Andre Dubus III: Best author reading ever

Photo of Andre Dubus III and me

I mentioned Townie by Andre Dubus III in a blog post a couple of months ago as the book I read each morning over breakfast before work.  Since I'm usually running behind, this often doesn't amount to more than a couple of pages read on any given day, but I like having it to look forward to each morning, and if you've already read Dubus, you know that he's a great way to start the day! I'm still only about halfway through it, but it's such a compelling portrait of a man and his life that I'm pleased to make it last as long as possible.

My store hosted an event with Dubus last night, and because we expected a large crowd, we held the event offsite at Mount Holyoke College, just across the street from our store, in a mahogany-paneled room called The New York Room.  It's an attractive space to hold a reading and it feels very intimate, despite the 100 person capacity.  Dubus read from his memoir but it was the Q&A session  that held us spellbound.  Mr. Dubus is that rare writer who can quote at length any number of other writers to illustrate a point (Flannery O'Connor, John Gardner, William Faulkner, et al), and he artfully interweaves personal anecdotes into his answers.  Never once does he let on to the annoying person in the back of the room that he'd rather not answer her tenth stupid question in a row or that he's been on his feet for 10 hours and would prefer not to sign 75 books for store stock--he is the absolute portrait of graciousness. Dubus is charming, charismatic, and has the ability to focus on you so intently he can make you feel like you're the only other person in the room.  And yet he also comes across as perhaps the most down-to-earth person you've ever met, an erudite beer-drinking buddy.  Let me put it this way: if he ever decided to use his powers for evil, we'd be in a world of trouble.

I'll post a review of Townie once I've finished it, but until then, you'll have to take my word that Andre Dubus III is a writer and a person of the highest order.

Dubus signing in the New York Room

Book Blogger Hop: What Are You Reading Now?

This week's question at the Book Blogger Hop, sponsored each week by Crazy For Books, what book(s) are you currently reading and why?  

I'm in various stages of a few different books right now.  I'm about halfway through an ARC of The Borrower, by Rebecca Makkai, which I'm reading for fun.  It's the story of a librarian who rescues/liberates/kidnaps (depending on your point of view) a child whose parents are trying to pray the gayness right out of him and who only let him read books that have "the breath of God."  It's a fun book that my Penguin sales rep, Karl Krueger, sent to me a few weeks ago that I'm just now getting around to.  This book will be published in June.  

And as I mentioned in a previous post this week, I'm still working on the ARC of The Tiger's Wife, which I'm mostly reading for work.  Our store is interested in booking her for an author reading once her book debuts in March. 

I also just started reading the new/forthcoming memoir from Andre Dubus III called Townie.  I wasn't such a big fan of The Garden of Last Days, but I think his book The House of Sand and Fog comes about as close to Greek tragedy as modern literature can get.  His new book proves him to be a wordsmith of the highest order, and just in the first chapter he's left me suckerpunched.  The book doesn't come out for another month, so I'm reading the ARC from David Goldberg, my Norton sales rep.  Dubus will be reading at my store next month, and I have to say, if you've never had the pleasure of hearing him speak, do yourself a favor and attend one of his readings while he's on tour.  He's handsome and engaging, yes, but he is also so erudite that he peppers his talks with so many literary quotations that he's a walking-talking Bartlett's.  And what's more, he's got that intense charisma so that when he's signing your book and speaking just to you, he absolutely makes you believe that in all the universe there's nothing he would rather be doing at that moment.