Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Remember Ben Clayton
    Remember Ben Clayton
    Remember Ben Clayton
    Audiobook13 hours

    Remember Ben Clayton

    Written by Stephen Harrigan

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    New York Times best-selling author Stephen Harrigan lit up the publishing world with his Spur Award-winning The Gates of the Alamo. The remarkable follow-up to that acclaimed hit, Remember Ben Clayton further cements Harrigan's place as a premier voice in American fiction. Exiled to Texas with his grown daughter, sculptor Francis "Gil" Gilheaney is commissioned to create a statue for a man who recently lost his son in WWI. But as work on the statue progresses, secrets slowly reveal themselves and Gil's fragile family threads begin to fray.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateNov 25, 2011
    ISBN9781461847885
    Remember Ben Clayton

    More audiobooks from Stephen Harrigan

    Related to Remember Ben Clayton

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      March Fiction

      Feb 15, 2022

      Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson (Century, £20) In 2018 the ever-prolific James Patterson got together with Bill Clinton to write the best-selling The President Is Missing: a novel that combined Clinton’s insider knowledge with Patter

      2 min read

    • Article

      'A Woman Of No Importance' Finally Gets Her Due

      Apr 18, 2019

      Virginia Hall was an American spy who worked for Britain and the U.S. and played a key role in undermining the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. Her story was rarely told — until now.

      5 min read

    • Article

      'The Reformatory' Tells A Story Of Ghosts, Abuse, Racism — And Sibling Love

      Nov 2, 2023

      Tananarive Due's haunting, unflinching novel delves deep into the realities of the Jim Crow South and the very real horrors that took place at Florida reformatory schools in the 1950s.

      3 min read

    • Article

      February’s BOOK CLUB

      Jan 5, 2023

      River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer (£18.99, HB, Headline) It’s Barbados 1834 and slavery has been abolished, but former slaves must work for another six years – for free! In an act of resistance, Rachel heads off through the Caribbean and South A

      4 min read

    • Article

      'The Heart's Invisible Furies' Is the Funny, Touching Story of an Irish Everyman

      Sep 1, 2017

      Boyne's new novel follows its protagonist throughout the decades, from birth in 1945 to age 70, and the story encompasses a great deal of history.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The 10 Best Novels

      Dec 19, 2016

      The 10 Best Novels
      3 min read

    • Article

      Top 10 Books

      Nov 18, 2022

      Top 10 Books
      1 min read

    • Article

      Best-sellers

      Feb 25, 2018

      Rankings for hard-cover books sold in Southern California, as reported by selected book stores: ___ Fiction 1."The Great Alone," by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's: $28.99) A family discovers it is in peril after the father, a returning Vietnam War POW,

      1 min read

    • Article

      'The Plot' Works As Literary Satire, But Its Mystery Fizzles

      May 16, 2021

      Jean Hanff Korelitz's tale of dirty deeds in the world of letters skewers pompous male authors with sly humor — but her approach to the central mystery might have you guessing the ending too soon.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Saboteur Of Auschwitz

      Sep 12, 2019

      Author Colin Rushton Publisher Summersdale Publishers Price £8.99 Released Out now When soldier Arthur Dodd returned to England following VE Day on 8 May 1945, he was carrying a heavy burden that extended beyond the hardships of serving in World Wa

      1 min read

    • Article

      Marketing Lincoln

      Apr 6, 2021

      Marketing Lincoln
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Remember Ben Clayton

    4.5/5

    29 ratings5 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Historical fiction about a West Texas rancher who commissions a statue to commemorate his son Ben, killed in France during WWI, in an attempt to heal the guilt he feels over their contentious relationship. The book is a character study, with all the primary characters and a good number of supporting characters fleshed out to a degree where I sensed their desires, motivations, internal conflicts, ambitions, and regrets. Both the rancher and the sculptor guard hidden secrets from the past, which adversely impact their relationship and respective family dynamics. I selected this book since it features art in a prominent role, and was rewarded by a beautifully detailed description of how to create a bronze sculpture, not only the process but the artistic aspirations. The plot is wide-ranging in scope, featuring such components as:•what is was like to be a soldier during WWI on the Western Front•descriptions of the West Texas ranching life•an abduction by the Comanche and being assimilated into a tribe•a daughter living in the shadow of her famous father•a friend of the dead soldier learning to live with a severe disfigurement•an artist’s desire to leave a legacyI appreciated the author including relevant historical elements, such as references to Joske’s department store in San Antonio, or the methods of post-WWI reconstruction of the French countryside. Harrigan’s writing clearly evokes a past time and place. Highly recommended to readers who appreciate stories of family dynamics, who enjoy historical fiction, who seek out books containing topics related to art, or who favor deeply developed characters.
    • 4/5
      Read for library fiction book group. This was the 2014 Gulf Coast Reads Winner.

