Simplicity. I hate it, really. I like stuff that reads like poetry, with adjectives all over the place.
Not Andre. It's simply not necessary when you write this well, when every word is chosen with deliberate care. These authors, those who can communicate more with what is not said than what is said, are rare and hard to come by, to be treasured.
Being a fat-acceptance junkie, I primarily fell in love with the piece "The Fat Girl." Although I'm not exactly certain whether the intent of the story was to promote self-love, regardless you'd almost think the man was a fat girl, he describes the experience with such intimacy and understanding. Gut-wrenching emotion is produced by the most minimalistic writing I've ever encountered.
For the most part, the other pieces weren't particularly memorable for me, but that's probably because I most related to The Fat Girl, and not because the rest lacked the talent displayed in that particular piece. Whoever you are, you'll find a character to relate to in this book.

When I read Dubus I am reminded of a statement I read by Dostoyevsky about the difficulty a writer has depicting ordinary people. Dubus nullifies that; I have never encountered another author who appears to so effortlessly capture the subtle and poignant shades of commonplace experience. There are passages, pages, entire sections of his stories which read like pure intuition. He has such a gift for depicting the silences, the unspoken nuances, the dark matrices between family and lovers, and the fatal and visceral inner movements on which relationships hang that when reading him I feel as if I have entered a black room, donned goggles, and suddenly see about me the numerous red beams hidden to the natural eye guarding the heart of the room. His insight is so astounding that it would be easy to overlook his taut architectonics and lean and wiry prose.

For those who have not read him, Dubus' stories tend to follow the same D-A-B-C-E line. That is, he will introduce the character, summarize the position they are in, and then build up their history to what is often a very powerful conclusion. He also tends to use little dialogue; instead, he often takes the position of an unseen observer. His style always suggest to me something painterly. Like Edith, the principal character of the title novella, we are drawn to fleshlessly insert ourselves, to mesh with those we are watching.

This particular work is divided into three segments. The first dwells upon childhood and youth. An Afternoon With The Old Man, Contrition, and The Bully center around a young boy named Paul Clement and particularly his relationship with his father. Graduation is about a young woman's attempts to obliterate her high school reputation for being easy. The Fat Girl is what the title would suggest, an account of a girl's struggles with obesity and secret indulgence.

The second half of the book is composed of military stories (Dubus was among other things a Marine Corps captain): Cadence, Corporal of Artillery, The Shooting, and Andromache. In Cadence we rejoin the character of Paul Clement as he enters the Marine Corps. The remaining three are primarily depictions of married life in the military, with Andromache (about a Navy widow) being the strongest of the trio.

The book ends with the 50 page title novella, Adultery. Adultery introduces the character of Hank Allison, who Dubus makes use of throughout his works. But the story is primarily about his wife Edith and an affair she carries on with an ex-priest.

From what I have read of his works to this point, the primary theme that Dubus seems to dwell on is that of the distances between people, father and son, husband and wife. His writing is powerful, honest, and unflinching, and I would trade one of his stories for a dozen 300 page novels published this year.

"I think, that we need to detach ourselves from fashions and fads, that we should work with one eye on the earth and the other on heaven, that we must return regularly to silence" (p. xiv), editor Philip Zaleski writes in the Preface to this collection in The Best Spiritual Writing series, which he introduced in 1998. Although his latest edition lacks many of the compelling voices of previous years--Natalie Goldberg, Anne Lamott, Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard, and Philip Levine, for instance--Zaleski once again provides his reader with an adventure for the soul.

Based on his experience hearing the secrets of confession, Lorenzo Albacete, a Roman Catholic priest, observes that the "language of the inner life is a serene silence, a deep hurt, a boundless desire, and occasionally, a little laughter" (p. 3). In his "Sabbath" poem, Wendell Berry dreams "of a quiet man/ who explains nothing and defends nothing but only knows/ where the rarest wildflowers/ are blooming, and who goes/ where they are and stands still" (p. 16). In another memorable poem collected here, "Clear Night," Charles Wright wants "to be bruised by God" (p. 277), while gazing up at the stars. In his essay, "Bear Butte Diary," John Landretti introduces us to a shaman with an appreciation for coffee and cigarettes (p. 66). In perhaps the most moving essay here, "Stillbirth," Leah Kuncelik Lebec learns from the heart, through her seven-month-old stillborn baby, that God loves us all, "yes, loves us, all six billion--whatever--of us, teeming over the earth" (p. 104). Brian Doyle contemplates "grace" in "Grace Notes," and David James Duncan contemplates "strategic withdrawal" in his essay. While Thomas Moore examines the "in-between places" of transition that make life worth living (p. 184), Valerie Martin meditates upon Saint Francis, and Terry Tempest Williams ponders Saint Teresa in Spain, a place that looks much like her home in the American southwest: "Little excess. Nothing wasted" (p. 260). Joan D. Stamm considers "the way of flowers."

