The next meeting of Bernardsville Library’s book discussion group, Memoirs and Coffee, will be held on Tuesday, September 27 at 10:30 am in the library’s Community Room. Pat Kennedy-Grant, Readers’ Services Coordinator for the library, will lead the discussion of Townie: A Memoir (2011) by Andre Dubus III. [The author will not be present.]
After their parents divorced in the 1970s, Andre Dubus III and his three siblings grew up with their working mother in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and everyday violence. To protect himself and those he loved, he started pumping iron and learned to use his fists so well that he became the kind of man who could send others to the hospital with one punch, and did. Nearby, his father, an eminent author, taught on a college campus and took the kids out on Sundays. The clash of worlds between town and gown, between the hard drinking, drugging, and fighting of “townies” and the ambitions of well-fed students debating books and ideas, couldn’t have been more stark. Only by finally putting pen to paper himself did young Andre come into his own, discovering the power of empathy in channeling the stories of others—and ultimately bridging the rift between his father and himself.
Andre Dubus III is the author of The Garden of Last Days and House of Sand and Fog (an Oprah Book Club pick and a finalist for the National Book Award). His writing has received many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Magazine Award, and a Pushcart Prize. He lives with his family north of Boston.
There is no charge and no sign-up is needed to join the discussion. Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.
After their parents divorced in the 1970s, Andre Dubus III and his three siblings grew up with their working mother in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and everyday violence. To protect himself and those he loved, he started pumping iron and learned to use his fists so well that he became the kind of man who could send others to the hospital with one punch, and did. Nearby, his father, an eminent author, taught on a college campus and took the kids out on Sundays. The clash of worlds between town and gown, between the hard drinking, drugging, and fighting of “townies” and the ambitions of well-fed students debating books and ideas, couldn’t have been more stark. Only by finally putting pen to paper himself did young Andre come into his own, discovering the power of empathy in channeling the stories of others—and ultimately bridging the rift between his father and himself.
Andre Dubus III is the author of The Garden of Last Days and House of Sand and Fog (an Oprah Book Club pick and a finalist for the National Book Award). His writing has received many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Magazine Award, and a Pushcart Prize. He lives with his family north of Boston.
There is no charge and no sign-up is needed to join the discussion. Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.
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