SOURCE: "Loners and Losers," in Time, New York, Vol. 128, No. 19, November 10, 1986, pp. 107-08.

In the following review, Gray praises Dubus's skill as a short story writer and calls "Rose" a "classic American story."

Forget the business about novellas and stories in the subtitle [The Last Worthless Evening: Four Novellas and Two Stories]. Author Andre Dubus' latest collection of short fiction contains six pieces, four of them somewhat longer than the other two. It is Dubus' main title that calls for scrutiny. The Last Worthless Evening is not taken from any of the works included in the book; it alludes instead to a passage from William Faulkner's The Bear that amounts to a dirge for man's despoliation of the New World. In the past, Dubus has called his collections names such as Finding a Girl in America (1980) and The Times Are Never So Bad (1983). Now, apparently, they are.

Indeed...