Selected Stories

I just finished reading Dubus's Selected Stories for the fourth time. I've also read his other books, and I'm glad to report that Dubus is one of the few writers whose work can be read again and again with increased pleasure, a rare enough thing. So many kinds of stories are packed into this volume -- short stories and novellas, deep character studies ("A Father's Story"), topical stories ("The Fat Girl"), "high concept"... Read Full 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... Read Full 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... Read Full 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... Read Full 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... Read Full Review