Andre Dubus

Andre Dubus

Andre Dubus was born on August 11, 1936 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He received his education from a Catholic religious order that emphasized writing and literature called the Christian Brothers. Following a six year stint in the Marine Corps, Dubus moved to Iowa with his wife and four children in order to study at the University of Iowa. He received an MFA (master of fine arts) in creative writing. After this he and his family moved to Massachusetts, where he lived, wrote, and taught for the remainder of his life.

In later years, Dubus went through many personal problems. To begin, his daughter was raped as a young adult causing him paranoia for him and his loved ones. He carried a gun wit him at all times, until he almost shot a man during a drunken argument outside a bar in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Following these problems, Dubus was critically injured in a car accident in 1986. He stopped to help a stranded brother and sister who had been in an accident. As he was moving the sister to the side of the road, a car swerved and hit them. The brother died instantly, and the sister had only survived because Dubus had pushed her out of the way. Dubus, however, suffered serious injuries to both of his legs. After many unsuccessful surgeries and infections, his left leg was amputated just above the knee. Eventually, he lost the use of his right leg as well. He was confined to a wheelchair, and battled clinical depression for the rest of his life. His third wife left him in the midst of all this, and took their two young daughters with her.

In leu of all these personal problems, Dubus still managed to remain extremely faithful to God. He possessed a deeply incarnational and sacramental Catholic spirituality. This spirituality strengthened him through all of his pain and loss. Through all of his problems, his writings actually gained more eloquence and passion. The accident changed his life tremendously, and he made sure to note that in his writings. Even writing,

“I said through my weeping: I’m not a man among men anymore and I’m not a man among women either…Then [the therapist] looked up at me. Her voice has much peace whose resonance is her own pain she has moved through and beyond. It’s in Jeremiah, she said. The potter is making a pot and it cracks. So he smashes it, and makes a new vessel. You can’t make a new vessel out of a broken one. It’s time to find the real you.”

 This quote shows how passionate he was about his Catholicism, his personal problems, and his writings. He was not ashamed to mention the fact that he was crying in front of his female physical therapist. He was not ashamed of this because her message was so strong, and he took it to heart. Dubus' faith was always extremely noticeable in his writings. It is said that, "Readers will find some of the most impassioned, powerful words concerning the sacramental life, particularly Eucharist, to be found in contemporary spiritual writing" (Amy Welborn).


Dubus' writing was full of Catholic beliefs, faiths, and sacremental comparisons. He loved his life, he loved his faith, and he loved to write about both. His understanding of and compassion for his own characters, despite their flaws and limitations, is expressive of a spirituality rooted in God’s passionate and unrelenting love for His creatures, offering the touch of grace no matter what place they have come to rest.