In short, this 277-page collection will not disappoint those readers interested in experiencing spiritual perspectives that have one eye on "the dusty world" and the other on heaven.

G. Merritt

Philip Zaleski has done a masterful job of seeking out and commending the work of some eighty writers who live for "making sentences," as Joseph Epstein confesses. And because they do, they tell with great beauty of the particular struggles and joys which have brought them along a spiritual path. Some of these writers make us comfortable, some disturb. The reading becomes an opportunity to accept the challenges of the particular life I have chosen. In doing that, I, too, see a blessing within the day Today! Your heart will be softer and your mind more open after exposure to these adventurers. Where other spiritual writers offer us helpings of chicken soup, here is spread the finest of feasts. Paella for the literate soul! (Even if you're nearer the North Pole or a Zen Community than you imagined.)

These short stories could be of interest, but I cannot share the enthusiasm of other readers. To me they are lengthy monologues by a lonesome soul, whispering to itself about trivialities. I will avoid Andre Dubus. gerborg

Usually I shy away from short story collections, but a friend whose opinion I value highly recommended this book by the well-respected author, Andre Dubus. She was right. These 7 stories are masterful, displaying the quiet power within the decisions we make as we live through life's seemingly small moments. The award-winning movie titled In the Bedroom with Cissie Spacek was made from one of these stories.
A bewitching and profound collection that should be on every serious reader's bookshelf.

The thing about this book that people have told me they didn't like was that it was what they found in the newspaper. It is very similar to the world that we live in. The people seem really enough to pop off the page and enter your life. Talk for instance the story The Killings, also the the basis for the moving In The Bedroom. That is something that has happenend in this strange world that we live in. And it is what this amazing author brings to a table. When I first read Dubus I was unsure of his brillance but after reading In The Bedroom, I will not question him again. It is remarkable how well he wrote and knew the people he was writing about.
This book at times almost reads like memoirs. And at other times not so much like anything you have ever read before. Take a chance with a different type of writing.

Andre Dubus' writing is like having a conversation with an old friend. He tells it "like it is." He invites us into his life and the broken people who are present there. He holds nothing back, leaving us to witness his brokenness without any regret on his part. If you've never read essays, or have never enjoyed them before, I highly recommend this book as well as Dubus' "Meditations from a Movable Chair." These two works are wonderful reading! They both move quickly and the literary form of the essay allows one to pick up and read each essay separately, and not have the pressure of reading a whole book. Also, each essay is very reflective and thought-provoking so as to add a spiritual dimension to these works. I would recommend reading "Broken Vessels" first, then any of Dubus' other works, as "Broken Vessels" gives us some insight into who this person, Andre Dubus truly is.

This book is a revealing look at one of the best writer's writers working today. If you've read his fiction, you know Dubus is one of the best male writers writing women characters today, always a fascinating accomplishment and this book reveals more of the man behind the sensitivity in his fiction. Includes itimate details of his life after the tragedy that changed everything.

Andre Dubus died in 1999, at the age of 63. He wrote short stories and essays, in a steady, straightforward style that often seems to be with the voice of the heart itself. This collection of essays, written between the years 1977 and 1990, tells of his boyhood in Louisiana, his years as a marine, and his life as a student, writer, teacher, husband and father.

He is a mixture of a very proud man who is also humbled by what reflection reveals to him of life's meaning. A practicing Catholic, his writing exhibits a strong moral sense. He reaches consistently for a single, coherent perspective from which to see and understand everything. In an age of hype and self-promotion, his sense of himself as a writer seems very old-fashioned. He wonders, for instance, how the quality of writing is affected when you do it for money. Or, as in The New Yorker, your words appear next to advertisements for luxury products.

