Overview

American short-story writer Andre Dubus (1936–1999) was a “writer’s writer.” His acclaimed collections of short stories and essays involve one or all of three thematic discourses – that of the Catholic Church as center of meaning and value, the symbolic and healing power of rites and ritual on the human heart, and the ethical and spiritual dilemmas that drive human experience. “Like Chekhov’s” reports the Village Voice, “Dubus’s best stories contain the arc of a whole life in the language of specific moments.” Tobias Wolff summarized, “Andre Dubus is a master.” In 1986, however, Dubus lost the use of his legs when he attempted to help a stranded motorist on the highway. The spiritual, physical and emotional suffering which ensued kept him from writing for a time but eventually led to his authoring 17 stories before his death in 1999. Moving Toward Redemption is a critical six-chapter study of these stories as they are united as capstones to his previous work, as they participate in the Catholic cycle of sin, suffering and sacramentality, and as they individually address the various transformations of his life in the aftermath of the accident. Moving Toward Redemption is the only book on Dubus’s writing since Thomas Kennedy’s A Study of the Short Fiction (1988). It is designed for use in courses on short fiction, religion and literature, life writing, genre study, and disability studies. It suggests ways to negotiate the conflicts and tensions between Christian and secular approaches to disability studies.

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9781433133282

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Reviews

Much praise to Andrea Ivanov-Craig for flexing the scholarship on Dubus: first, as regards her expansion of the faith-based approach to his life-narratives and short fiction; second, in her exploration of how Dubus's post-accident prose has come to serve as a prominent voice of and for the disabled in the culture; and finally, for her detailed examination of how the two phenomena of brokenness-the symbolic deterioration of the sinner and the real distress caused by any number of physiological abnormalities that would qualify an individual as disabled-might also have, in a larger framing of the issue, a common salvific value. Contexts for Ivanov-Craig's examination of her subject range from Kierkegaard and Kant to scripture, both Old and New Testament, to Virgil and Homer, Saint Paul and Rashaan Roland Kirk, the blind jazz saxophonist. Dubus scholars-and aficionados of Dubus's writing generally-will find this study to be an essential read. - Edward J. Gleason, Professor Emeritus, Saint Anselm College A carefully researched, deeply thoughtful reading of Andre Dubus's work. Indispensable for those who hope to fully understand Dubus's deeply Catholic vision of human brokenness and healing grace. - Paul J. Contino, Professor of Great Books, Pepperdine University Andrea Ivanov-Craig's Moving Toward Redemption capitalizes on the academy's post-secular turn to offer an important and cutting-edge analysis of the writings of Andre Dubus. Ivanov-Craig does justice to Dubus's unique Catholic imagination, reflecting with nuance on the cycle of sin, sacramentalism and redemption found in his fiction. Employing disability studies as an interpretive lens, Ivanov-Craig points to insightful continuities and ruptures in the Dubus oeuvre, divided on either side of his life-changing 1986 accident. Moving Toward Redemption is a must-read for Dubus scholars and anyone with an interest in disability studies. As the only book-length study that takes into account the seventeen stories written after Dubus's accident, it is sure to become a pioneering work. - Samuel Joeckel, Palm Beach Atlantic University

Andrea Ivanov-Craig's Moving Toward Redemption capitalizes on the academy's post-secular turn to offer an important and cutting-edge analysis of the writings of Andre Dubus. Ivanov-Craig does justice to Dubus's unique Catholic imagination, reflecting with nuance on the cycle of sin, sacramentalism and redemption found in his fiction. Employing disability studies as an interpretive lens, Ivanov-Craig points to insightful continuities and ruptures in the Dubus oeuvre, divided on either side of his life-changing 1986 accident. Moving Toward Redemption is a must-read for Dubus scholars and anyone with an interest in disability studies. As the only book-length study that takes into account the seventeen stories written after Dubus's accident, it is sure to become a pioneering work. - Samuel Joeckel, Palm Beach Atlantic University Much praise to Andrea Ivanov-Craig for flexing the scholarship on Dubus: first, as regards her expansion of the faith-based approach to his life-narratives and short fiction; second, in her exploration of how Dubus's post-accident prose has come to serve as a prominent voice of and for the disabled in the culture; and finally, for her detailed examination of how the two phenomena of brokenness-the symbolic deterioration of the sinner and the real distress caused by any number of physiological abnormalities that would qualify an individual as disabled-might also have, in a larger framing of the issue, a common salvific value. Contexts for Ivanov-Craig's examination of her subject range from Kierkegaard and Kant to scripture, both Old and New Testament, to Virgil and Homer, Saint Paul and Rashaan Roland Kirk, the blind jazz saxophonist. Dubus scholars-and aficionados of Dubus's writing generally-will find this study to be an essential read. - Edward J. Gleason, Professor Emeritus, Saint Anselm College A carefully researched, deeply thoughtful reading of Andre Dubus's work. Indispensable for those who hope to fully understand Dubus's deeply Catholic vision of human brokenness and healing grace. - Paul J. Contino, Professor of Great Books, Pepperdine University

