A good deal more than that, though …

… A writer’s writer and the inevitability of bad times - The Boston Globe.

This “inevitable” quality of life that the stories so often explore, is wholly connected to Dubus’s religious commitment as a Catholic, to taking human life seriously in the unhesitating belief that fiction is, or should be, about real people, usually in one or another kind of trouble. For Dubus this means the language of his stories is at the service of something outside itself. He is a “referential” writer, rather than a post-modernist one whose concern is with the tricks and illusions language plays. Unlike the American novelists Dubus is most indebted to — Hemingway and Faulkner — his language can sometimes feel “flat-footed” (Beattie’s word), not calling attention to itself; often we forget we are reading sentences but are put rather into more direct connection with the character’s thoughts and feelings. 

Here is Ann Beattie's piece: What Is Andre Dubus Doing, Anyway? 



And here is Richard Russo's: Learning to Love the Stories of Andre Dubus.



(Hat tip, Dave Lull)