Product Description

In his third Godine collection, the author of Separate Flights (1975) and Adultery & Other Choices (1977) deepens his hold on our attention. His people, the ones we see everyday but hardly know, deliver those recurrent shocks of recognition that are the mark of a seasoned storyteller. His largely coastal New England world more and more feels like a permanent part of the modern literary landscape.

The novella, 'Finding a Girl in America,' continues the life of Hank Allison, a central character in Dubus' earlier long tales, 'We Don't Live Here Anymore' and 'Adultery.' Hank is a man haunted by his failures as a husband, his concern for his daughter, and his need for a new marriage that can survive his obsessive writer's absorption with himself.

Other stories including 'Killings,' a swift and wholly successful tale of revenge; 'Townies,' about a young man whose affair with an undergraduate girl ends in deadly fury; 'At Saint Croix,' the story of a man and woman, both divorced, whose Caribbean spring vacation fails to exorcise his ghosts; 'The Pitcher,' where a baseball player can manage his arm but not his wife; and 'The Winter Father,' a story of overwhelming tenderness dealing with a divorced father and his weekend attempts to re-establish contact with his two children.

Subtle and haunting, Dubus concentrates his Chekhovian and utterly American attention on the residual anguish and momentary elation of deep attachments. Nothing in current American writing seems more genuine that this increasingly celebrated writer's rueful and chastened fictions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #809660 in Books
• Published on: 1993-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Review
"Dubus is one of the few writers today who can take the top of you head off with a word, a line, a situation." --Playboy

From the Publisher
8 1-hour cassettes

Customer Reviews

Andre Dubus at his finest
I have read all of the books Andre Dubus ever published and in my opinion this is his finest collection. His piece, "Finding a Girl in America" is some of the most passionate and honest writing I have ever encountered. Much of the writing here is raw, but his words have a flow to them that rings with such a power, they live with you long after you put the book down. If you want a "writer's" writer, this is the collection for you. The structure and poetry of his sentences are as powerful as the stories he creates. I also highly recommend, "Dancing After Hours." It is great to see Dubus finally getting wider recognition with the film production of, "In the Bedroom."