This book.

Goddamn.

Andre Dubus III is easily one of my favourite authors of all time. When you read his novels, you realize that most authors give you characters that are skin packed with sawdust. Dubus gives you living, breathing, tear-your-heart-out, honest to God people.

There's not a lot that happens in these 457 pages, but virtually every single sentence just sings. There are no heroes here.

Each of the main characters—Danny, Susan, Lois, and even, to a point, Susan's mother, Linda—all struggle with decisions each has made in the past, and how those actions ripple down through the years and continue to smack them around.

I don't want to say much more than this, as this is a novel that must be experienced.

I normally punch through a novel in three or four days, but this one...this couldn't be guzzled. I had to sip from its dark heart. I didn't want to leave these broken characters and I'm saddened that their story had ended for me.

Easily the best novel I'll read this year.

This book.

Goddamn. ( )

I really enjoyed this. Although it is generally slow moving and a little depressing, this type of family character study appeals to me. The characters are believable and relatable. I recommend it and like the author. ( )

‘Stories never end. Even after we’re gone, what we’ve left behind lives on in some way.’

Daniel Ahearn killed his wife in front of their 3-year-old daughter, Susan. Long out of prison and living a quiet, reclusive life he is diagnosed with terminal cancer and seeks out the daughter he has not seen since that night. Such is the premise of the new novel by Andre Dubus III, a story of parents and children, of seeking peace and confronting the past. Susan has led a damaged life, leaving a trail of broken relationships and a sense of emptiness. Her maternal grandmother Lois, mother to the murdered Linda, has raised Susan but also has issues with anger and is unable to forgive the act which destroyed their family.

Dubus creates characters that are so real, so human, that although this is not a ‘happy ever after’ story we care about these damaged people. As the book inexorably draws towards the meeting of father and daughter it examines how we cope with the past, with memories and with guilt, and how we see ourselves and the different people we are over time. The narrative shifts focus between each of the three main characters and the full background stories of each slowly unfold with Dubus’ skill and dexterity as a novelist. The book uses images and metaphors with precision and without them being overbearing: there are issues about freedom and choices, about identity and naming (Danny/Daniel, Susan/Suzie), and the act of writing itself becomes a way to come to understand and confront the past. The meeting, when it comes, avoids any mawkishness or sentimentality (I won’t spoil how it all turns out), but there is resolution of sorts by the end of the book, and there is the possibility of a better future for some of the characters at least.

This is a brilliantly written story of a family torn apart by an act of unforgiveable violence, and the damage that continues to echo through time. It is a bruising, emotional and challenging book as it questions how you can find sympathy or understanding for Daniel and his actions. There is humanity and genuine emotion in the writing. It is stunningly good, and I absolutely recommend it.

(With thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.) ( )

If a mashup of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" and Joni Mitchell's "That Song About The Midway" in fiction format sounds intriguing to you, check out this novel. It takes place on the honkytonk strip at Salisbury Beach, MA, where an obsessed, jealous young father murders his wife, and their three year old daughter is snatched up by her grieving grandmother and transplanted to the West Coast of Florida. The story is told by Daniel, who served fifteen years in prison and has led a solitary yet productive life on the outside; grandmother Lois, who raises Susan and has never recovered from the loss of her own daughter Linda; and Susan. Susan's life has been a very conflicted, difficult trek as she seeks comfort in books and in men, especially after she learns the truth about her parents at age twelve. Tension ratchets up when Daniel, dying of cancer, drives to Florida to see Susan for the first time since she was three.

Dubus has always been a masterful writer, especially at his depictions of inner turmoil. Here, he takes too long and wanders too many pathways of minor import, but this is a memorable tale of people we all see every day and will never know unless writers share their inharmonious lives with us.

Quotes: “She could hear Linda’s voice, high but with an edge, cotton candy with a rusty nail in it.”

“Living with a man is a job. You go to work whether you feel like it or not.”

“Everyone’s heart was so close to the skin, yet also dark and infinite and a million miles away.”

“It was like he was appraising her and considered her of very high value but was not yet sure of how to incorporate her into his holdings.”

“Her throat was a thick mass of far too much to say.” ( )

I was disappointed by Gone So Long. It is depressing with few likable characters and lacks that come-to-Jesus moment that looms throughout the book.

The story follows the lives of Susan, who, at three years old, witnessed her mother’s murder at the hand of her father; Danny (Daniel), the murderous father; and Lois, the murdered girl’s mother, who raised Susan. None seem to have many redeeming qualities. Susan’s victimhood is explainable but I’m not sure it is completely defensible. Lois is portrayed as hate filled, and while her hatred is understandable her invective is oppressive. Daniel, the murderer, seems to be the most well-adjusted of the three, but he disparages himself so completely that at times I just wanted to roll my eyes.

As far as the writing goes, Dubus’s story-within-a-story technique, told through Susan’s novel and Danny’s letter, was ineffective for me. Nor does the story unfold cohesively. It’s one of those time shifting novels where sometimes it’s 40 years ago, sometimes 20, and sometimes present day. The ending, for me, was unsatisfying, although a saccharin ending wouldn’t have fit very well on this depressing novel, so I give Dubus and pass for that.

I liked House of Sand and Fog, but not this one. ( )