"A Father's Story"
In some ways this story sneaks up on you. The man telling the story is in his fifties and he talks about his previous life with his wife and four children, and his life now, after his wife left and took the children. Twelve years after she left, the children are grown although his youngest, a daughter, is only twenty and still visits him once a year and meets her old friends in the area. All of a sudden the story switches to a traumatic event that happened when his daughter visited, and tells about that event and how it has affected his life and hers since then. Religion and morality play a big part in this story. Of course, family relationships also have a role.
I liked the story, although I could not fully relate to it. I love the author's writing, and how he tells the story.
This story is collected in Selected Stories of Andre Dubus, originally published in 1988. There are 23 stories by Andre Dubus II (1936–1999) in this book. Not to be confused with his son, Andre Dubus III, who is also a writer of novels and short stories.
I first learned about this author at Patricia Abbott's blog in these posts on two other stories... "Leslie in California" and "The Winter Father."
I tried to find any book of the author's short stories at last year's book sale but failed. This year, I was lucky and found this book on the last day.
This was my first experience reading anything by that author. I will be reading more stories from this collection.
8 comments:
This sounds pretty autobiographical if you have read his son's memoir, TOWNIE.
You know a writer has talent if you were drawn into the story even though you haven't had similar experiences, Tracy. And this story does sound compelling in its way. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I'm glad you managed to find this collection. I'm not familiar with him or his son, but this collection sounds interesting.
Patti, I checked out Townie, and I can see why you would say that. The memoir sounds interesting.
Margot, reading this story whetted my appetite for more of his stories, even though I have read them many of them are dark and gritty.
Kelly, I had not heard of either of these authors until I saw the posts at Patti's blog. From what I can see, the son has written more novels and not so many short stories. Andre Dubus II wrote The House of Sand and Fog, which was adapted to film. Andre Dubus II was very well known for his short stories and some of those were made into films.
I loved The House of Sand of Fog!
Marmee, that is good to hear. I had wondered if I should give that book a try. Based on what I read about it, House of Sand and Fog sounds like a good read but also pretty tense.
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