Book Club

Book Club’s next read is ‘Ghost Dogs’ by Andre Dubus III

Join the live author discussion on March 26 at 6 p.m.

By Zipporah Osei

Andre Dubus III isn’t afraid to use his writing to let readers in on the journey as he excavates his life and takes a close look at his deepest thoughts, fears, and motivations. He did it with “Townie,” his acclaimed memoir about growing up poor in a small Massachusetts town, and he’s done it again with his latest work.

This month, the local writing legend joins our Book Club to discuss “Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin,” a new essay collection that reflects on “a life of challenges, contradictions, and fulfillments.”

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While he’s well-known for his novels and short stories, Dubus has mastered the art of memoir writing. His work captures the truths of growing up in a low-income home, the complicated relationship between a flawed father and son, and how our upbringings can carry with us into all stages of our lives. This time around, the author is looking forward just as much as he looks back. 

He reflects on his violent youth — one of bar fights at Tap Brewpub in Haverhill and sudden evictions — and the quiet domesticity he finds himself in today. In one essay, “If I Owned a Gun,” Dubus writes about the empowerment and shame he felt as a gun owner and the events that led to him giving that up. That essay, among others, follows the theme that runs through the collection: the “omnipresent expectations and contradictions of masculinity.”

“Andre Dubus III is a literary treasure. These tender, elegant essays come to us directly from his battered heart, his noble soul, his powerful reckoning with the legacy of his childhood. To read this book is to touch the pulsing core of what it is to be human,” said Dani Shapiro, author of “Signal Fires.”

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Dubus grew up in mill towns along the Massachusetts and New Hampshire border as one of four kids in a working class family with roots in Louisiana. The author has written extensively about his childhood and the lessons he learned from it, both through fiction and nonfiction. Since he started writing in his early 20s (while working as a carpenter, bartender, janitor, corrections counselor, and more to make ends meet), he’s gone on to write nearly a dozen books.

You may recognize his name from “Such Kindness,” “Townie,” or “House of Sand and Fog,” which was a National Book Award Finalist in Fiction and an Oprah’s Book Club selection. He is also a professor of creative writing at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and has taught writing at Harvard University, Tufts University, Emerson College.

Critics love “Ghost Dogs” and the book earned a starred review from Booklist, where it was praised for “a conversational style that disguises its structure and solidity.”

“Dubus’ sentences glide on a level pitch before seamlessly dovetailing into the poetically poignant. Within Dubus’ vast heart lies a pugilist intent on defeating his own demons,” Bill Kelly wrote for Booklist. 

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Joining Dubus for our March Book Club discussion is Laura Lamarre Anderson, co-owner of Lala Books, an independent bookstore in downtown Lowell. 

Lamarre Anderson opened the bookstore in 2021 with her husband, Greg, after years as a Lowell Public School teacher. She and her husband told the Lowell Sun that they were inspired to open the bookstore — Lowell’s only independent bookstore — after seeing a local bookshop open and close in the span of a single year.

Now LaLa books is filling a much needed role in Lowell’s creative community, providing a space “where readers gather.” At the store you’ll find community curated lists (including a new collection for Women’s History Month) and a full events calendar. They host writing groups, open mics, a boozy book club, and story time events for kids. 

Join Andre Dubus III and Laura Lamarre Anderson as they discuss his new book “Ghost Dogs” on March 26 at 6 p.m. 

Buy “Ghost Dogs” from: Bookshop | Lala Books

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