13. Judi tells Laf that to act habitually is to act without thinking and that the idea of therapy is to shatter patterns in our life. If you stop a habit you get to start your life. In light of what she has said, discuss love as change, as the breaking of habit, as starting over.
14. Fathers don’t come off very well in the novel. Dale and Laf never really know their fathers; Judi’s dad abandons the family; and so on. Laf writes of his characters: “My fathers were either missing or away on business or drunk on their asses or simply nasty. This wasn’t my own father’s fault. Blaise was none of the above. I think I gave them problems to see what made them tick. Problems were like new clothes to them. Something to get used to; something to sport around in. What is it with men?” Well, what is it with men? Something learned, something inherent? Or is it all a bad rap? Discuss the influence of the fathers in the novel on their children.
15. Judi and Laf disagree about the efficacy of the “New Age” healing she undergoes. This tells us something about the two characters, of course. In the light of the events of the novel, is Judi’s behavior understandable? Would she have been better off trusting in science and medical technology? In what ways, if any, was the alternative treatment beneficial?
16. What does Laf come to understand about the meaning of his own life, the meaning of Judi’s death? What meaning does death come to have for Judi?
17. How does the tone of the novel change? What is the dominant tone of the novel? How does Dufresne keep the novel from becoming sentimental or maudlin?
18. At the end of the novel, Laf says he wants the shame, guilt, and regret right there on the surface like a rash. Why would he want that?
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Acknowledgments
I want to thank those people who helped make this novel possible, some who read the early drafts, some who encouraged, offered expertise and insight, some who listened to me talk: Jack and Barbara Bell, Pamela Paquette, Flo LeClair, Walter Chao, Dan Whatley, Lydia Webster, Leo Stouder, Ellen Wehle, Maureen Powers, Eve Richardson, Betty Sosnin, and Garry Kravit. Thanks also to my students and colleagues at Florida International University and to the friday Night Writers who’ve been sharing their work and enthusiasm with me and each other for more than six years now; to Dick McDonough and Leslie Arnold, friends; to Steve Bar
thelme, who accepted one of Lafayette’s stories for the Mississippi Review. I am indebted to Jill Bialosky, my editor, as always, for asking the right questions and getting to the heart of the matter I am especially thankful once again to Florida International University for a faculty research grant which facilitated the writing of the book. And thanks, Worcester. My love and appreciation to Cindy and Tristan, without whom any book would be inconceivable.
More praise for John Dufresne and
Love Warps the Mind a Little
“Tragic and hilarious, absolutely brilliant. A novel no one should miss.”
—Jill McCorkle
“A funny, tenderhearted book marinated in a keen sense of the absurdities of everyday life. Dufresne rises to considerable literary heights.”
—New York Times
“Lively reading. . . . An enormously funny writer with a rich, expansive vision.”
—Miami Herald
“Love Warps the Mind offers exuberance, a Tristam Shandy’-like vision, and many pleasures for the reader who is also a writer. . . . The writing is elegant, thrifty and clean. . . . Dufresne is a wiz with adjectives, turning phrases in which the wit is concentrated, centripetal.”
—Boston Sunday Globe
“Heart-scorching exploration of love in the shadow of extinction. . . . Dufresne also takes on the most elemental stuff in the human universe, our radical hunger for affection, and catches our ear and holds it.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Imagine Faulkner alive in an age that has given us the term ‘dysfunctional family’ and you get a flash of John Dufresne. . . . This is an exaltation of human frailty and a sad and jangling song for longing and loss. . . . Truly and wonderfully warped.”
—Detroit Free Press
“Dufresne’s characters are charming and absurd and perfectly believable.”
—The New Yorker
“A brilliantly warm, sad, and wise novel.”
—Worcester Telegram & Gazette
“This is the work of an accomplished, mature author, relating an emotionally complex, involving, serio-comic story with graceful, fluent authority . . . beautifully written.”
—The State (Columbia, SC)
“John Dufresne is an amazing writer, and he gets better with every book. Love Warps the Mind a Little is a work of genius. How can a writer be so funny and so touching in the same sentence?”
—Lewis Nordan, author of Wolf Whistle
“Lively, darting, funny-sad. . . . Even the warped mind is capable of love.”
—Washington Post Book World
“Both comical and heart-wrenching . . . makes you laugh, scratch your head, shake your head, and boo-hoo, too. And sometimes all at once. . . . The novel is a must-read.”
—Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS)
“Strong quirky characters coping honestly with life’s misfortune . . . funny, profoundly accomplished saga of love and loss.”
—Kirkus Reviews
ALSO BY JOHN DUFRESNE
The Way That Water Enters Stone
Louisiana Power & Light
Deep in the Shade of Paradise
The Lie That Tells a Truth
Johnny Too Bad
JOHN DUFRESNE has written six books, including the novels Louisiana Power & Light and Deep in the Shade of Paradise, and a guide to writing fiction, The Lie That Tells a Truth. He teaches creative writing at Florida International University and lives in Dania Beach, Florida, with his wife and son.
Thirty-six-year-old struggling writer Lafayette “Laf” Proulx has quit his day job, left his wife of fourteen years, and moved in with his lover, Judi Dubey, a therapist who suggests that he seek marriage counselling. To add insult to injury, Laf must also contend with rejection letters, angry encounters with his estranged wife, and a part-time job frying fish at a fast-food dive called Our Lady of the Sea. With every-one from Judi to his parents questioning his seemingly selfish actions, it appears that the only one with any faith left in him is his omnivorous dog, Spot. Then Judi is diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer.
As Laf and Judi search for medical care and emotional salves, they discover that love comes in a variety of forms that can offer heart-wrenching truths and a surprising amount of redemption. Wise and hilarious, Love Warps the Mind a Little is a deeply moving, uplifting novel by one of our most original and gifted storytellers.
Copyright © 1997 by John Dufresne
All rights reserved
First published as a Norton paperback 2008
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Book design by Susan Hood
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Dufresne, John.
Love warps the mind a little / John Dufresne.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-393-04013-5
I. Title
PS3554.U325L69 1997
813’.54—dc20 96-3112
CIP
ISBN 978-0-393-33095-3 pbk.
ISBN 978-0-393-28579-6 (e-book)
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