The Blood of the Lamb : A Novel

The most poignant of all De Vries's novels, The Blood of the Lamb is also the most autobiographical. It follows the life of Don Wanderhop from his childhood in an immigrant Calvinist family living in Chicago in the 1950s through the loss of a brother, his faith, his wife, and finally his daughter-a tragedy drawn directly from De Vries's own life. Despite its foundation in misfortune, The Blood of the Lamb offers glimpses of the comic sensibility for which De Vries was famous. Engaging directly with the reader in a manner that buttresses the personal intimacy of the story, De Vries writes with a powerful blend of grief, love, wit, and fury. This autobiographical novel of family tragedy by the author of Slouching Towards Kalamazoo “moves deftly from manic hilarity to manic fury, and back again” ( Newsday ). The most poignant of Peter De Vries’s novels, The Blood of the Lamb is also his most personal. It follows the life of Don Wanderhop from his childhood in an immigrant Calvinist family living in Chicago in the 1950s through the loss of a brother, his faith, his wife, and finally his daughter—a tragedy drawn directly from De Vries’s own life. Despite its basis in personal tragedy, The Blood of the Lamb offers glimpses of the comic sensibility for which De Vries was famous. Written with a powerful blend of grief, love, wit, and fury, De Vries’s “sensitive treatment of the death of a beloved child it has scarcely a superior in contemporary fiction" ( Chicago Tribune ). With a new Foreword by Jeffrey Frank The most poignant of all De Vries's novels, The Blood of the Lamb is also the most autobiographical.