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Article: Henry Adams, Sleuth
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- September 17, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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PANAMA
By Eric Zencey
Farrar Straus & Giroux. 375 pp. $24
THIS NOVEL by a little-known writer is a genuine rarity in
contemporary American fiction: a serious entertainment. It is the
story, largely if not entirely believable, of a few weeks in the life
of Henry Adams, the historian and memoirist. It is set mostly in
Paris and takes place in 1892, a time that was critical both for that
city and for Adams himself: for Paris because a scandal over the
finances of the Panama Canal venture threatened to bring down the
government, for Adams because he was in a long period of emotional
and professional drift following the suicide seven years earlier of
his wife, Clover.
If this seems unlikely raw ...