Remember Ben Clayton

by Harrigan, Stephen

• ISBN13: 9780307265814
• ISBN10: 0307265811
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-24
• Publisher: Knopf

Summary

A powerful new novel from the author of the best-sellingThe Gates of the Alamo. Francis "Gil" Gilheaney is a sculptor of boundless ambition, whose pride has driven him from New York into artistic exile in Texas just after World War I. His adult daughter, Maureen, serves as her fatherrs"s assistant, her own artistic ambitions set aside for his. When Lamar Clayton, an enigmatic, taciturn rancher, offers Gil a commission to create a memorial statue of his son, Ben, who was killed in the war, Gil seizes an opportunity to create what he thinks will be his greatest achievement. As work proceeds on the statue, it becomes clear to Gil and Maureen that Lamar is guarding a secret that haunts his relationship with Ben even in death. But Gil is haunted as well: by the fear that his work will be forgotten and by a lie whose discovery could cost him his daughterrs"s love. As the novel unfolds, we are given a brilliant evocation of the brutal aftermath of World War I, and a deeply moving story about the bonds between fathers and children, and the purpose and power of art.