Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin, By Andre Dubus III, W.W. Norton & Company, 274 pages
From “cottonmouths coiled in the trunks of cypresses and live oaks, Spanish moss hanging so low my grandfather probably had to brush it away from his young face” to “changing my body from soft to hard, exorcising that frightened and hurt nonfighter boy inside of me, a gun in my hands was a nuclear switch for a madman,” Andre Dubus III instills every sentence in his collection of essays with tender, textured humanity.
“Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin” is a collection of essays that revolve around family and reflection, ranging from stories about fatherhood to stories about love to stories about violence to stories about newfound wealth. The title is from one of his essays about the dogs in his life that he has lost to tragic circumstances that haunt him.
This title underscores the themes of trauma and its effects on human emotion that are prevalent throughout the text.
Dubus writes personally and honestly, with a vulnerable tone and clear-eyed self-awareness. His prose is direct yet full of unique figurative language. This memoir-ish collection of essays was a selection for the Louisiana Book Festival this year, and Dubus spoke at the festival as well.
Dubus, though the son of a noted short story author, endured a childhood checkered with evictions and poverty as he lived from pillar to post with his single mother. He experienced violence when bullied as a child, and then handed out retribution with his fists as he grew older and trained as a boxer.
He wrote consistently while working carpentry jobs and teaching as an adjunct writing teacher. Throughout his life he was familiar with “speaking the language of scarcity,” the only language he had known.
Author Andre Dubus III
His third book, the novel “House of Sand and Fog” caught national attention as an Oprah’s Book Club choice and became a bestseller that would be adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film. Dubus explores his relationship with class and wealth, having struggled most of his life and then having a source of financial stability.
Although Dubus spent most of his life in Massachusetts and still resides there, his Louisiana lineage permeates his writing in a familiar way. His summers and vacations spent with his Louisiana grandparents in Grant Parish were formative for him, calling Louisiana “his home.”
His writings about his grandfather who valued hard work and taught Dubus how to build and use tools may conjure familiar connections with Louisianans who have rural relatives.
Universal themes such as impostor syndrome, class insecurity, love, fear, family dynamics and a desire to provide for loved ones make this text a relatable one even if the reader has lived a very different life than Dubus. A mix of longer emotional selections and shorter two-page think-pieces, “Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin” is the kind of book readers can dip in and out of for entertainment and thoughtful reflection.
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