Judge [Hardcover]

Dwight Allen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 2003

When beloved Judge William Dupree dies at eighty-two, he leaves his widow, two adult sons, and a more than devoted clerk to mourn him. The Judge-gentle, reserved, henpecked, and a lifelong Republican-was appointed to the United States District Court by Richard Nixon. But once on the bench, he invariably ruled for the liberal argument-pro-civil rights, pro-choice-dismaying his upper-crust Louisville, Kentucky, cronies, not to mention his wife.

Mary Louise Dupree, a nagging hypochondriac (considered by some an out-and-out shrew), remembers her marriage querulously, but softens the day she must also bury the judge's loyal little dog, Duff. His two sons, Crawford and Morgan, react to his death by behaving in ways that would surely have disappointed him. His law clerk, Lucy, remembers him as a saint who politely lusted for her and finally acted on that lust at the age of eighty.

In the aftermath of the judge's death, the mourners interrelate disastrously, acting out their grief. While they are grappling with loss and notions of an afterlife, they all feel-and sometimes even see-his presence. Dead or alive, the Duprees are, as a family, perpetually restless in their insistence on family love even in the face of family failures.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The eponymous judge of Allen's debut novel is William Dupree, a federal district court justice in western Kentucky, a soft-spoken, compassionate, upstanding gentleman in the Southern tradition-if you don't count his unexpected liberal bent. Dupree dies at the novel's opening, in January 2001, at the age of 82. He leaves behind a family in disarray. Mary Louise, the judge's hypochondriac widow, drifts like "a little boat on a big sea," as she puts it. Anxious and not easily affectionate, she's had a difficult marriage with the judge, though he always stood by her. Crawford, the older of their sons, is a law school dropout and heavy drinker, on his second marriage. His younger brother Morgan is an aspiring-yet sparsely published-writer who moves from New York back to their hometown to write a book about his father. Morgan is having an affair with Crawford's ex-wife, Colleen, a veterinarian "who was beautiful with and without her glasses." Lucy, the judge's loyal clerk, mourns him as well as her own dwindling personal and professional prospects. Shortly before his death, she stole a kiss from the judge, their only dalliance in all the years she worked for him. Allen's characters are likably flawed and drawn with a delicate, subtle hand ("Crawford sometimes thought he had picked Michelle, following his unsuccessful first marriage, because she would let him get away with being loving only when the mood was upon him. And he had rewarded her, if that was the right term, with thirteen years of almost complete loyalty"). Add to this his assured prose (a character's nightgown is "the color of the moon, as colored by a child bearing down hard with a silver Crayola"), and the book is a quietly moving accomplishment. Agent, Betsy Amster.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The New Yorker

Slight, dishevelled, almost totally without guile, eighty-two-year-old Judge William Dupree, of Louisville, departs this world leaving behind only the shimmer of his beneficence. His death leaves his family—his hypochondriac wife and his peripatetic sons—at a loss. Without the love that he steadily, but unobtrusively, supplied, his sons go haywire: the elder leaves his amiable wife for an aspiring ventriloquist, and the younger, a struggling writer, returns home, where he falls into the arms of his father's law clerk. Allen's preoccupation with ardor in all its forms brings Walker Percy to mind, and his lovely, elegiac book shows how easily even the most well-made life can unravel.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: A Shannon Ravenel Book; 1 edition (April 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565123697
• ISBN-13: 978-1565123694
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,755,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent novel for those who hate "literary fiction", June 23, 2003

By 

Mark Rutherford "Mark Rutherford" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Judge (Hardcover)

No trailer parks, no incest, no hyped-up drama, just beautiful writing and a moving, complex story that circles around a group of attractive characters - all of whom you slowly grow to know well, but will never discover all their secrets. I CAN'T STAND modern fiction - but this is something else. Try it - it's as good as JP Marquand.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE PRESENCE OF AN ABSENCE, September 30, 2003

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Judge (Hardcover)

