Selected Stories of Andre Dubus

Andre Dubus led a long, arduous life. He witnessed murders of family members and spent much of his life confined to a wheelchair. Like some of the world's most brilliant writers (Kafka comes to mind), Dubus was able to transform his personal agony into pathos. His characters are at once enormously life-like and bitterly sweet. Sometimes the prose dissolves into talk of wrathed souls and yearning hearts, without feeling cloying or saccharine, a great feat for any writer. Much like Raymond Carver (although a bit more detailed), Dubus is able to craft an entire life in the span of 10-30 pages.He is a character writer, so don't expect bombastic plot lines or clear-cut resolutions. Instead we are treated to staid slices-of-life, usually spanning only a few days. Standouts include the seminal "Killings" which was turned into an excellent film by Todd Field entitled "In The Bedroom". The story concerns a father's hunt for his son's killer. It's all surprisingly easy, but it leaves a mark on the father's soul. Similarly, in the story "Rose", we meet a character through the foil of an unnamed narrator who frequents, like many of Dubus' denizens, Timmy's bar, a ramshackle but friendly establishment. Rose has been wronged by her ex-husband and the grim details of their final night together gave me chills, purely from an entertainment standpoint. When the smoke settles however, you realize how scarred Rose was by her ordeal- mentally as well as physically. I really felt her pain.Of course there are some humorous, touching stories laced between the stories of battered women and murder. "If You Knew Yvonne" is about a boy's struggle with "self-abuse" conflicting with his faith (Dubus was a very devout man), culminating in his use of a young lady to fulfill his desires to point that she remarks, "It's all we ever do, Harry, it's all we ever do..." In context, this is a deeply heartbreaking line. I could really identify. We've all had relationships where we used people and then moved on, only to regret it later.There are some throwaway pieces such as the first story and some stories about soldiers that didn't interest me, but overall this is a really poignant and well-styled collection, minimum yet multi-layered, dark yet enduring. Dubus' character sketches mesh with the hurting world and draw to life a hope in humanity.

Dubus is often called a "writer's writer," which in general seems a dubious compliment. Are writers truly capable of identifying subtleties in a colleague's work that the average reader can't? When a writer is granted this appellation, I think it's more likely his work is viewed as stylish but slow-paced, elliptical, the equivalent of an art house film or avant-garde play. A select few--the cultured--will enjoy it; the rest of us stumble through wishing we were reading John Grisham. This is particularly true of Dubus's stories. Let me admit I'm biased by having read Dubus's son's memoir "Townie," in which Andre Dubus III paints an ambivalent portrait of his father. "Townie" is in some ways the polar opposite of Dubus's "Selected Stories." Where the stories are meandering and contemplative, "Townie" is tightly focused, compulsively readable. But maybe the larger issue here is the treatment of the subject matter. Both books address divorce, for instance, but come at it from different angles. Dubus's son, in "Townie," suffers the collateral damage of his parents' divorce. His evocation of this time, when he and his siblings were thrust into a hardscrabble life, is visceral and moving. But the senior Dubus, though returning to the themes of divorce and infidelity repeatedly, approaches them as though from a great distance. There is no immediacy, nothing at stake. His characters are almost exclusively working class--soldiers, waitresses, stable owners--yet their thoughts often emerge on the page as poetical abstract philosophical inquiries. I'm not saying working class people can't think deeply about things; it's that these reveries intrude on the narrative momentum of the stories. It's as though Dubus feared his story wasn't "literary" enough, so he thought he better incorporate a flowery interlude to wow the critics. But it's the old adage of "show don't tell." Dubus does too much telling, not enough showing, and it's what separates him from better writers like Raymond Carver and Richard Ford, who explored the same alienated working class people in their stories. Dubus's stories drag on too long; he doesn't seem confident about where to begin or end. And he can't seem to escape his preoccupations: divorce and infidelity, as mentioned, but also Catholicism and Marine culture. The facts of Dubus's life, the failed relationships, he tries to transpose into art but without any of the attendant emotion. One almost gets the sense none of it caused him undue grief. The essays in "Broken Vessels," written after the accident that confined him to a wheelchair, seem more plainspoken, closer to the truth. The stories are okay, but I would recommend reading the essays instead, then read "Townie."

Andre Dubus is one of the best writers I have come across in a very long time. Being such a huge fan of short fiction I couldn't pass up this anthology. Especially at such a good price and sheer volume of stories in included in the book.Normally I go for short horror or science fiction stories so Mr. Dubus stories were quite the change up for me. I was not disappointed in the least!!His experiences in the Marine Corps shows throughout many of the tales and as a wife of a former Marine I enjoyed those stories immensely. Hearing about training in Quantico, VA was very interesting. As my husband's training was done on Paris Island. But the descriptions of boot camp were still alike just the same. But Andre most assuredly has a much more descriptive way of telling of itPlus spinning it into so many stories of triumph and tribulations makes it so compelling.I am in not a religious woman and most of the stories had to something to do with the Catholic faith. I was not deterred from the stories because of that fact. Actually I was pulled further into some for my lack of knowledge of Catholicism.The range of ideas of the stories is incredible. Marriage, love, divorce, religion, to military and so much more!The book shows just about every emotion there is in this life.Andre shows the reader just how much we will do for love, respect, honour, a stranger and sometimes just out of self pity or vengeance.I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes to read. There is something in this anthology for readers of all types

A wonderful writer of precise time place and character - both compassionate of human folly and sharp in his estimation of what it means

Dubus is no Hemingway - he doesn't write about adventure and warfare - but he brings a masculine viewpoint to events on the (mainly) domestic front, one that might be thought to be under-represented in today's literary short fiction.

Paid for it but never got it. Hope it was good. A disgrace. Be careful of ordering from this sourcve