The library book club I facilitate decided to read this collection of short stories. I knew almost nothing about Andre Dubus, save that he is from MA and he has a relative with the same name who also writes books. After reading this collection, I'm not sure I can say I know any more about the writer, aside from the fact that he knows how to draw people and he knows New England.I'm not sure I can say I enjoyed this book. The characters Dubus created, from the naive to the hard drinking, hard smoking, cynical adults, felt very genuine to me. I might have known, or do currently know, some of these people. However, the lives they live and the personalities they represent are not terribly flattering pictures. When telling my friends about the stories I was reading, I said I found the stories depressing and could usually come up with one or two words to encapsulate the stories. There were two that I described as two word, CAPS LOCK ON, titles: SHARK ATTACK and PANIC ATTACK. The story of the shark attacks is interesting and sad, but I read it mostly as an observer looking in on this memory of tragedy. The story, Sunday Morning, hit me in a way I was not expecting. As one of the shorter stories in this collection, the full punch of the barely visible action happens as soon as you start reading. A woman has let her brand new boyfriend spend the night for the first time and in the morning, instead of blase chitchat, she launches into a panic attack retelling of finding out her friend Mona had been murdered. Mona, who at three months pregnant and totally in love, was shot in the face by her husband. The narrator is paranoid that love cannot exist if the relationship she held as the perfect example of love ended in cold calculated murder. I understood this narrator better that some of his other characters because I could feel the claustrophobia and anxiety that permeated the words she was speaking. I could sense the silence from her partner as he tried to adjust to this ball of hormones that just erupted into something entirely unexpected in front of him. I have been that woman, and its not a fun feeling. I too suffer from anxiety and have had panic attacks about bizarre, unlikely things (most recently that my boyfriend is a sociopath because he's, oddly enough, nice to me and I'm, unusually, happy). I guess that's what Dubus's stories are supposed to do though. They capture snapshots of real life that could easily be experienced by real people. The fact that most of the settings were in Boston or someplace in New England also made it easy to place characters and stories. If you like modern realistic fiction, New England settings, or just want something short that you can pick up and put down with relative ease, you might want to check out Dubus and his other writings. Possibly even Dirty Love by Andre Dubus III. However, I think I'm going to stick to my fantasy worlds and love stories that don't tend to reintroduce periods of stress or trauma into my world.
Le raccolte di Andre Dubus sono sempre una gradevole lettura, non solo perché i suoi racconti affascinano in modo sorprendente senza utilizzare chissà quali effetti speciali di parole e frasi e periodi e azioni. La loro bellezza sta tutta nell’avvolgere il lettore con la prosa, puntuale e soffice, tanto da farlo sentire a proprio agio, come a casa, riscaldato da un coperta in grado di tenerlo al sicuro e di proteggerlo dalle brutture del mondo esterno. È una specie di lettura che mette in pace con il mondo, un tipo diverso di lettura di evasione, nella quale ciò che si legge non è un qualcosa di frivolo, bensì qualcosa capace di dipingere il mondo meno spigoloso di quanto è; e anche quando vengono delineate alcune parti più brusche e appuntite, Dubus riesce a smussarle con un lavoro che non le rende affatto meno graffianti e violente, ma più digeribili agli occhi e alla mente. Una scrittura elegante che forse oggi è difficile ritrovare in altri autori.In questa sua ultima raccolta, la prima dopo l’incidente che lo costrinse su una sedia a rotelle, è facile intravedere l’ombra delle vicende personali, soprattutto lo stato in cui si trova lo scrittore, e forse proprio per questo i personaggi appaiono in un racconto per poi riapparire in un altro, cercando di mettere in mostra tutti gli aspetti caleidoscopici della loro personalità. Vengono messi in luce alcuni particolari, magari rendendo il personaggio solare, e poi lo stesso personaggio viene ripreso in un racconto successivo, andando a indagare il lato più ombroso e depresso di quest’ultimo. È un tentativo di raccontare la personalità a tutto tondo, di rendere più aderente possibile a quella che potrebbe essere la realtà: non una persona reale riportata sulla carta, e per forza di cose proprio per questo in qualche modo bidimensionale, ma una rappresentazione più profonda. Un tentativo ovviamente destinato a fallire, non tanto per la mancanza di bravura dell’autore, anzi (Dubus è uno scrittore fantastico di cui non ci si annoierebbe mai), quanto piuttosto per l’impossibilità di una resa ottimale. Nonostante questo, l’aspetto più particolare della raccolta, questa come anche le altre dell’autore americano, è che finisci di leggere un racconto e pensi di essere arrivato all’apice della goduria letterale che lo scrittore potrebbe mai regalarti, e poi invece inizi il racconto successivo e scopri di esserti sbagliato e di trovarti di fronte a nuove incredibili vette di scrittura. Vette che magari non sono giovani e non ancora erose dal tempo come le Alpi, ma più ondulate e “invecchiate” come alcune montagne più antiche, che hanno visto l’alba dei tempi. Se non avete voglia di leggere l’intero libro (eresia!) provate a gustarvi racconti come Una canzone d’amore o Benedizioni e ditemi se quanto scritto finora non corrisponde alla realtà. Per non parlare di Di notte, il racconto più delicato e struggente capace di portare il lettore alle lacrime.
What do You think about Dancing After Hours (1997)?
There are fourteen stories here, about love, fidelity, desire and loss. Intertwined with these tales are four linked snapshots of a single couple, called Ted and LuAnn, as they meet, marry and deal with the struggles of marital life.Dubus is a fine writer, evoking Raymond Carver and Richard Yates and completely understands this distinctive story form. His prose is strong and deft, if just a touch cold around the edges.“The earth itself was leaving with her sad and pitying husband, was drawing away from her. Stars fell. That was a song, and music would never again be lovely; it was gone with the shattering stars and coldly dying moon, the trees of such mortal green; gone with life itself.”
—Mark
You can tell this book was written after Dubus' accident. Several of the stories deal with once fully-functional men who feel humiliated and emasculated by injuries to their legs. Their wives leave them, their livelihoods are taken away, and they are in other ways deprived of the robustness of the lives they once lived. Only in the closing titular story has the character come to terms with his disability, and in may ways so do the characters around him, and it is a perfect closing chapter to what is otherwise a very somber collection. Dubus was the most powerful writer of stories dealing with married couples and the challenges they face - loss of love, the burden of children, betrayals and loneliness, jealousy of youth. He was so in tune with his character's thoughts, with their relations to each other and their lack of an ability to express them, that his stories often read like love letters written in a language of pain and longing. This is not an easy collection to get through but it is a rewarding one.
—Aaron Martz
I tutor immigrant students in ESL. My current learner is a well-educated Korean lady, who has a moderate level of literacy in English. I found this book in my library in the Young Adult section of my library. Although this has been designated at that level, I chose this book to give her practise in reading and interpretation of written English. As we read this together, we are both enjoying it! *Story #2, "A Love Song", seems to flow from DuBus' pen with a beautiful, powerful outpouring of words. Although brief, it impressed us with its sadness,strength and sense of realism.Although I chose to give a brief analysis of the preceding, it was apparent that DuBus is skillful in conveying the emotions of his subjects. These stories address the varieties of love, spanning the years from childhood through to the elderly. Loneliness, joy and simple comforts shine through these pages.* Many of the references in these tales were rather symbolic and initially difficult for my student to comprehend. After discussing these nuances, she was better able to grasp them.
—Barbara
