I was listening to a long interview with Andre Dubus III on Fresh Air about his new book, SUCH KINDNESS, and much of their talk was about male violence. He relayed a story about how his Dad wrote "Leslie in Califonia" after the two of them discovered his sister was being beaten by her husband. Dubus II went home and wrote this very short story and his son Dubus III was very upset with his father using that incident to create art. "How does this help?" he asked. But of course, it does because it reminds us that this is going on right down the street, right next door sometimes. When I was a kid I watched the man I babysat for throw his wife out the front door. At night, I could often hear the man in the row house next to ours repeatedly push his wife against the wall. The walls are thicker in the places I live now but this still goes on.
So of course I had to read the story or rather reread it because it is in a collection I own. In the story, a woman wakes up with her eye hurting and we learn her husband has beaten her. And like all men in this situation he promises he will never do it again, but of course, he will. And the story ends with the woman indicating she is about to leave. There is nothing new about this story but it gets right to it without telling us a word more than we need to know.
So last night I tried a new series on Prime called THE LOST FLOWERS OF ALICE HART, an Australian series starring Sigourney Weaver and guess what it's about. And this time the man beats his child and wife. Some days you can't get away from it.
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Although I know it happens far too often, I've been lucky (or perhaps blind) to have never knowingly come across a woman beater, although when we were first married there was a man in the neighborhood who would physically beat his kid in public. He was a pathetic piece of shite. It's hard for me to wrap myself around the idea of an abuser.
This sounds intense, Patti, and it makes you think. I'd like to think I'd intervene, but who knows what people actually do in public.
Yes, we've watched the first two episodes of ALICE HART so far. Except for her negligible Aussie accent, Weaver is good as ever, and the little girl is very good, especially considering that she hasn't talked yet.
Andre Dubus II was one of my favorite short story writers. I wouldn't mind rereading him.
Finished a couple of collections:
Dennis Lehane, CORONADO. I wanted to read this after reading his SMALL MERCIES. He's a good writer. By coincidence, one of the stories here is about a wife beater too. The neighbors know and try to get him to leave. Meanwhile, the wife acts like nothing is wrong, even though he threw her down the stairs in front of some children. A very subtle story was "Adam Robinson Acquires Grandparents and a Little Sister." A six year old boy who has been in foster care comes to live with his 65-ish grandparents, but always has his paper bag packed and ready to go "home" - a former foster care home - even though the grandparents assure him daily that he is with them forever and not going anywhere. They have three high achieving (a doctor and Ph.D.s) daughters, but their son and his wife were clearly losers. He did a lovely job telling this one.
SOrry about that - somehow tne end of the Lehane paragraph and the beginning of the next got cut off and all merged.
It was Edward P. Jones, ALL AUNT HAGAR'S CHILDREN with the story about the wife beater and the little boy in foster care.
"By coincidence" was supposed to be the start of the new paragraph and the Jones book. I have no idea of how I did that.
They are both great writers. Dubus II had such a sad life after he got hit by a van on the roadside. I remember hearing him on a radio interview and he seemed ready to throw it all in.
I know. I hate how his life ended up. Such a tragedy. I will be sending you the Jones book in time, along with a couple of paperbacks I've been saving for you.
Thanks, Jeff!
Sad but awful truth.
Here's my story: The Ghost Widow by Katherine Hall
https://ahotcupofpleasureagain.wordpress.com/2023/08/09/ssw-the-ghost-widow-by-katherine-hale-1918/
I read your post last night right before I published mine, and was surprised that our posts were about similar themes.
I don't remember being aware of anyone around me that was experiencing physical abuse at any time in my life, and it always shocks and saddens me to read about it in fiction.
I had not heard of Andre Dubus II or his son (although I have heard of THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, I just did not know who had written it). I will have to look into both authors.
Dubus II wrote shorts. The collection is amazing. I would say along with Alice Munro and William Trevor, they are the best. The III also wrote TOWNIE, a very fine memoir about his growing up, which was quite deprived because his parents divorced and his father made very little money as a ss writer.
Indeed, TOWNIE was excellent and gave a very different picture of his father. III's big success, though, was HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film.
I helped a few kids in my youth with "external" (to the family) bullies (while having to cope with no few of my own), though only as I recall was able to help one of my schoolmates, as a teen, get out of an abusive situation, however temporarily (got to stay at my family's house for a week...this was after I was made fully aware of my oldest friend at Punahou surviving her abusive treatment long enough to leave HS early via early matriculation to college.).My folks (not solely my parents) probably should've done more to help at least a few of my cousins...
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