Status
Available
Genres
Publication
W. W. Norton & Company (2023), 336 pages
Description
"Tom Lowe's identity and his pride are invested in the work he does with his back and his hands. He designed and built his family's dream home, working extra hours to pay off the adjustable rate mortgage he took on the property, convinced he is making every sacrifice for the happiness of his wife and son. Until, in a moment of fatigued inattention, shingling a roof in too-bright sunlight, he falls. In constant pain, addicted to painkillers at the cost of his relationships with his wife and son, Tom slowly comes to realize that he can never work again. If he is not a working man, who is he? He is not, he believes, the kind of person who lives in subsidized housing, though that is where he has ended up. He is not the kind of person who hatches a scheme to commit convenience-check fraud, together with neighbors he considers lowlifes, until he finds himself stealing his banker's trash. Who is Tom Lowe, and who will he become? Can he find a way to reunite hands and heart, mind and spirit, to be once again a giver and not just a taker, to forge a self-acceptance deeper than pride? Andre Dubus III's soulful cast includes Trina, the struggling mom next door who sells her own plasma to get by; Dawn, the tough-talking owner of the local hairdressing salon; Jamie, a well-meaning pothead college student ready to stick it to "the man"; and a mix of strangers and neighbors who will never know the role they played in changing a life. To one man's painful moral journey, Dubus brings compassion with an edge of dark absurdity, forging a novel as absorbing as it is profound"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member nancyadair
I’ve been in my own jail, son. I think I’m finally finding out how to be free.
from Such Kindness by Andre Dubus III
Most of us live on the lip of a void, one step away from disaster.
A fall leads to loss of work, which leads to loss of home. Constant pain leads to addiction to opioids and
Who is to blame? The hospital doctors who couldn’t repair your broken body? The broker who sold you the bad mortgage and took the house you built with your own hands? The man who slept with your wife and took her from you?
All you know is that you are left with nothing but anger, pain and loss and blame, but especially anger at the people who did this to you.
Tom Lowe won’t stop striving. He had worked nonstop to build his wife, born to abundance, the perfect house. Now, he is determined to find a gift for his son’s twentieth birthday. But his fall never seems to end. Having lost his health, his career, his house, his wife and child, he losses his car and his phone, too. Walking through the bitter snow, sockless in old work boots, his hips flaring in pain with every step, he strives. He is determined to be there for his son.
Tom is surrounded by others trapped in poverty. He becomes a fatherly friend to a young mother. Tom pulled himself from poverty by hard work–until things went awry– but she remains trapped. He wants to protect her from the abusive boyfriend and the man who is committing a crime.
Learning that his son is in danger, Tom sets off to go to him. He must rely on the help of strangers. He is shown kindness.
And he changes. He begins to accept the life he has and the people in this life.
Compassionate yet gritty, this story reminds us of the false values that drive us to bad decisions, the value of kindness, and the freedom of acceptance.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
from Such Kindness by Andre Dubus III
Most of us live on the lip of a void, one step away from disaster.
A fall leads to loss of work, which leads to loss of home. Constant pain leads to addiction to opioids and
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alcohol. And then comes the loss of your family, unwilling to continue the fall with you.Who is to blame? The hospital doctors who couldn’t repair your broken body? The broker who sold you the bad mortgage and took the house you built with your own hands? The man who slept with your wife and took her from you?
All you know is that you are left with nothing but anger, pain and loss and blame, but especially anger at the people who did this to you.
Tom Lowe won’t stop striving. He had worked nonstop to build his wife, born to abundance, the perfect house. Now, he is determined to find a gift for his son’s twentieth birthday. But his fall never seems to end. Having lost his health, his career, his house, his wife and child, he losses his car and his phone, too. Walking through the bitter snow, sockless in old work boots, his hips flaring in pain with every step, he strives. He is determined to be there for his son.
Tom is surrounded by others trapped in poverty. He becomes a fatherly friend to a young mother. Tom pulled himself from poverty by hard work–until things went awry– but she remains trapped. He wants to protect her from the abusive boyfriend and the man who is committing a crime.
Learning that his son is in danger, Tom sets off to go to him. He must rely on the help of strangers. He is shown kindness.
And he changes. He begins to accept the life he has and the people in this life.
Compassionate yet gritty, this story reminds us of the false values that drive us to bad decisions, the value of kindness, and the freedom of acceptance.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
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LibraryThing member rmarcin
What a beautiful book!
Tom is disabled from a fall he took when he owned his own construction company. That fall began a fall of everything in his life. His marriage failed, he became addicted to painkillers, and his son became distant.
Now, his son, Drew, is turning 20, and Tom is trying to do
There was a bit of abuse and language in the book, but it seemed realistic and genuine. I will think about this book for some time.
Tom is disabled from a fall he took when he owned his own construction company. That fall began a fall of everything in his life. His marriage failed, he became addicted to painkillers, and his son became distant.
