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DESTERITY
Douglas Bauer's profound and exquisitely written first novel quickly established him as one of America's best new writers when it was first published in 1989. Now back in print, this darkly poetic novel is imbued with the same tough and tender understanding of the emotional lives of real people that distinguish Bauer's subsequent novels, The Very Air and The Book of Famous Iowans.
- GenresFiction
Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1989
14 people want to read
About the author
Douglas Bauer
15 books7 followersI’ve written three novels, Dexterity, The Very Air, and The Book of Famous Iowans, each of them set in small towns, in Upstate New York, in Texas, and in Iowa. Their subjects and interests are as varied as their settings, although reviewers have pointed out that they all concern themselves in some fashion with mothers’ unpredictable presences and absences and the effect of that unreliability on their sons.
I’ve also written two non-fiction books, Prairie City, Iowa and The Stuff of Fiction. The first covers a year of reunion with the tiny farm village of the title, where I was raised and to which I returned at the age of 30 in order to try to understand the place where I grew up and, not incidentally, some things about myself as I reached that critical age. The second is a series of essays devoted to the craft of fiction writing. The essays cover the elements of character creation, dialogue, narrative strategies, how to start and end a story, and many more. There are exercises accompanying the essays.
In addition to the books I’ve written, I’ve edited two anthologies, Prime Times: Writers on their favorite television shows; and Death by Pad Thai and Other Unforgettable Meals. These anthologies feature contributions from some of the most prominent writers of our time, including Sue Miller, Andre Dubus III, Aimee Bender, Richard Russo, Claire Messud, Nick Hornby, the late and very great Barry Hannah, and on and on.
My stories and essays have appeared through the years in The Atlantic, Harper’s, Esquire, Tin House, The New York Times Magazine and Sunday Book Review, The Massachusetts Review, Agni, and other publications.
I’ve received grants in both fiction and non-fiction from The National Endowment for the Arts.
I’ve taught at several colleges and universities, including Harvard, Smith, The University of New Mexico, Rice, and since 2005 at Bennington College. My courses there include literature classes in the works of Charles Dickens, my favorite author in the language, as well as Twentieth Century writers such as Willa Cather, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.
I’ve also written two non-fiction books, Prairie City, Iowa and The Stuff of Fiction. The first covers a year of reunion with the tiny farm village of the title, where I was raised and to which I returned at the age of 30 in order to try to understand the place where I grew up and, not incidentally, some things about myself as I reached that critical age. The second is a series of essays devoted to the craft of fiction writing. The essays cover the elements of character creation, dialogue, narrative strategies, how to start and end a story, and many more. There are exercises accompanying the essays.
In addition to the books I’ve written, I’ve edited two anthologies, Prime Times: Writers on their favorite television shows; and Death by Pad Thai and Other Unforgettable Meals. These anthologies feature contributions from some of the most prominent writers of our time, including Sue Miller, Andre Dubus III, Aimee Bender, Richard Russo, Claire Messud, Nick Hornby, the late and very great Barry Hannah, and on and on.
My stories and essays have appeared through the years in The Atlantic, Harper’s, Esquire, Tin House, The New York Times Magazine and Sunday Book Review, The Massachusetts Review, Agni, and other publications.
I’ve received grants in both fiction and non-fiction from The National Endowment for the Arts.
I’ve taught at several colleges and universities, including Harvard, Smith, The University of New Mexico, Rice, and since 2005 at Bennington College. My courses there include literature classes in the works of Charles Dickens, my favorite author in the language, as well as Twentieth Century writers such as Willa Cather, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 9, 2017
I've just finished this book, and I can't say that I've entirely formed my opinion.
It is well worth reading, particularly for Ramona. Novels often fall frustratingly flat in their attempts to depict female characters of any depth, but Bauer succeeds in creating someone both intriguing and repulsive, whose motivations and perspective we might not share, but is perhaps all the more a character worth knowing.
It is well worth reading, particularly for Ramona. Novels often fall frustratingly flat in their attempts to depict female characters of any depth, but Bauer succeeds in creating someone both intriguing and repulsive, whose motivations and perspective we might not share, but is perhaps all the more a character worth knowing.
