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Rating: 
Summary: Classic Work
Review: Andres stories in this collection are short and sublime. Most deal with dysfunctional relationships, the search for and the newness of. The book opens with some sort of a mystery. Someone gets shot and you don't know what happened till the end. That's all i can tell you without ruining it. That story is also a mystery because it is quite unlike the others in the book. One other exception is a baseball story, which stays true to the theme of relationships when the star minor-leaguer's long-term relationship goes sour. Good writing and to the point story telling.
Rating:
Summary: a real pleasure to read
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Giant Among Writers
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Short stories at their best.
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Short stories at their best.
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: How I discovered Andre Dubus
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Dubus is THE storyteller of our time
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Dubus is THE storyteller of our time
Review: 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!
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