ABSTRACT
Naturalistic responses are often the focus of Andre Dubus's crime fiction. As is the case with "Rose", the exposition in many of Dubus's crime stories involves a pairing of crimes, one committed in many cases before the narrative opens. While "The Intruder" begins a theme in Dubus's short fiction of family members avenging their own, beneath the story, like a quiet underground river, run subtle criticisms of contemporary America. Dubus uses his stories in defense of the bullied, the small of frame, the closeted gay person, the naïve girl worn down by commercialism. Dubus's fiction is often concerned with the moral complexities of raising families. Dubus's stories can be approached in myriad ways: as marriage tales, as allegories of faith, as works of feminism, or as realistic depictions of the postmodern concerns of living an authentic life according to rules that seem always to be changing.
