The Cage Keeper And Other Stories (2001) - Plot & Excerpts
The Cage Keeper and other Stories by Andre Dubus is a colllective reading of lives that fall between the cracks. A beautiful arrangement of strange, tragic, and liberating things, Andre Dubus uses his direct, and sometimes humorous language, to tell stories no one thinks to tell. Starting with The Cage Keeper”, a worker in a halfway house is kidnapped by an inmate and friend, and forced to drive him to freedom. The second, “Duckling girl” is the touching and heart-wrenching story of a girl who escapes the abuse of her father only to find more abuse in a pair of young men. “Wolves in the Marsh” is a story of a young boy, hunting alone and his self discovery. “Forky” is a haunting story of a man struggling with life after being released from prison. “Mountains” is a story of a waitress who betrays her lover, who is a war vet dealing with PTSD. In “White Trees, Hammer Moon” a man is wildly unprepared for a family camping trip, as his mind is occupied with his looming prison sentence. And finally ending with a young man's acceptance of an ending love affair in, “The Last Dance”. Andre Dubus uses clear, concise and to-the-point descriptions and language to tell his stories. In his story, “The Cage Keeper” his quick descriptions of the people around him and his tenderly mysterious characters paint a colorful portrait for his readers to walk around in. In “The Duckling Girl”, my heart broke for his character Lorilee. His messy descriptions made me queasy and anxious as he touches at something so sensitive for any female to read. Andre Dubus definitely has taken a liking to touching on sensitive topics, things that cause the most amount of tension for the reader and his characters; something to make you lose sleep. This is the story that affected me the most, maybe because in all his subtle language his words hit so hard. Maybe that is one of his faults, at least in my opinion; I found that this is not one of those books that I “can't put down”. In fact, in reading it I often found myself having to get up and walk away from it, finding the material too much to handle all in one sitting, but it did not fail to intrigue me. “Forky” tore me apart with the Dubus' emotional characters. His word choice and sentence structure like, “I turned and stuck it in his face and watched him turn to butter” contributes to a haunting narration of a man released from prison. He is so casual in his descriptions that it catches me off guard as a reader. “White Trees, Hammer Moon” was another favorite of mine because it was also so rich with emotion. The main character is being sent away to prison for a year and is camping with his family before hand. This story, again, is filled with such subtle emotion from the genuine characters Dubus creates. “The Last Dance” Was a little difficult for me to get into because I found all the dialogue to be overwhelming and difficult to read and understand. The characters weren't as relateable as I would have liked them to be. In “Mountains” I found myself hating the main character, Sally, mostly because I sympathized with Rick. I did not like what was happening and the story, beside that was really hard to get into. All in all Andre Dubus does a remarkable job at creating genuine characters, telling lively, tragic and heart-wrenching stories, and leaving a lasting impression.
A collection of short stories by the author of House of Sand and Fog, The Cage Keeper and Other Stories delve into the actions, thoughts, and motives of criminals, ex-cons, and those who work in the criminal justice system, and into the lives of those who fall between in the cracks of society. In the title story, a halfway house worker is kidnapped by one of the inmates, Elroy, and forced to drive Elroy to Canada, to freedom. Along the way, Allen discovers why Elroy killed and as a result struggles to come to terms with his role in keeping Elroy locked up.In "Duckling Girl," a teenager seeks relief from her sexually abusive father with two similarly abusive teenage boys. "Wolves in the Marsh" is about a young boy’s coming of age as he goes hunting alone. In "Forky," for which Dubus won a National Magazine Award for Fiction, an ex-con is haunted by abuse he suffers immediately upon being released from prison. "Mountains" is told from the viewpoint of Sally, a waitress, who loves a Vietnam vet with post traumatic stress syndrome. In "White Trees, Hammer Moon," a man finds himself unprepared for a family camping trip in New Hampshire while knowing he'll be headed to prison soon, and in the final short story, "Last Dance," tells the story of a young man excepting the end of an affair.Of the seven stories, there were only two I could really slip into -- "The Cage Keeper" and "Mountains" -- with the other five either not capturing my attention or failing to have characters I could understand. With those short stories I did enjoy, Dubus was great at delving into the thoughts and reasoning behind who his characters are and where they are coming from. And how can I not love that cover? It's so fitting as it echos the dark and foreboding nature of the tales and the movement of the characters. Anyways, as this is my first time reading a collection of short stories rather than an individual story, I hope this will not continue to be the case with every collection I read.
What do You think about The Cage Keeper And Other Stories (2001)?
This collection of stories focuses on characters living on the margins, many dealing with situations that are challenging. They are not always easy to read, but they feel real.The story The Cage Keeper's main character is a worker in a halfway house, a job he took on through family connections. When one of the inmates goes off the rails, he finds himself struggling to deal with the situation.Duckling Girl has two characters that end up connecting, a sad illiterate girl, abused and resigned to her life situation, and a man who takes a step away from his privileged life as he plans a life to help those in difficult situations.Wolves in the Marsh has a young boy who has a moment of personal growth as he hunts alone in the marsh near his home.Forky has a man recently released from prison, entering his first relationship since his release and dealing with his issues from his incarceration.Mountains is the account of a waitress, unhappy in her relationship with an ex-soldier struggling with PTSD, as she looks for an escape from her sadness.White Trees, Hammer Moon has a man who is about to go to prison taking his two estranged stepchildren on a camping trip as a farewell gesture before he leaves.Last Dance is the account of a night-time turtle hunt from a man doing this for the first time with an old friend and his mentor.Dubus's writing is casual and matter of fact, yet somehow brings the emotions to the fore. His reading of the book emphasized this, with his voice just reading on calmly despite the desperation and sadness the words evoked.
—Shonna Froebel
