The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 9 May 2012
by Andre Dubus
This small book is a collection of seven of Dubus's short stories previously published elsewhere. The title comes from the 2001 movie of the same name, which was adapted from the first story in the collection, "Killings". Dubus doesn't seem to be terribly well-known these days. He was an accomplished writer of short stories throughout his career, from the 1960s through the 90s, before his untimely death in 1999. (He is often confused with his son, Andre Dubus III, who is also a writer best known for House of Sand and Fog, but also the author of Townie which shares much of its tone with the elder Andre's stories.) The stories in this collection are intense and seem somehow deeply personal. Whether Dubus is effective in putting his own life into words, or in capturing some essence of an underlying intensity of living, the reader will decide. In each, one gets the sense of its main character's entire life, a sense of who these people really are, and in a way that is rare in today's deftly ironic literary landscape. Dubus describes men who are deeply involved in their relationships, moments vividly felt and often in the midst of extraordinary crisis. We read of one man's intent on revenge for his beloved son's murder. In "The Winter Father", another is newly divorced and finding a way to relate to his kids in this new order of things. One man fiercely protects his daughter against the random accidents of life, even to the detriment to his relationship with his god. In fact, a strain of modern Catholic spirituality runs through some of these stories. Dubus was a practicing Catholic, but was also a practiced enough observer of human frailty to cast an occasional critical eye on that belief. The stories are long on the background of their characters, so that the drama to come sneaks up on the reader. They are highly crafted, though become somewhat baroque in their language from time to time. Still, these are brilliantly constructed stories, really some of the best a discerning reader might find. Others have called Dubus a writer's writer, or even compared him to such greats as Chekhov. There is little reason to doubt these comparisons, based on the example of this book. Recommended.
See Also: [Townie by Andre Dubus III]