Customer Reviews

In the Bedroom: Seven Stories by Andre Dubus

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Usually I shy away from short story collections, but a friend whose opinion I value highly recommended this book by the well-respected author, Andre Dubus. She was right. These 7 stories are masterful, displaying the quiet power within the decisions we make as we live through life's seemingly small moments. The award-winning movie titled In the Bedroom with Cissie Spacek was made from one of these stories.
A bewitching and profound collection that should be on every serious reader's bookshelf.

The thing about this book that people have told me they didn't like was that it was what they found in the newspaper. It is very similar to the world that we live in. The people seem really enough to pop off the page and enter your life. Talk for instance the story The Killings, also the the basis for the moving In The Bedroom. That is something that has happenend in this strange world that we live in. And it is what this amazing author brings to a table. When I first read Dubus I was unsure of his brillance but after reading In The Bedroom, I will not question him again. It is remarkable how well he wrote and knew the people he was writing about.
This book at times almost reads like memoirs. And at other times not so much like anything you have ever read before. Take a chance with a different type of writing.

These short stories could be of interest, but I cannot share the enthusiasm of other readers. To me they are lengthy monologues by a lonesome soul, whispering to itself about trivialities. I will avoid Andre Dubus. gerborg

Have seen the film which is based of Killings (In The Bedroom) I felt compelled to read this book, not just Killings, but the sixth other stories as well. After reading them, I noticed that the best parts of the stories are when he desribes the characters in a particulary strong emotional state. In Fat Girl, you can sympathize with her when her husband tells her he only married her because she was skinny a beautiful. In A Fathers Story, the way Dubus describes what the Father did after his wife eft, cleaning the kitchen, the emotion is almost real.

There was not one story i hated, though I did like some more than others. My favorites were A Fathers Story, Rose, and Fat Girl. My least favorite was All The Time In The World....I didn't really care for it until the end.

Something Dubus does is that instead of describing the characters physical appearance, he describes their emotional appearance. Their fears, secrets, hopes, the things that are more interesting. He provides a roadmap for the upcoming tale, and in some of the stories, it almost feels like you're getting a two for one deal. Andre Dubus is a masterful author.

It says something that a spare, tight little story like 'Killers' could be the basis for an entire critically-acclaimed movie (In the Bedroom, starring Sissy Spacek and other fine actors and actresses). But Dubus's writing is simply that powerful and that descriptive. If you haven't seen the movie, by the way, the title story focuses on a family whose son is murdered by his lover's ex, setting into motion a plan for revenge. I've rarely had the pleasure of reading a writer who is able to say so much in so few pages.

My first reaction to the title of the collection was one of skepticism. After all, the story the movie IN THE BEDROOM is based on is the short story KILLINGS. I feared this was a hastily put-together collection designed to cash in on the film's success. I was wrong. The stories collected here are the some of the finest Dubus wrote. It is a perfect introduction to the new Dubus reader. If the reader enjoys this collection of seven stories, they will progress naturally to the SELECTED STORIES collection;then on to his non-fiction. It is a journey well worth taking. The established Dubus reader might enjoy the new book of tributes titled ANDRE DUBUS: TRIBUTES. It is available on Amazon. Contributors include Tobias Wolff, James Lee Burke, Andre Dubus 111, Frederick Busch, and many other fine writers.