It's a fact that the absence of something - or in this case, someone - that has loomed very large in the lives of people can be felt as a presence. In Dwight Allen's debut novel, that presence/absence is the title character, Judge William Dupree. As the book opens, his clerk of twenty years, Lucy, is gathering together a few of his personal effects that she has found in the office. Through her thoughts - and those of the Judge's widow, his two sons, his cousin Louis and several friends and members of his extended family - we come to know, understand and appreciate this man. The journey to this understanding is a comfortable one, filled with remembrances and anecdotes, humor and, most of all, an overpowering sense of the importance of love in the life of a human being. We are ushered through all of this with warmth and grace, thanks to the writing skills of Allen. I first came across his writing - chapter 5 from this work - in the 2002 edition of NEW STORIES FROM THE SOUTH: THE YEAR'S BEST, accompanied by a note that the piece was a chapter from a forthcoming novel. I was very happy to see it arrive.

The Judge's family has its ups and downs - but these are basically decent, everyday people, striving to find some happiness and satisfaction in their lives and careers. His wife is gently domineering - there are not many who know her who will stand up to her in a dispute. His sons - grown by the time of his death - wrestle with personal and professional quandaries, guided by the Judge's advice and opinions, but never dictated to. Lucy, with whom the Judge `almost' slips off the `fidelity wagon', is fiercely devoted to him - so much so that, counter to the advice of others, she remained with him as his caseload declined, well into her own middle age, pretty much closing any doors to any law practice of her own. His cousin Louis is an alcoholic - and while the Judge had little tolerance for those who drank too much, he was always gentle and caring with his cousin, helping him time and again to attempt to plant his feet on a more sober path. Judge Dupree is sometimes shocked or disappointed with things that happen around him - but his love for his family and friends is alive at his core through it all. He is a religious man, but not one who preaches to everyone around him - his is a quiet faith, and strong, and the example of his own life and happiness with it is the most effective witness.

The chapters of the novel look at incidents and events in the life of the Judge and those who shared it, told from various points of view, and not necessarily in chronological order. Rather than make the novel harder to understand, this technique, in Allen's hands, actually lends a feeling of comfort to the story - rather like the stories that pour out of those attending a wake, fond (and often humorous) remembrances of the departed.

The Judge himself - in the form of a ghost - makes an appearance now and then, but never in an attempt to overtly affect the lives of his loved ones, more as an observer. His spectral presence is felt from time to time, but those who sense it are never quite sure that they're not `seeing things'. One of the most poignant passages in the novel is in one of the final chapters. The Judge had a life-long love affair with railroading - and after his death, now that he has the opportunity, he takes to riding trains back and forth across the country. On one of these soirées, he inadvertently observes a couple in his boxcar making love - `...the Judge, who had always been a firm believer in the right to privacy, concentrated on the scenery and removed his hearing aid.' He muses about the physical vs. the spiritual aspects of love: `...he hadn't found the sexual act itself all that rewarding. What he had really hoped for more was kissing, nuzzling, hand-holding, things that women (as opposed to men) were supposed to require.' He examines these thoughts carefully and honestly - and they are a great indicator of what a gentle soul he possessed. He sees things in the lives of his family and friends that at first upset him, but comes quickly to a love-borne understanding, and finds it easy to forgive.

Allen's novel comes in a just over 300 pages - but it seemed to fly by for me. The pleasure of reading such a well-written work made it so. Get to know the Judge - your life will be the richer for it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Never mind the ghosts..., July 25, 2003

By 

Julian Faigan (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Judge (Hardcover)

If I had known in advance that "Judge" featured a ghost in a leading role - and described not a small number of dreams along the way - I would never have bought it. Ghosts are an awful waste of time, and I find the description of dreams in fiction as boring as I do in real life. But I would have missed out on a very good novel. The judge of the title is a rather wan character at best, so his alternate, ghost role suits him well... and the dreams - well, they pass as in the night. Here is another American novel with crisp, witty dialogue and excellent description. Nothing much happens, but that never worries me. Allen has a great flair for language. I understand how he and "The New Yorker" would gel. The novel has a broad range of characters and you need to be alert to sort out the various partners/children/friends from amongst the failed marriages/cohabitations. But this is an original, excellent story and I am glad I did not allow my prejudices to stop me from reading it.