Now, his son, Drew, is turning 20, and Tom is trying to do
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everything he can to reach him to tell Drew that he loves him. But, life's circumstances keep getting in the way. Not until someone shows Tom some kindness does Tom realize that he needs to start opening up and letting kindness take over his life. He begins to accept his mistakes and make amends. There was a bit of abuse and language in the book, but it seemed realistic and genuine. I will think about this book for some time.
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LibraryThing member ccayne
I'm giving this four stars for the writing. I appreciate that many readers found Tom's story inspirational but I disagree. His journey wasn't easy, yet it was which seemed highly unlikely to me. I found most of the characters, to be stereotypes and again, not terribly believable. Dubus painted a
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compelling story of how one bad event can spiral into a series of bad outcomes from which it's nearly impossible to recover. I admired Tom's determination and generosity. Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
"For the thousandth time I think that I do not belong here. I do not belong here with any of these people."
Readers of Andre Dubus III will know that he often writes of America's underclass, its down-trodden victims of poverty and drugs and violence. This book is no exception. It reminded me
For many years, Tom Lowe was a successful carpenter with his own prosperous business. He married slightly above himself, and he and his wife Ronnie had a son Drew. He owned a plot of land, and wanted to build a house on it for his family. He let himself be talked into taking out an adjustable rate mortgage, and he built a beautiful house with his own two hands, even though he knew the mortgage payments would stretch his finances to the nth degree. Unfortunately, he hadn't really fully understood the consequences of the adjustable rate feature. Still, when the rate increased, he was only a few payments behind. Then tragedy struck: a fall from a roof left him disabled and addicted to pain killers. He loses his business, the house and his family.
When the book opens, Tom has beat the addiction. He lives on meager disability checks in subsidized housing. He is trying to scrounge up enough money to go see his son on his son's birthday in a few days time. He is bitter, and wants revenge on the banker who talked him into the ARM, which he sees as the source of all his problems. He and his neighbor single Mom Trina have devised a plan to steal the banker's garbage and take advantage of credit card/cash advance offers the banker may have received in the mail (id theft/bank fraud).
The book follows Tom's life (and a sad and hard-scrabble one it is) over the next several days until and after his son's birthday. Despite its grim beginning, it ultimately turns heart-warming, maybe even Pollyanna-ish, as Tom comes across many people and random acts of kindness that begin to change his outlook on life.
Overall I liked this book, although I've liked the others I've read by him better (House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and Townie).
3 stars
Readers of Andre Dubus III will know that he often writes of America's underclass, its down-trodden victims of poverty and drugs and violence. This book is no exception. It reminded me
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somewhat of the books of Willy Vlautin.For many years, Tom Lowe was a successful carpenter with his own prosperous business. He married slightly above himself, and he and his wife Ronnie had a son Drew. He owned a plot of land, and wanted to build a house on it for his family. He let himself be talked into taking out an adjustable rate mortgage, and he built a beautiful house with his own two hands, even though he knew the mortgage payments would stretch his finances to the nth degree. Unfortunately, he hadn't really fully understood the consequences of the adjustable rate feature. Still, when the rate increased, he was only a few payments behind. Then tragedy struck: a fall from a roof left him disabled and addicted to pain killers. He loses his business, the house and his family.
When the book opens, Tom has beat the addiction. He lives on meager disability checks in subsidized housing. He is trying to scrounge up enough money to go see his son on his son's birthday in a few days time. He is bitter, and wants revenge on the banker who talked him into the ARM, which he sees as the source of all his problems. He and his neighbor single Mom Trina have devised a plan to steal the banker's garbage and take advantage of credit card/cash advance offers the banker may have received in the mail (id theft/bank fraud).
The book follows Tom's life (and a sad and hard-scrabble one it is) over the next several days until and after his son's birthday. Despite its grim beginning, it ultimately turns heart-warming, maybe even Pollyanna-ish, as Tom comes across many people and random acts of kindness that begin to change his outlook on life.
Overall I liked this book, although I've liked the others I've read by him better (House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and Townie).
3 stars
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LibraryThing member froxgirl
A disappointment from one of my favorite local fiction writers. It's about the Siddartha-type journey of Tom Lowe, Jr, who has a terrible fall from a roof while working construction. He loses his wife and his son to her custody when he becomes addicted to opioids during his rehab. We meet him when
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he's living in terrible pain, in a Massachusetts low income housing project, and decides to climb out of his miserable situation by becoming deliberately kind to everyone he meets. An admirable goal but tedious, as firstly he decides to steal mail from the wealthy banker who foreclosed on his home and take cash from the banker's credit cards, and then tells his neighbor and her boyfriend so that they get involved in the scheme too. Tom quits when he realizes this path is only leading him to more misery. We have seen this man before in many of the author's works, and I am just tired of that same character, redeemed or not. Show Less
LibraryThing member sblock
I think this would be a good selection for a book club. I came away wanting to talk about it. Dubus is one of a handful of authors who can write with authority about the working class. I recommend pairing this book with his memoir, Townies.
Language
Original language
English
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