We Don't Live Here Anymore : Three Novellas (Vintage Contemporaries)

Rating:
Summary: Gripping trip into the human heart
Review: I was assigned "We Don't Live Here Anymore" and "Adultery", two of the three novellas in this collection, to read in my college novel class. This book is hard to read, not out of difficulty or that it is poorly written, but rather the opposite. It reaches in and squeezes your chest, so it hurts everytime you pick this book up. I loved it.

I am married myself and what really got to me was that Dubus is excellent at forcing you to envision yourself in these characters situations. Like I said. . . . it hurts.

Is anyone really happy?

Great book and a great read. I highly recommend this collection of novellas.

Rating:
Summary: masterful short fiction
Review: The three long short stories/short novels in this collection were not originally published together but share characters and the theme of the difficulty and complexity of marriage. As the cover proclaims, the form the basis for the new film of the same title. The title story is the longest and the best, narrated by a professor named Jack who is having an affair with his more successful best friend Hank's wife. Jack is married to Terry, who he thinks he no longer loves....

I won't go on about the plot, but I will say that I think Dubus really gets at a confusion in so many men, wanting stability at at the same time something else...(an oversimplification) ....The third story, "Finding A Girl in America" is set some years later...Hank is now divorced from Edith and with another woman, but in some ways his marriage continues. (I thought the middle story, told from Edith's poiont of view, was less successful) ....Funny, lacerating, heartbreaking, this collection is a wonderful way to introduce yourself to this writer. Recommended