THREE NIGHTS IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH. de Laidlaw, Brett - (1988)

New York:: Norton,, (1988). Hardcover first edition -. Fine in fine dust jacket.. First printing. The author's very highly praised first novel, set during three days of a recordbreaking Minnesota cold spell culminating in a ferocious blizzard, this tells of the disintegration of a family. The father, Ulysses Turner Fraser or U.T., is disillusioned professor of English who has failed to win fame as a poet, and also feels he has failed as a teacher and father and he "fatalistically finds himself drawn to the high bridge over the Mississippi, where he ends his life. Ironically, he will never know how much he was loved, appreciated and admired; how influential his life has been. Laidlaw's prose grows in power as he delineates the nuances of human relationships revealed in the mundane details of family life. Readers may find themselves surprised by the emotional impact this cerebral novel delivers." (Publishers Weekly) Dust jacket praise from Annie Dillard (who called it "extraordinary. . sometimes the prose takes a turn so fast it raises the hair on the back of your neck"), Paul Horgan, Stephen Becker and more. 255 pp.