A review by dylanperry
The Cage Keeper, and Other Stories by Andre Dubus III
4.0
Reread: October 2023
Honestly, I've turned around on Cage Keeper over the years. The strong stories are strong enough to hold up the collection. Of the seven stories, four worked for me ("The Cage Keeper," "Duckling Girl," "Forky," and "White Trees, Hammer Moon.") two didn't, ("Mountains" and "Last Dance") and one I could take or leave ("Wolves in the Marsh"). No, the collection isn't destined to be a classic. It's no Jesus' Son or Interpreter of Maladies. And it's probably Dubus III's weakest work. But it's still worth picking up at least once, especially knowing that it only gets better from here. 4/5
Reread: September, 2017
I cannot tell you why I decided to pick this up again, going from rereading Townie to rereading Cage Keeper, from my favorite Dubus work to my least.
When you tell a story, no matter the format, you want it to feel like the character(s) most important story. This has stuck with me in my own writing, and gets to the root of my problem with most of this collection. Five out of seven stories don't feel important. They were disposable tales that had little weight or meaning behind them. Perhaps this seems harsh, and reading it now, it is. But when I've seen Dubus do better, it just feels so damn disappointing to feel utterly disconnected for much of the time I spent with this.
That said, there are highlights. The first two stories are worth the cover price alone (The titular story was my favorite of the bunch). And Dubus' prose is always on point even when the tale feels off center. This man knows how to write a sentence that flows and leaves me in awe. He uses present tense with the quiet ease of a true master; no other working writer I've read has quite matched him. For all this I bump it up to a 3.5 but with the problems I gave before, I cannot give it a higher rating than this.
Original Review
This collection was a mixed bag for me. After loving two of Andre Dubus' books I'm left a bit wanting after finishing this. Of the seven stories I thought two were excellent, two were meh, and skipped three altogether because they didn't hold my attention. The cover is beautiful and I'll proudly display it on my shelves with the rest of my Dubus books, but overall I was disappointed and probably won't read it again.
Honestly, I've turned around on Cage Keeper over the years. The strong stories are strong enough to hold up the collection. Of the seven stories, four worked for me ("The Cage Keeper," "Duckling Girl," "Forky," and "White Trees, Hammer Moon.") two didn't, ("Mountains" and "Last Dance") and one I could take or leave ("Wolves in the Marsh"). No, the collection isn't destined to be a classic. It's no Jesus' Son or Interpreter of Maladies. And it's probably Dubus III's weakest work. But it's still worth picking up at least once, especially knowing that it only gets better from here. 4/5
Reread: September, 2017
I cannot tell you why I decided to pick this up again, going from rereading Townie to rereading Cage Keeper, from my favorite Dubus work to my least.
When you tell a story, no matter the format, you want it to feel like the character(s) most important story. This has stuck with me in my own writing, and gets to the root of my problem with most of this collection. Five out of seven stories don't feel important. They were disposable tales that had little weight or meaning behind them. Perhaps this seems harsh, and reading it now, it is. But when I've seen Dubus do better, it just feels so damn disappointing to feel utterly disconnected for much of the time I spent with this.
That said, there are highlights. The first two stories are worth the cover price alone (The titular story was my favorite of the bunch). And Dubus' prose is always on point even when the tale feels off center. This man knows how to write a sentence that flows and leaves me in awe. He uses present tense with the quiet ease of a true master; no other working writer I've read has quite matched him. For all this I bump it up to a 3.5 but with the problems I gave before, I cannot give it a higher rating than this.
Original Review
This collection was a mixed bag for me. After loving two of Andre Dubus' books I'm left a bit wanting after finishing this. Of the seven stories I thought two were excellent, two were meh, and skipped three altogether because they didn't hold my attention. The cover is beautiful and I'll proudly display it on my shelves with the rest of my Dubus books, but overall I was disappointed and probably won't read it again.