A wry, moving collection of letters from the late J. F. Powers, "a comic writer of genius" (Mary Gordon)
Best known for his 1963 National Book Award-winning novel, Morte D'Urban, and as a master of the short story, J. F. Powers drew praise from Evelyn Waugh, Flannery O'Connor, Saul Bellow, and Philip Roth, among others. Though Powers's fiction dwelt chiefly on the lives of Catholic priests, he long planned to write a novel of family life, a feat he never accomplished. He did, however, write thousands of letters, which, selected here by his daughter, Katherine A. Powers, become an intimate version of that novel, dynamic with plot and character. They show a dedicated artist, passionate lover, reluctant family man, pained aesthete, sports fan, and appreciative friend.
At times wrenching and sad, at others ironic and exuberantly funny, Suitable Accommodations is the story of a man at odds with the world and, despite his faith, with his church. Beginning in prison, where Powers spent more than a year as a conscientious objector, the letters move on to his courtship, marriage, comically unsuccessful attempt to live in the woods, life in the Midwest and in Ireland, an unorthodox view of the Catholic Church, and an increasingly bizarre search for "suitable accommodations," which included three full-scale emigrations to Ireland.
Here, too, are encounters with such diverse people as Thomas Merton, Eugene McCarthy, Robert Lowell, Theodore Roethke, Sean O'Faolain, Frank O'Connor, Dorothy Day, and Alfred Kinsey.
An NPR Best Book of 2013

J. F. Powers; Edited by Katherine A. Powers

Contents
Introduction by Katherine A. Powers
A Note on the Text
1. Fortunately, I am under no obligation to earn a living wage
September 8, 1942-November 6, 1945
2. With you it will be like being ten years old again
November 12, 1945-November 29, 1945
3. Should a giraffe have to dig dandelions?
December 4, 1945-January 26, 1946
4. It would seem you have the well-known business sense
January 29, 1946-February 14, 1946
5. I am like Daniel Boone cutting my way through that bourgeois wilderness
February 14, 1946-April 26, 1946
6. Something seems to be missing, and you say it's me
Memorial Day 1946-April 3, 1947
7. Camaraderie
July 9, 1947-October 14, 1947
8. I've a few stipulations to read into the rural-life-family-life jive
November 6, 1947-April 5, 1948
9. The truth about me is that I just don't qualify as the ideal husband
July 1948-Christmas 1948
10. If you can't win with me, stop playing the horses!
January 18, 1949-September 6, 1949
11. I'm beyond the point where I think the world is waiting for me as for the sunrise
September 19, 1949-October 7, 1951
12. The water, the green, the vines, stone walls, the pace, all to my taste
November 7, 1951-November 3, 1952
13. In Ireland, I am an American. Here, I'm nothing
Christmas 1952-June 3, 1953
14. A place too good to believe we live in
October 5, 1953-April 14, 1954
15. I had a very fine time-laughing as I hadn't in years
April 23, 1954-July 14, 1954
16. There have been times, though not recently, when it has seemed to me that I might escape the doom of man
September 2, 1954-January 10, 1956
17. Four children now, Jack. And this year, the man said, bock beer is not available in this area
February 29, 1956-August 24, 1956
18. The Man Downstairs is entertaining tonight. Pansy and Dwight are quiet
September 25, 1956-January 12, 1957
19. This room is like a dirty bottle, but inside is vintage solitude
January 23, 1957-August 1, 1957
20. Scabrous Georgian, noble views of the sea, turf in the fireplaces
October 14, 1957-February 13, 1958
21. The office is in Dublin, on Westland Row
February 26, 1958-July 23, 1958
22. About Don, I haven't been the same since I read your letter
July 26, 1958-November 29, 1958
23. Back and wondering why
December 22, 1958-August 25, 1959
24. The J. F. Powers Company: "The Old Cum Permissu Superiorum Line"
September 19, 1959-June 14, 1960
25. No money is the story of my life
July 6, 1960-April 3, 1962
26. The day was like other days, with the author napping on the floor in the middle of the afternoon
April 12, 1962-September 1962
27. As a winner, let me say you can't win, not on this course
October 23, 1962-August 29, 1963
28. Ireland grey and grey and grey, then seen closer, green, green, green
September 23, 1963-Christmas 1963
Afterword: Growing Up in This Story
Appendix: Cast of Characters
Source Notes
Acknowledgments
Index