Customer Reviews

Selected Stories

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Not to dismiss acknowledged contemporary story writers like Updike, or Carver, or Doyle or Oates or a dozen others you may have read in school or out, Andre Dubus is BREATHTAKING! He captures the angst of the internal, the behavior of the external, the glint of the physical detail, the subtlety of emotion like NO other contemporary writer. After reading hundreds of short story writers, I have never been so moved and learned so much about he human heart. Put down your DSM-IV, therapists, put away the existential tracts of Camus & Sartre, and PLEASE put away that post-modern numbing theory. Learn about life through the characters, places and situations you shall discover among these brilliant tales. Now, here is a true anecdote. I had read a story in this collection "Killings," and said to myself, this would make a FABULOUS film. I was all set to translate fiction to the screenplay genre. It was going to be a stunning work no studio would turn down. Then low and behold, it was all in vain. This story became "IN THE BEDROOM," the award-winning film. So obviously, my intuitions were confirmed. Read these stories for confirmation of what it means to be alive, for here you will discover the principle behind Joseoph Campbell's remarks about the meaning of myth: "Life is struggle; life is pain, but by God, you know you're ALIVE!

I was 17 and a senior in high school when I came across an article in the paper about a series of benefit readings that were being held to raise money to pay for the medical bills for Andre Dubus. I called a number and got a schedule, and then agonized over which Saturday reading I would attend - should I go to hear Kurt Vonnegut and E.L. Doctorow or John Irving and Stephen King? I ended up choosing the latter (mainly because I had a crush on John Irving!)

In the weeks leading up to the reading, I thought it might be a good idea to find out more about this Andre Dubus, so I went to the bookstore and bought Adultery and Other Choices. I was astonished. I immediately borrowed every Andre Dubus book that was available at the library and devoured every word. I'm a New Englander and was raised in the Catholic church, and I related to Mr. Dubus' stories.

At the reading that Saturday, I had the honor of meeting Mr. Dubus. He was in a hospital bed, and was obviously still suffering from the accident, but he was smiling and seemed to be a little surprised at the size of the crowd. He was gracious when I thanked him for his stories. It makes me sad that there will be no new Andre Dubus stories, but I am so grateful for the ones he gave us while he was here, all too briefly.

I return to Andre Dubus whenever I get hungry for a really good short story. However, after recently experiencing a Matt Fowler's revenge in the movie, "In the Bedroom," I revisited this 1996 collection of short stories. That movie is based on one of the twenty-three, stunning stories collected here, "Killings." Novelist Barbara Kingsolver has said that "a good short story cannot simply be Lit Lite." Rather, "it is the successful execution of large truths delivered in tight spaces." Confronting issues including a bereaved father's revenge ("Killings"), abortion ("Miranda over the Valley"), difficult relationships ("Adultery," "The Winter Father," "Voices from the Moon," "The Pretty Girl," "The Pitcher," "Leslie in California"), religion ("If They Knew Yvonne"), obesity ("The Fat Girl"), fatherhood ("A Father's Story"), rape ("The Curse"), sexuality and death, Dubus triumphs in delivering profound truths in these "tight spaces." You won't find happily-ever-after endings here. Rather, these are emotionally compelling stories that feel too real to be fiction. And they will leave you coming back for more.

G. Merritt

Dubus sets his tales along the Massachussets/New Hampshire border and seems to have turned it into his own Yoknapatawpha County. But what is really distinctive is the spiritual territory that he has carved out with these stories of decent men trying to be true to Catholic beliefs in the face of difficult circumstances. The men at the center of the stories are entrepreneurs, as opposed to professionals or workmen. They are brawny brawling types, fond of beer and cigarettes and women, love their wives (even ex-wives) and children deeply and they are immersed in the rituals of Catholicism. Here is the father of A Father's Story:

I go to bed early and sleep well and wake at four forty-five, for an hour of silence. I never want to get out of bed then, and every morning I know I can sleep for another four hours, and still not fail at any of my duties. But I get up, so have come to believe my life can be seen in miniature in that struggle in the dark of morning. While making the bed and boiling water for coffee, I talk to God: I offer Him my day, every act of my body and spirit, my thoughts and moods, as a prayer of thanksgiving, and for Gloria and my children and my friends and two women I made love with after Gloria left. This morning offertory is a habit from my boyhood in a Catholic school; or then it was a habit, but as I kept it and grew older it became a ritual. Then I say the Lord's Prayer, trying not to recite it, and one morning it occurred to me that a prayer, whether recited or said with concentration, is always an act of faith.

