TOWNIE, A Memoir

by Andre Dubus III
 
I read this book for two reasons:  it had been recommended to me by a friend and I loved The House of Sand and Fog, Dubus’ breakout novel.  To say I enjoyed this memoir would be an exaggeration.  But it has stayed with me far longer than most books.  I have thought about it and talked to other people about it many times since I finished reading it.  For me, that’s proof of its power and perhaps even its value.
 
Dubus grew up living a childhood very different from my own and from that my husband and I provided for our children.  His college professor father abandoned his mother and him and his three siblings when they were young, leaving his mother as sole financial provider for the family.  Working all hours of the day and night, his mother was mostly absent from the family house in blue-collar Haverhill, Massachusetts.  The lack of supervision, the violence, the drugs, the bullying, the crimes will shock and disturb you.  But Dubus writes with such clarity and insight and tells such a compelling story, that he forces you to read on.
 
In many ways, Townie reminds me ofHillbilly Elegy by JD Vance.  Both describe childhoods so far removed from my experience as to be almost science fiction.  Both are memoirs written by authors who managed to break away and overcome their crazy childhoods to live “normal,” successful lives.  Both memoirs drew me in and left me contemplating the importance of parenting and how one’s childhood has so much bearing on one’s adulthood and the roles of nature versus nurture.   I recommend both memoirs, but since Townie is set in Massachusetts, I’m recommending reading that one first, since it’s all the more incredible for being so close to home and yet so foreign. (Liz)