes to William Dufris, whose reading is both understated and highly effective. Dufris demonstrates a gift for dialogue, particularly in the scenes with Ravan and his girlfriend, Aurora Brule. But Dufris is most memorable when depicting Aurora’s father, Jack, who harbors haunting memories of WWII…Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
AudioFile
A New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books Pick of the Year
A Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Fiction
An Unfinished Season captures the postwar moment of the 1950s, a time of rabid anti-communism, worker unrest, and government corruption, when the modern world lay just over the horizon.
On the margins of Chicago's North Shore, nineteen-year-old Wilson Ravan watches as his father's life unravels. Gruff, unapproachable Teddy Ravan is confronting a strike and even death threats from union members who work at his printing business.
Wilson, in the summer before college, finds himself straddling three worlds: the newsroom, where he has landed a coveted job as a rookie reporter and where his colleagues find class struggle at the heart of every issue; the whirl of glittering North Shore debutante parties where he spends his nights; and the growing cold war between his parents at home. These worlds collide when he falls in love with the willful daughter of a renowned psychiatrist with a frightful past in World War II.
With unparalleled grace, Ward Just brings Wilson's circle to radiant life. Through his finely wrought portraits of a father and son, young lovers, and newsroom dramas, he also stirringly depicts an American political era.
Praise