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December 31, 2004
More on Dubus...
Here is another writer's review of Dubus's short stories--Tobias Wolff in the LA Times Book Review, March 24, 2002, reviewing In the Bedroom. (The full review can probably be obtained from the LA Times Archives. This is the excerpt I posted 3/25/02.)
Reading through the ensemble, I was struck by their plenitude. Part of the pleasure of writing short stories is learning what you can live without. The form relies on an acute, watchful reader--an aficionado, really--who is insulted by fat explanation, fat description, by anything reducible to something more essential; but the consciousness of that scrutiny can lead to a chill, starved sort of story in which the writer seems hesitant to tell you anything at all for fear of being common. I know; I've written a few.
Dubus never succumbed to this anorexic impulse. His language is full-throated, and he's not afraid to linger on the undramatic, even languorous moments in which we define ourselves--conversation over a barbecue, a divorced father driving home alone after dropping off his kids. Dubus takes his time; his stories, like his sentences, tend to run long. But that vigilant reader prowling the flock for bloated stragglers will never catch Dubus out, because at his most complex, he is still irreducible.
Thank you for reminding me of this writer, Cara, and that I must finally actually read his stories!
Posted by JBB at December 31, 2004 06:36 PM