Product Description

With House of Sand and Fog, his National Book Award-nominated novel, Andre Dubus III demonstrated his mastery of the complexities of character and desire. In this earlier novel he captures a roiling time in American history and the coming-of-age of a boy who must decide between desire, ambition, and duty.

In the summer of 1967, Leo Suther has one more year of high school to finish and a lot more to learn. He's in love with the beautiful Allie Donovan who introduces him to her father, Chick — a construction foreman and avowed Communist. Soon Leo finds himself in the midst of a consuming love affair and an intense testing of his political values. Chick's passionate views challenge Leo's perspective on the escalating Vietnam conflict and on just where he stands in relation to the new people in his life. Throughout his — and the nation's — unforgettable "summer of love," Leo is learning the language of the blues, which seem to speak to the mourning he feels for his dead mother, his occasionally distant father, and the youth which is fast giving way to manhood.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #316855 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-13
• Released on: 2001-02-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In a gentle and winning first novel by the author of The Cage Keeper and Other Stories , 17-year-old Leo Suther faces some difficult growing up in the summer of 1967. Leo lives in a small Massachusetts town in the Connecticut River Valley with Jim, his father. This summer, he will learn to play blues harmonica from Jim's best friend, Ryder, and will win and then lose the daughter of a self-proclaimed communist who is, to complicate matters, his boss on a construction crew. Against the distant rumbles of the Vietnam War, Leo comes of age, discovers his late mother's inner life through her diaries, suffers ups and downs in his sometimes confused love for girlfriend Allie and impulsively rushes into a series of dangerous decisions, culminating in his enlistment in the Army. The author makes all these developments entirely believable, and Leo's sometimes rocky but deeply loving relationship with Jim is affecting as well. Like his well-known father of the same name, Dubus is a sympathetic and compassionate chronicler of ordinary lives. He understands the rhythms of hard labor and the needs of the people who do it; the sensitivity and decency of his working-class heroes make them genuinely compelling and likable.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
It's the summer of 1967, and Leo Suther is about to turn 18. It's the time of urban riots and heavy fighting in Vietnam, but all that is far from home for Leo, and even the fantastic pennant race of the nearby Red Sox is less on his mind than Allie Donovan. He's just fallen in love with her, is dreaming about marrying her, and is about to learn she's pregnant. That summer of 1967 holds many discoveries for Leo. He learns about his long-dead mother from her journals and poems; from his boss, Allie's father, a crusading Communist, he learns that there are people willing to sacrifice themselves and their families for their beliefs. He learns too that he has a talent for the blues harmonica and that he has the blues in his soul. Dubus ( Broken Vessels, LJ 7/91) captures well those small, mundane moments upon which lives really turn, and he captures too the enthusiasms and confusions of adolescence confronting adulthood. Recommended for both young adult and adult collections.
- Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
A thin-blooded debut novel that follows a young man through the summer of his 18th birthday. Dubus (the story collection The Cage Keeper, 1989) moves through the same New England backwaters as his father and speaks in tones of similar gloom, but without the depth and restraint that this territory demands. Leo Sutter is just beginning to piece things together. Done with school but not ready for college, he works as carpenter by day and plays the blues harmonica by night, and doesn't take the talk of riots and Vietnam very seriously. It's 1967. His girlfriend's father is a Communist and has a lot to say, but Leo is more interested in his own songs and his mother's letters. Although she died when Leo was five, Mrs. Sutter wrote him a sheaf of poems and notes that his father has just turned over, as a kind of inheritance. Here, Leo finds the beginning of his own story--the circumstances that enclose his origin and his fate. Despite some highly melodramatic scenarios, Dubus manages to keep the volume pretty low throughout--too much so, in fact. This is essentially a novel of discovery and change, but we're not shown how the discoveries register or what exactly precipitates the transformation. At the end, Leo goes forth in search of a new life, but it's hard to see a connection between this final departure and what's preceded it. The narrative, as fine as it is, ultimately has a rather hollow ring--and needs badly to encase something more than it has been given. Rather flat and wide of the mark: a disappointment. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

A wonderful, sometimes haunting read-highly recommended.
A finely-written novel which is both a coming-of-age tale and an examination of the human spirit in all its shame and glory, Bluesman is the story of Leo Sutter, and boy on the verge of being a man in a sleepy paper mill town. Leo is coming to terms with the usual problems which beset all young men-love, sex, responsibility-against the background of a mostly redneck town in Viet Nam-era America. Through Leo's interactions with those close to him-his girlfriend, Allie, her communist father, Chic, Leo's father Jim and-most importantly-his dead mother (through her poetry and diary)-Dubus delicately and expertly examines the human condition. The book draws brilliantly on the blues music Leo so loves, and the strength of his bond with both his mother and father, to create genuine melodrama and subtly compelling plotlines. Dubus has spare, delicately understated style which is far more descriptive than a thousand pages of Danielle Steele could ever be. An enjoyable, potentially life-changing book which had me dusting off my old Lightin' Hopkins records, and which begs for a sequel.

An excellent read, I didn't want it to end
It is not often you find a book that is about ordinary people and yet extraordinary in its telling. Dubus paints a picture of Massachusetts in the mid-sixties, and brings it to life so you can feel the heat and rain of the summer, almost smell the woods and countryside, and almost hear the blues played on harmonica. The characters have depth and can be identified with to the point of feeling their emotion. It was an excellent read which brought tears to my eyes and ended way too soon. It is one of the three best books I have read in the past year and I highly recommend it

Dazed and confused in the blues.
Dazed and confused in the blues

Leo Sayer the young protagonist in Andre Dubus III's book the Bluesman is a young man coming of age in the time of social upheaval of the Vietnam era. Like many young man of that age his interest is sex, passion and music while trying to discover who he is and who he is going to be. Much to his delight he discovers sex with his girlfriend Allie Donovan. While being tutored by Allie on essential knowledge of the opposite sex, Leo is guided by his three father figures on the meaning of life. Leo's father Jim, introduces him to the world of Blues and acquaints Leo with his diseased mother,through her diaries and poetic writings. Leo's uncle Ryder provides harp lessons and helps Leo to feel the blues. Allies father Chick Donovan gives Leo an opportunity to work for him as a carpenter and teaches him the philosophy of Carl Marx.

Throughout all of his lessons Leo exhibits a sensitivity, but remains dazed and confused as to the direction of his life. During this time Leo is faced with some decisions, which others of this era faced as well as some unexpected choices. Dubus, adeptly holds the readers interest and the reader alternately feels frustrated and sympathetic with Leo.

Dubus is a skilled writer and his lyrical style reinforces the dreaminess of Leo's character. It encapsulates the essence of a youth who is impatient to get on with life along with the insecurity of how to go about it.

Bluesman is recommended reading for those familiar with the Vietnam era and those who would like to know more about it.