≡ [PDF] Townie A Memoir Andre Dubus III 9781203026219 Books

Townie A Memoir Andre Dubus III 9781203026219 Books

Download As PDF : Townie A Memoir Andre Dubus III 9781203026219 Books

Townie A Memoir Andre Dubus III 9781203026219 Books

I liked the book so much I read it twice. I used to work in a town similar to Haverhill, MA, and many of my teen age clients were similar to Andre. His divorced mother worked hard, but found it difficult to support four children on her earnings as a social worker and the little bit of child support she received from their English professor father. She also found it impossible to supervise them properly. They lived in a rough, drug infested neighborhood. Like many children who grow up that way, Andre decided that the best way to deal with his environment was to become physically strong and aggressive. The book will give the reader a look into the head of a somewhat violent teenager.

Dubus's writing is top notch. He captures the sights and smells and speech of the Merrimack Valley mill towns perfectly.


Tags : Townie: A Memoir [Andre Dubus III] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <strong>Won Book of the Year Adult Non-Fiction―2012 Indie Choice Awards<br /> Amazon Best Book of the Month February 2011<br /><br /> An acclaimed novelist reflects on his violent past and a lifestyle that threatened to destroy him―until he was saved by writing.</strong> After their parents divorced in the 1970s,Andre Dubus III,Townie: A Memoir,W. W. Norton & Company,0393064662,Authors, American - 20th century,Authors, American;20th century;Biography.,Dubus, Andre,Social classes;Merrimack River Valley (N.H. and Mass.).,Violence;Merrimack River Valley (N.H. and Mass.).,20th century,Authors, American,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Personal Memoirs,BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,GENERAL,General Adult,Massachusetts,Memoirs,Merrimack River Valley (N.H. and Mass.),Non-Fiction,Personal Memoirs,Social classes,United States,Violence

Townie A Memoir Andre Dubus III 9781203026219 Books Reviews

This is the first time that I have read anything by this author, but found that it got bogged down in way too much detail. It started strong & was interesting, however about 3/4 into the book, I was asking ,"Who cares?" Who really needs those tidbits? I would not recommend this book.
Details, details, details. I got 1/3 through and said to myself How can anyone remember so many details from their youth. I seriously doubt that anyone could. More novel than Memoir from my perspective. After a while, the details got to be boring.
In the 1960s, the young Dubus's started their lives together like many couples of the times. They were golden, with their intellect, their parties, and the life they were living. They were in love.

But marriage and parenting four children would take their toll, and with the divorce, the children would watch their father walking away, while they were left behind, as many children of divorce are. Their lives would be more impoverished because of the financial strains of living with a single mom. Oftentimes there was not enough food in the house, and sometimes during the long hours that their mother was at work, the kids had to fend for themselves. And what they found to occupy themselves was often something disruptive.

But nearby, the father, Andre Dubus, already a published author, would enjoy the writer's life, while teaching at a nearby college. He had many female companions, some of whom he married. And his time with his children felt like "dating" them, a description he shared with them.

As the oldest son and second child, young Andre would find that living in a series of poor mill towns in Massachusetts would be a kind of training ground for having to fight for what he wanted. And to stave off the bullying that seemed to follow him everywhere. But first he had to work out and develop the muscles he would need.

Much of the story in Townie A Memoir reveals what that life was like for the young boy, and how he eventually came to change how he looked at fighting; how he eventually learned how to deal with that rage that arose in him. In this excerpt, he shows us what that felt like

"Ever since I was a boy running from other boys, I'd been making myself into a man who did not flee, a man who planted his feet and waited for that moment when throwing a punch was the only thing to do, waited for that invisible membrane around me to fall away and I'd gather once again the nerve and will to shatter another's. But I had discovered a new membrane now. The one between what we think and what we see, between what we believe and what is."

But it would take many years for young Andre to arrive at this place...and then only after he began writing in his notebooks and channeling his feelings into his writing.

It would also be many years before father and son would develop a better relationship. Toward the end of the story, when Andre had just published the book House of Sand and Fog, the closeness between them would be stronger than ever.

The story was riveting, even though the earliest sections that dealt with the rage and fighting were difficult to get through. The rewards that came in the second half of the book made having to slog through the violence worth it. Recommended for those who relish writer's memoirs, and especially for those who have enjoyed other works by this author. Four stars.
As a man estranged from his father, I am inspired by this book to build a bridge.
Not knowing my dad as a man has left me not knowing me. As a violent man myself, I too have felt the awe of laying aside my animosity in order to embrace the stories of my enemies and to learn that they have always been me.
I can tell this is genuine because he knows his hands.
I just reread this memoir and I still love it. It helps that I'm familiar with some of the locations he writes about, such as Newburyport and Haverhill but he describes what they were like decades before I ever encountered them. What I love is his metamorphosis into a bruiser, through body building and boxing lessons, which teach him to penetrate that "invisible membrane" around a person's face when you're punching him, and then into something of an angry monster, and then into a somewhat more enlightened person when it comes to conflict resolution. It also comes to terms with his ambivalent relationship with his celebrity author father and how he grew up isolated from educated society when his father left the family to fend for himself. A great read.
I loved this book and could completely relate to the author's point of view; I too was a small child who was picked on by the local bullies in my school. I too started to lift weights to gain some muscle and to feel better about myself. Andre's writing is straight from the heart in this book and this is his story and only he could tell it. So rarely do you encounter writing like this that makes you feel alive, like there is a storm contained withing these pages and by reading this memoir you too get to experience what it was like to walk in the author's shoes. Dubus had it hard and his father was an amazing writer, so that must have made it twice as difficult to even begin to write, but he did and that was the thing that ended up saving him from becoming like all the other "townies" that he encounters in the bars and streets of Massachusetts. A wonderful book that I cannot recommend strongly enough. Easily one of the better books that I have read this year. I am now hungry for more and I am curious to see if the son's writing is anything like his father's. Do yourself a favor and order this book now and strap yourself in for a wild ride of self discovery!
I liked the book so much I read it twice. I used to work in a town similar to Haverhill, MA, and many of my teen age clients were similar to Andre. His divorced mother worked hard, but found it difficult to support four children on her earnings as a social worker and the little bit of child support she received from their English professor father. She also found it impossible to supervise them properly. They lived in a rough, drug infested neighborhood. Like many children who grow up that way, Andre decided that the best way to deal with his environment was to become physically strong and aggressive. The book will give the reader a look into the head of a somewhat violent teenager.

Dubus's writing is top notch. He captures the sights and smells and speech of the Merrimack Valley mill towns perfectly.