W. W. Norton & Company Dirty Love

I have been following the literary career of Andre Dubus III since I read "House of Sand and Fog." That novel grabbed me by the throat and by the heart. With "Dirty Love" he continues his mastery of place and character, which are two of the things that make him such a compelling writer of both fiction and memoir. In this latest work, he weaves together four novellas whose characters intertwine. A character may walk out the door of one story and end up on the front porch in the next novella. Dubus is a consummate story teller - both in person and on the printed page. One of the traits that makes his writing so readable and enjoyable is that he writes in gritty detail about places he knows well - the mill towns along the Merrimac River, Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, Salem, Massachusetts. I love Andre's work in part because of his mastery of language and in part becomes he transports me back home. We grew up along the same river banks, and he helps me to recall the pungent smell of the clam flats at low tide, and the sea breeze wafting over the salt marches. He is a writer of senses - sights, sounds, tastes, smells and tactical impressions. Reading his words awakens my senses in ways that allow me to fully enter the world he has created. Like the tidal Merrimac River that he and I both love, the changing tides in Dubus' life have cleansed him of the rage that flowed within the banks of his soul for so long. In place of that rage is a ferocious curiosity about life and how others live their lives. He notices things, and shares those observations and insights with his readers to that we are moved to care about the fate of a young waitress living with her great uncle because her father thinks she is a slut not worthy of his love. There is an ironic purity about the love that this author has for his motley crew of characters who inhabit the pages of "Dirty Love." I encourage you to read this book and to be uplifted.

Got a real feel for the main characters- an interesting read.

Once in a while I stop reading a book after a few pages . This is one of them. This book is unreadable. Sentences are raw, poor, tasteless , styles, confusing. Writer is just talking to himself with whatever comes across his mind. This was the third sentence in the book, gave me the first serious warning. [ There is the oak floor and yellow wall, the tiled kitchen and granite countertop, the closed bedroom his mother left hours ago because it is almost noon on Saturday in July and he is walking once again in the garage apartment he built for her. ] After struggling to reach to the third page, I came across this one, and stopped. I saw no hope of proceeding. It will be be torture, and waste of time. [ In seconds he will sit up and place Laura's running shoes on the rear dash, then Laura will lift her hips to make things easier for him, and soon there will be only Laura sitting behind the wheel of this two-door import, her head back , her hand gripping the dash as the bald man does to her what he does, and Mark Welch, the husband of Laura Welch, who twenty-four years ago was Laura Murphy, he now stands in his mother's garage apartment, his temples pulsing' and he walks through her dim bedroom into the bathroom. ]

Such a fine collection of stories and a novella - Mr. Dubus III is able to write equally compellingly and beautifully from the points of view of his male and female characters. The longest story in the book is the title story and it's so moving - the elderly uncle and his young niece's relationship/friendship is heartwrenching. There are also flashes of humor throughout. I especially liked these two stories, "Listen Carefully As Our Options Have Changed" and "The Bartender." Really fine fiction.

This book was tremendously poignant. I read previous books by Dubus, The House of Sand and Fog, which was wonderful. I also read Townie, which I had to slog through. Dirty Love is a collection of tales set in a New England beach town that are vaguely related. Dubus taps into the inner feelings of these characters beautifully. Mark, the cuckolded husband, whose wife of 25+ years is cheating on him and is deeply in love with her paramour. Mark is almost driven to insanity and it was painful and honest to read his anguish. Marla, a 20 something virgin,overweight and lonely. She meets Dennis, another overweight 20 something and they develop a romance and move in together. She finds that being part of a couple in some ways more lonely than being alone......etc. Each of the stories in this book are woven in such a way to reveal all the inner fears, struggles, insecurities and naked feelings of the characters. I think this was Dubus' best book yet.