Yet "Townie" is ultimately a love story, of a young man who eventually finds his way and comes to love this father, however flawed. The kind of man who made others feel important, because he listened so attentively, he failed to do the same with his own children. He was too busy writing, too busy hanging out with his students. In the domestic sphere, his acclaimed empathy for characters failed him.ĭubus the elder didn't appreciate that his ex-wife could barely pay the bills or feed the four kids, that they grew up in squalid conditions right out of novels by Dennis Lehane and Richard Price. The sad truth is that his father, author of some of the most admired short stories published in America from the '70s into the '90s, had little clue about the suffering that divorce caused his children. This haunting memoir is as explosive as a Muhammad Ali prize fight, as vivid as a Basquiat canvas. "Townie" summons up the violence born of anger, of anger born of that loss. Norton 387 pages $25.95)Īt age 10, when his parents divorced, Andre Dubus III lost his father.
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