"The City of the Dead" by Jennifer duBois

After a very busy six weeks of writing, I'm back and ready to renew my commitment to read a short story a day. Frankly, I could use the inspiration that reading good writing brings.

Jennifer duBois's "The City of the Dead" is just the ticket. The story is compelling for the way it teeters, from the very beginning, on the edge of disaster. The prose is tight, fresh. And the characters are so wonderfully, so tragically, so humanly complicated, and so spot on. Also, duBois handles them with a brave honesty that is absolutely crucial to good literature, but not so common, like when her narrator admits:

"Also, I am a high-functioning alcoholic. So I know a bit about shame, myself."

This story is just so good that I'm determined to hunt down every other short story duBois has written. I promise to share the best of them.

"The City of the Dead" in the Missouri Review.

Jennifer duBois
Photo Credit: Llana Panich-Linsman