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November 11, 2004
Book Bites #6
Why did I not discover Andre Dubus earlier in life! His name has floated through popular culture lately: His story “Killings” was the basis for the independent film “In the Bedroom” several years ago (a fact I did not pick up on when I saw the movie and loved it). And of course “House of Sand and Fog,” a novel by his son Andre Dubus III, made it to the big screen last year. But only because of the persistent and unprompted swooning from one of the members of my writers group (thanks, Stephanie!) did I dip in to the elder Dubus’s body of work.
Dubus wrote only short stories, and he became a master. Every tale telescopes a whole life, and every sentence drips with emotion. Normally the snobbish side of me would turn its nose up at movie tie-ins, but this slim volume with an unnecessary preface from “In the Bedroom” director Todd Field proved a most satisfying introduction. In my favorite selection, “The Winter Father,” a young divorcé’s guilt towards his children begins to melt with the snow; in “The Fat Girl,” a studious dieter betrays her true self; in “All the Time of the World,” a thirty-something woman jaded by the sexual revolution finds the unexpected promise of love. The sentences are elegant and keenly psychological, practically each a little aphorism of feeling. These are stories to read again and again, to uncover their craft.
As a bonus, click here for an audio clip of the younger Dubus talking about his own work and his father’s influence.
Posted by Rachel at November 11, 2004 01:22 PM
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