First published 2011
Andre Dubus III learns to survive with his fists in a decaying Massachusetts mill town. After his parents' divorce in the 1970s, he lives with his overworked mother and three siblings in a place where drugs and violence rule the streets. Andre becomes so skilled at fighting that he frightens himself. He knows he's heading toward killing someone or being killed. Meanwhile, his father lives in a different world entirely, teaching literature at a nearby college and taking the children out on Sundays. The gap between these two realities feels impossible to cross. Andre cannot explain his brutal daily existence to his intellectual father. He turns to boxing, channeling his rage into something structured. Only when Andre discovers writing does he find a way to bridge the distance between his two worlds. Through words, he begins to understand both the violence that shaped him and the love that might save him. This memoir captures the physical reality of growing up poor and angry while exploring how art can transform a life spinning toward destruction.
Genres: literary-fiction, coming-of-age, autobiography, memoir, biography-memoir, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Massachusetts
Period: 1970s
387 pages · Hardcover · W. W. Norton & Company
Content warnings: abuse, addiction, violence