April 21, 2016
Ed and Ramona fell in love in high school and married very young. Starting a family in the depressed upstate town of Myles, New York, in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains, Ramona soon discovers married family life is not all she dreamed of. Ed is a far from perfect husband, hitting the drink a bit too much, argumentative and sometimes even violent, while Ramona begins to resent Ed for keeping her tied to this banal small town life.
Ramona had made a previous attempt to flee this life resulting in a car accident and the loss of her hand.
One day it all gets too much for Ramona again and in a fit of almost blind madness she leaves her year old son in the middle of a field and flees the town and her rigid little life, walking south... in flip flops!
It is almost like she is on the run but though she is constantly worried that she is going to be found she also finds some kind of thrill in her new life, having an affair and eventually becoming more and more disengaged with reality.
The guilt of leaving her son, however, never leaves her haunting her day and night.
Meanwhile Ed is going through his own breakdown, also losing his grip on reality. He ends up living out the back of his property in a lean-to made of old car doors while the town gossips about him. Eventually he begins to feel that Ramona is not going to return, so he heads out in search of her. During this time, Ramona, who never really got more than about 50 miles away, decides to return. Unfortunately in a cruel twist of fate, Ed, who has drunk himself into a stupor and crashed his car falls asleep in a snow drift.
Bauer has a very adept way of getting into the heads and charting the mental decline of the characters and for a debut novel this is very strong stuff. However the story itself, I felt, did not hold the same strength. The poetic prose hinted at a masterpiece but the actual story lagged a bit. The days of Ed wallowing in self pity while the town tittle-tattle about him really were a bit of slog to get through and Ramona’s weird little fantasy about the artist over the road was just a bit too obscure. You’ll probably get something out of this, as I did, if you really appreciate a wordsmith but Bauer’s skill in this department just didn’t quite work enough of its magic on the pace of the plot for me.
Ramona had made a previous attempt to flee this life resulting in a car accident and the loss of her hand.
One day it all gets too much for Ramona again and in a fit of almost blind madness she leaves her year old son in the middle of a field and flees the town and her rigid little life, walking south... in flip flops!
It is almost like she is on the run but though she is constantly worried that she is going to be found she also finds some kind of thrill in her new life, having an affair and eventually becoming more and more disengaged with reality.
The guilt of leaving her son, however, never leaves her haunting her day and night.
Meanwhile Ed is going through his own breakdown, also losing his grip on reality. He ends up living out the back of his property in a lean-to made of old car doors while the town gossips about him. Eventually he begins to feel that Ramona is not going to return, so he heads out in search of her. During this time, Ramona, who never really got more than about 50 miles away, decides to return. Unfortunately in a cruel twist of fate, Ed, who has drunk himself into a stupor and crashed his car falls asleep in a snow drift.
Bauer has a very adept way of getting into the heads and charting the mental decline of the characters and for a debut novel this is very strong stuff. However the story itself, I felt, did not hold the same strength. The poetic prose hinted at a masterpiece but the actual story lagged a bit. The days of Ed wallowing in self pity while the town tittle-tattle about him really were a bit of slog to get through and Ramona’s weird little fantasy about the artist over the road was just a bit too obscure. You’ll probably get something out of this, as I did, if you really appreciate a wordsmith but Bauer’s skill in this department just didn’t quite work enough of its magic on the pace of the plot for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 2, 2016
High school lovers marry to young, and after several beatings she leaves im and their child. He chases her as the hunter he is and she does evade hiim.
This darkly poetic novel is imbued with the same tough and tender understanding of the emotional lives of real people
Incredibly written pages of death by snow.
This darkly poetic novel is imbued with the same tough and tender understanding of the emotional lives of real people
Incredibly written pages of death by snow.
September 6, 2011
Dark, Sad, Enjoyable.
March 28, 2016
I couldn't stand any of the characters in this book. It's really hard to get into the story when nobody is likable in the least bit.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews