Book: Townie: A Memoir by Andre Dubus III (now in paperback)
Reviewed by: Nolan
Are men made or born? Are they products of the mill towns and poor single parents and the druggie teenage bullies who threaten their fragile existence? Or is it all merely an obstacle? A means for the man to blossom to what was always within him; the dormant voice choosing its words?
Andre Dubus III’s memoir, Townie, explores such nature. A tale of raw, ruminating violence, Dubus reflects on his troubled youth growing up in slum housing to a single mother, while his acclaimed writer father lived a life of the liberated artist just on the other side of the proverbial tracks. He and his siblings, each so unique, mutually grew up fending for themselves and learning to survive in small New England towns filled with the repercussions of blue collar remorse and desperate brutality.
Dubus tells his story so beautifully. His transition from fighting youth with his fists to learning to fight adulthood as the wordsmith he’s become is unabashedly vulnerable. It’s hard to think of mindless violence as so potentially thoughtful and sincere. He helps the reader understand what it feels like to bruise your fists against another’s face and the gut-wrenching regret that comes with it, and how a coming of age tale can happen at any time in life.
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