Flowers Fall: January 2012

by Bethany Saltman, December 29, 2011

Andre Dubus III is the author of The Garden of Last Days and House of Sand and Fog (a finalist for the National Book Award, and a major Hollywood film). His latest book, Townie, blew my mind. It in, he describes growing up broke and largely unattended in a rough Massachusetts neighborhood with his three siblings, and his hard-working mom, while his father, the celebrated fiction writer Andre Dubus II, lived across the river and saw the kids on the weekends.

After a childhood spent in fear, the young Dubus became an impressive street fighter, then a boxer, always on the lookout for someone to defend. What touched me so deeply about the book was the way Dubus talks about untangling himself from a net of violence, and finding himself in creative life.

His relationship with his father remained friendly but superficial until he, Dubus Senior, was in a terrible accident where he stopped his car to check in with a couple who had been in a crash, only to be run into by an oncoming car. He lost one leg as a result, and was in a wheelchair and chronic pain for the rest of his life. His son  Andre Dubus III stepped right in and did everything he could to help his dad heal and return to his writing.
Townie is a pretty incredible story filled with wisdom.

Bethany Saltman: In Townie, you write about realizing that your dad had no idea what your life had been like. And then, “We were headed to a place where only hurt feelings could surface, both of us misunderstood, a universal human plight, it seemed. I changed the subject. But I told myself that he and I would have to talk openly about this one day. And what was this, anyway?” Can you talk a little bit about that choice?

Andre Dubus III: I think most people’s childhood is painful. And one of the things I find troubling about American culture is this overly psychological approach to pain. We have very little tolerance for pain, loss, ambiguity, emotional confusion, a lack of clarity. We’re such little worker bees with goals. I’ve always been really hesitant to try to fix something emotionally fraught too soon, too readily, with something like a conversation with my father. I think it’s kind of a talk-show approach, that when we have a problem, we must fix it.