A celebrator of friendship, he speaks lovingly of the men who are his friends. And he shows a strongly democratic spirit in the respectful attention he pays to the conversations of laborers and Amtrak crew members. He speaks less freely about his love for the women in his life, as if to say much would betray intimacies. The title of the book refers to an accident in 1986, when helping a stranded motorist on a dark highway in Massachusetts, Dubus was struck by another car. Losing one leg and the use of the other, he never walked again.

His essays on running, playing baseball as a boy, intervening in an assault of a teenage girl by her boyfriend, a cross-country train trip, yield to descriptions of physical therapy and learning to live in a wheelchair. You read page after page of this account, and you look at your own legs, maybe crossed as you sit or stretched out in front of you, suddenly glad for them and aware that you may never take them for granted again. With luck, you won't take yourself for granted again either. Dubus has that effect on you. He is also author of a more recent and equally fine collection of essays, "Meditations From a Movable Chair."

Andre Dubus III is keeping in the family tradition by writing masterful short stories like his father, Andre Dubus. For me the best story is "Forky," the story of a man recently out of prison trying--bluntly said--to get laid. Despite the harsh setting, we are given, via the remembrances of the ex-convict, the heart-felt stories of his brother and a fellow prisoner who reminds him of his brother. Also, without a drop of sentimentality, we are shown a touching affection that grows between the ex-con and the more or less random woman he picks up at a bar. This story proves once and for all that real life is interesting enough. We don't need car explosions or alien take-overs to make a story engaging. What we need are authors with insight, of which Andre Dubus III has an abundance.

Any fan of the stark realism of Richard Ford, Raymond Carver, or Russell Banks' more recent writing will appreciate these short stories.

I was up in the mountains of New Hampshire when I read this collection of short stories so I found the New England settings of these stories just about perfect. The writing is thoroughly enjoyable. Andres Dubus III knows how to turn a phrase and describe a scene with the best of them. The reason that I gave this collection 4 stars was the fact that many of the ending disappointed me. The endings made the stories disappear. Dubus III has a style that really locks you in to the characters. Many of the main characters are problem individuals who you end up viewing with or reading with empathy. When some of the endings fall off the cliff, so to speak you end up feeling cheated for developing this empathy. Other than that the stories are creative and fantastic in the ways of Carver, Chekhov and Johnson.

I've read many previous reviews claiming this book has a poor plot and an ending that is too dark, leaving the reader w/out hope. Unfortunately the movie adaptation that will be released late 2003 will probably "adjust" the ending for an American audience, because it's an American audience that can't accept a tragic ending to a book or movie.

I am a half-Iranian male, and was very impressed at how well Dubus captured Iranian culture w/intense detail (i.e., drinking tea w/a sugar cube between the teeth, fruit readily available in the house, etc.). The story of Behrani coming to America w/a wealthy Iranian past, and being humbled by a min. wage existence in America, where his work experience is non-transferable here, is the story of most Iranians I know who immigrated here (my dad was an aeronautics engineer in Teheran, and is now a taxi cab driver here).

The plot is realistic, and I very much believed the ending (I get sick of the "hollywood" ending of taking a tragic story and putting a b.s. positive spin at the end just to keep an American audience happy). The characters are all excellent, and as most writers will tell you, the best stories have great characters.

And.. yes, BUY THIS BOOK! :)

This is a book that kept me up very late at night, one of those books you simply hate to put down. Not only is the story interesting and written well, but there are twists and turns that are very unpredictable. The ending is surprising and leaves the reader hanging.

I won't write much about the content of the book, as it will ruin the story. I did not find this depressing, although many of Oprah's book club books I do find depressing and sometimes so disturbing that I have not been able to finish some of them. Some of the characters are sad and pathetic and make what I think are bad choices, but the author writes in such a way that we "get inside their head" and I was able to understand in almost every case, why each character made the choices and took the actions that they took. It is the type of book where I found myself wanting to tell the character what to do or not to do, and to give them my own two cents worth of advice! The characters are so well described it was if I knew them personally.

I was riveted to this book and did not want to put it down. I found myself laughing at some parts and crying in many parts (but not depressing).

I can't recommend this book highly enough. A perfect escape-from-your-life book, a great summer read. I only wished some of my friends had read it so that I could call them and talk about what was happening! This would make a great book club selection because there is so much to talk about and when you are done you will want to talk to someone about it!

This was a fabulous book. It starts out a little unengaging, but slowly turns and turns as the characters develop more deeply and becomes one of the most dramatic page turners ever!