      "He had no more responsibility to believe in it than he did to believe in the nightmares of his own childhood." One of the best lines from the whole book and could be about many of the characters in the novel.

      Very well written and I will look into the author's other novel.



    • 5/5
      An excellent novel on the effects of war as well as a look at how a sculptor works. I started out not particularly liking the book, but it quickly grew on me. I read it in conjunction with Gulf Coast Reads and for my Book Club. I found the characters of Maureen and Arthur particularly sympathetic. I have also known so many men like Lamar Clayton - quiet and reserved and unable to show grief. A beautifully told novel of art, remembrance and World War I.
    • 5/5
      Stephen Harrigan’s Remember Ben Clayton is a brilliant piece of writing. I use five consistent characteristics of good fiction to measure my reaction to a novel: fully developed characters, intriguing plot, pacing that matches plot, compelling prose, and realistic setting. If Remember Ben Clayton were a baseball player, it would, in fact, be one of those rare “five tool” players (based there on average, power, speed, throwing, and defense) because it delivers on all five of the qualities I most admire in a work of fiction. The book is filled with interesting characters. Ben Clayton, the title character, grew up on a remote Texas ranch under the care of a demanding father and longtime housekeeper. Lamar Clayton, Ben’s grieving father, is a man filled with secrets and regrets, the worst of which directly impacted his relationship with Ben. Francis “Gil” Gilheaney is a respected sculptor whose stubborn pride has forced him to accept new commissions outside of New York City because he has offended that city’s artistic power structure, effectively burning his bridges there. Maureen is Gil’s adult daughter, a never-married woman who has devoted her own life to helping her father in his work. In addition, there is a young soldier, horribly scarred and deformed from battle, who has chosen to stay in France at the end of the war rather than face his friends and family as he is now. He, too, plays a key role in Stephen Harrigan’s story.Lamar Clayton wants to place a memorial to his son on a remote plateau to which the boy would often ride when he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. Ben’s body is still buried in France near the World War I battlefield on which he died, and Lamar hopes to find comfort in seeing a likeness of Ben and his horse where the boy spent so much time. Gil, who now lives in San Antonio, accepts the commission and soon comes to believe that the piece has the potential to be the best, and most genuinely artistic, work he has ever done – something that will be admired long after his own death even though very few people will ever actually see it. Maureen is there to help in the research and construction of the piece’s several stages (a fascinating process in itself that Harrigan walks the reader through in some detail).Things get complicated when Gil and Maureen, as part of their research into the character of young Ben Clayton, come to sense that there is much more to Ben’s relationship with his father than Lamar is willing to share. Gil and Maureen, believing that they need to solve the mystery surrounding that relationship if Gil is truly to capture the essence of his subject, begin to pick at the scabs of Lamar’s guilt. They will be shocked by the heartrending truth they discover about the Claytons – and about themselves.Rated at: 5.0
    • 5/5
      Stephen Harrigan is the author of the best-selling novel, The Gates of the Alamo. His newest work of fiction is Remember Ben Clayton. Francis “Gil” Gilheaney is a talented sculptor who moves his family from New York to San Antonio, Texas to take advantage of a growing reputation for western-themed works of art. When Lamar Clayton, a crusty rancher, offers him a commission to create a statue to commemorate his son, Ben, killed in World War I, Gil sees it as an opportunity to sculpt a lasting legacy of his life’s work. But everyone involved with this project harbors secrets. Set in Texas and France in the aftermath of “the war to end all wars,” Harrigan has captured the brutality of war, family relationships, and the role and meaning of art.I must admit, I was not excited about this novel when our local NPR station asked me to review and interview the author for a segment. Literature of the western US is not what I read – as faithful fans of RabbitReader well know! But I read the first chapter and I was hooked. [Right now, I only have an uncorrected proof. I will insert the paragraphs from page 9 when I get a trade edition.]The battle scene of World War I and the cleanup in the aftermath of the war particularly affected me. We have so many novels on this subject – Remarque, Crane, Heller, Mailer, O’Brien – yet time and again we plunge our young men, and now women, into war. Why haven’t we learned – and remembered -- the lesson of the horrors of war?The beginning of the novel’s main story-line – about 1920 – was a bit slow at first, but it had enough meat to keep me chewing. As I began to delve into the secrets these characters held, my interest piqued. As the novel reached its climax, one secret after another came out; I expected one or two, but the majority came as a surprise.The prose is sparse and reminds me of Hemingway, but it fit the characters perfectly. The musings of the characters on art and its role in society – and what it means to an individual artist – were exceptionally absorbing. I could not help comparing the extensive research, planning, playing with his materials to the same things writers go through when creating a poem, a story, or a novel.This novel should appeal to a wide audience – fans of cowboy lit, fans of historical fiction, and artists of all stripes. Due for publication in May of this year, I will repost this review then. 5 stars--Jim, 4/15/11