Most of the characters in the stories are similar--while recognizing their own limitations, they are making the effort to be good Christians, or, at the least, good people. In this story, the Father has reached a point in his life where he feels that he has achieved some sense of inner peace. But this peace is destroyed when his daughter comes to him for help and he embarks on a course that, while he feels it is justified, he knows is wrong.

In Voices from the Moon, the father falls in love with his son's ex-wife and over the course of the novel must confront both of his sons, his daughter and his ex-wife with this revelation. The recurring image in the story is that of communion. Each character has certain rituals, involving Mass or alcohol or cigarettes or food, wherein they seek an inner solitude in which they can be at peace. The father, in particular, is no longer a practicing Catholic, but he has built his home into a virtual monastery, with a deck, surrounded by woods, where he goes at night to think and dream. For him, the most troubling aspect of his predicament is the self-knowledge that he has transgressed the rules that make it possible for family members to trust one another and that, therefore, he could lose his son.

The stories are a real pleasure to read; it is all too rare in modern fiction to find writing that is so explicitly morally focussed. The certainty with which Dubus conveys the conviction that some things are right and others are wrong, even if we (or his characters) can't always measure up to the standard, is especially refreshing in this age of moral relativism.

One warning: there is a subtle aspect of misogyny to the stories that, while totally consistent with Catholic tradition, may be troubling to some readers. In both of these stories, men betray their own sense of what is right because of women. The recurrence of this theme is understandable and makes sense in the context of Dubus' broader moral outlook, but readers should be aware that it exists.

GRADE: A

Forget the minimalist wastelands created by Ray Carver. The real genius working in the past quarter-century (and getting much, much less acclaim) was Andre Dubus.

Shunning the hard-edged weariness of his contemporaries, Dubus filled his stories with life and faith and passion. This collection is a fine introduction to his writings and contains one of my all-time favorites with "Voices From the Moon." All the stories are accessible and as emotionally compelling as anything you'll read. There aren't words enough to praise.

At this point in my life, I have one major regret. I never sent Andre Dubus the letter I started to write many times, telling him how important his work was to me. This book is a very good collection of his amazing work. He tells very simple, beautiful stories that have a profound ability to resonate because you think, "I've been there" and yet the characters are very well-defined and often not the usual short story characters. I recommend Adultery, Voice from the Moon, The Fat Girl, Graduation, The Pretty Girl. Buy this book, you will not regret it....

This book contains the most amazing stories that I have ever read. Dubus writes about people of all ages dealing with issues like death, religion, and relationships; yet this description isn't enough. His themes are huge, but not overbearing or contrived. You'll love his characters for both their flaws and their virtues, and learn something about yourself even from stories dealing with things you've never experienced. I can't describe his writing in any way that doesn't sound cliche; yet, reading his stories, even old themes are new again under his treatment. His characters are so real that I almost expect them to be living down the street from me; without crushing the reader under unnecessary details, Dubus gives his characters a sense of past and reality that is unlike the ability of any other writer I have come across. I can't say enough about this book; don't pass it up. Dubus is amazing.

Andre Dubus died in late February, 1999. Through NPR, I was introduced to his work the day after his death, and I was intrigued by the way his words worked. I picked this book to learn more of his writing. This is a collection of 23 short stories, set in Boston, California and other places.

Dubus writes of people who are flawed, though not fatally. They struggle mightily with their hurts and fears, some of which is self-inflicted. In the end, despite some darkness in the stories, the characters find some form of release, or grace. The flaws remain, though the characters find a sort of redemption. Interestingly, even the redemption is flawed. No one lives happily ever after, but then, they don't need to.

"The Winter Father," a 20 page story, is about a recently divorced father, his children, and his new lover. There are no surprises in the story, but Dubus' writing draws one into the scenes. It's easy to imagine how it happens, and why. The father is flawed, yes, but we emphathize with his struggle to figure out his life. In him, spiritual contemplation and earthy smells roll together. There are glimpses of insight, but no magic bullet to make it all better.

"Graduation" is a ten page story of a woman who lives with her hidden past. There's tension in who she was and who she needs to be. A dysfunctional past sexual history is a cloud, always hanging overhead. The details are superb, setting scenes with fleeting images and cues. Dubus hints, pokes, and nudges and the unspoken becomes obvious. The lead character is hardly a paragon of virtue; nonetheless, we can relate to her aspirations and her dark past.