“Townie” is a better, harder book than anything the younger Mr. Dubus has yet written; it pays off on every bet that’s been placed on him.

Today’s www.nytimes.com on the home page has a photo, headline, and lead-in to a review of Andre Dubus III’s new memoir “Townie,” in which he recounts “his scrappy youth” in the Merrimack Valley and eventual turn to writing as a way to organize his response to the world. Andre still lives among us in the valley and teaches at UMass Lowell, where he is a professor in the Department of English. This kind of attention is a huge deal for an author. Read the article by Dwight Garner in the Book of the Times feature, and get the nytimes if you want more.

Andre Dubus III (photo by Marion Ettlinger, courtesy of nytimes.com)