Life's a Mess

Life doesn't run smoothly when you're a character in an Andre Dubus III story. In his earlier novel, "House of Sand and Fog", he sent his characters on collision courses with each other, with disastrous results. His latest work, Dirty Love, is a collection of four stories, somewhere between long short stories and short novelllas. The setting is a small New England coastal town. His characters all yearn for love, but they make desperate choices and are often their own worst enemies.

These stories are not for readers who like characters they can admire. I often wanted to grab them by the shoulders and shake hard. But Dubus's talent is to make them so vividly real, so desperate and vulnerable and frightened by their choices, that I was never tempted to judge them. And in each story the characters are left with a flickering of hope that they might yet sort out the mess in their lives.

Suspense in the Wilderness

Castle Freeman Jr. has written a novel about the deep woods of Vermont called, “Go With Me”. But it isn’t the bucolic Vermont we usually envision. It is a darker more sinister New England. The protagonist, Lillian, is a young girl who has found herself in a remote town in Vermont living with her boyfriend. But suddenly her boyfriend has fled. The reason he has fled is that the town villain has threatened his life. And now the villain, named Blackway, is stalking Lillian. He has trashed her car, killed her cat, and is following her. But Lillian refuses to be intimidated by this thug. This may sound like a simple “who done it” but in the hands of Castle Freeman Jr. this is a gripping novel written with a wit and restraint that is very impressive.

Lillian needs help because the local sheriff tells her Blackway is beyond his jurisdiction. He tells her if she wants to find Blackway she needs to go to the old sawmill in town. There she finds the town’s elders (so to speak) who sit around everyday drinking beer and discoursing on the local state of affairs, like a Greek Chorus. Whizzer, the leader of this strange group and the owner of the old sawmill, listens to Lillian’s story and sets her up with Nate the Great, a very strong young man who some think is not all there, and Lester, an aging misfit who is very clever. These are two of the most unlikely suspects in the world but Lillian is desperate and they are willing to “go with her”. The three set off for the deep woods to find Blackway. What follows is a gripping tale of suspense peppered with wit and the clever, skillful stealth of these three unlikely allies.

Castle Freeman Jr. has written an intriguing story about the semi wilderness where he lives. “Go With Me” is a small book (160 pages) written with clear, direct prose. The dialog is pitch perfect. The characters are strong and totally real. The story builds with gripping suspense and the author delivers a great climax. “Go With Me” is one of those great finds in literature, a concise, compelling story that is very well written.

A Woman of Substance

Elizabeth Stout has won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for her latest novel “Olive Kitteridge”. This book has been referred to as a novel in stories. There are thirteen chapters (she’s not superstitious!) each with its own title. The story brings to life the small coastal town of Crosby, Maine with all the quirkiness and charm of a small New England town. The tie that binds this novel together is the main character, a middle aged seventh grade math teacher, whose name is Olive Kitteridge. Olive is a force to be reckoned with. She has become a large woman in middle age, who has little patience for the changes that that have taken over her home town or the people that inhabit it. Her husband, her son and most people find Olive to be a difficult person. Her son states it clearly, “You can make people feel terrible”. Olive appears in all the stories, sometimes as the main character, a few times as a fleeting presence.

In the first chapter we meet Henry Kitteridge, Olive’s husband who is then the town’s Pharmacist. Henry is the opposite of Olive. He is quiet, reflective and remembered by everyone as kind. But as the stories progress we see another side of Olive. She is blunt and impatient but she is also incredibly empathetic. When she meets a young women who is blatantly anorexic, she cries. When she encounters a former student who wants to kill himself, she shares her past with him to let him know he isn’t alone in his sadness and depression. In one of the most startling chapters, “Tulips”, Olive goes to visit a woman who has shut herself away in her home because of a tragedy. Olive sympathetically reaches out to the woman but what she finds is someone who has lost her mind.

The joy of reading this story comes as the author weaves these complex characters together. All of the characters embody someone you know. Each character, whether you like them or not, is a strong force in this novel. But the most wonderful character is Olive herself as you watch her develop into a woman who understands where she came from and how she must change to be the person she wants to be. This “novel in stories” is a wonderful, compelling book that brings character development to a new level.