A carefully researched, deeply thoughtful reading of Andre Dubus's work. Indispensable for those who hope to fully understand Dubus's deeply Catholic vision of human brokenness and healing grace. - Paul J. Contino, Professor of Great Books, Pepperdine University Much praise to Andrea Ivanov-Craig for flexing the scholarship on Dubus: first, as regards her expansion of the faith-based approach to his life-narratives and short fiction; second, in her exploration of how Dubus's post-accident prose has come to serve as a prominent voice of and for the disabled in the culture; and finally, for her detailed examination of how the two phenomena of brokenness-the symbolic deterioration of the sinner and the real distress caused by any number of physiological abnormalities that would qualify an individual as disabled-might also have, in a larger framing of the issue, a common salvific value. Contexts for Ivanov-Craig's examination of her subject range from Kierkegaard and Kant to scripture, both Old and New Testament, to Virgil and Homer, Saint Paul and Rashaan Roland Kirk, the blind jazz saxophonist. Dubus scholars-and aficionados of Dubus's writing generally-will find this study to be an essential read. - Edward J. Gleason, Professor Emeritus, Saint Anselm College Andrea Ivanov-Craig's Moving Toward Redemption capitalizes on the academy's post-secular turn to offer an important and cutting-edge analysis of the writings of Andre Dubus. Ivanov-Craig does justice to Dubus's unique Catholic imagination, reflecting with nuance on the cycle of sin, sacramentalism and redemption found in his fiction. Employing disability studies as an interpretive lens, Ivanov-Craig points to insightful continuities and ruptures in the Dubus oeuvre, divided on either side of his life-changing 1986 accident. Moving Toward Redemption is a must-read for Dubus scholars and anyone with an interest in disability studies. As the only book-length study that takes into account the seventeen stories written after Dubus's accident, it is sure to become a pioneering work. - Samuel Joeckel, Palm Beach Atlantic University

Andrea Ivanov-Craig's Moving Toward Redemption capitalizes on the academy's post-secular turn to offer an important and cutting-edge analysis of the writings of Andre Dubus. Ivanov-Craig does justice to Dubus's unique Catholic imagination, reflecting with nuance on the cycle of sin, sacramentalism and redemption found in his fiction. Employing disability studies as an interpretive lens, Ivanov-Craig points to insightful continuities and ruptures in the Dubus oeuvre, divided on either side of his life-changing 1986 accident. Moving Toward Redemption is a must-read for Dubus scholars and anyone with an interest in disability studies. As the only book-length study that takes into account the seventeen stories written after Dubus's accident, it is sure to become a pioneering work. - Samuel Joeckel, Palm Beach Atlantic University A carefully researched, deeply thoughtful reading of Andre Dubus's work. Indispensable for those who hope to fully understand Dubus's deeply Catholic vision of human brokenness and healing grace. - Paul J. Contino, Professor of Great Books, Pepperdine University Much praise to Andrea Ivanov-Craig for flexing the scholarship on Dubus: first, as regards her expansion of the faith-based approach to his life-narratives and short fiction; second, in her exploration of how Dubus's post-accident prose has come to serve as a prominent voice of and for the disabled in the culture; and finally, for her detailed examination of how the two phenomena of brokenness-the symbolic deterioration of the sinner and the real distress caused by any number of physiological abnormalities that would qualify an individual as disabled-might also have, in a larger framing of the issue, a common salvific value. Contexts for Ivanov-Craig's examination of her subject range from Kierkegaard and Kant to scripture, both Old and New Testament, to Virgil and Homer, Saint Paul and Rashaan Roland Kirk, the blind jazz saxophonist. Dubus scholars-and aficionados of Dubus's writing generally-will find this study to be an essential read. - Edward J. Gleason, Professor Emeritus, Saint Anselm College

Author Information

Andrea Ivanov-Craig, Ph.D., is Professor of English at Azusa Pacific University, where she has been a faculty member since 1995. She received her B.A. in English from the University of Redlands in Southern California and her doctorate in English at the University of Southern California. Her work on the Catholic short-story writer Andre Dubus includes “Andre Dubus’s Christian Aesthetic of Disability” published in Xavier Review (2011) and “Doing Penance in the Old West: ‘Sisters’ as Andre Dubus’s Last Word on Suffering Rape” published in Renascence (2008). She has done multiple presentations on various aspects of Dubus’s work since the year 2000. Additionally, she has had the privilege to meet and interview most of his family and be the first scholar to examine his papers at the University of Texas, Austin (2010). She currently teaches a course on American Catholic writers.

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