Peter De Vries

#2

This novel was based on the life of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, a compulsive womanizer and alcoholic. In the story a poetic Welsh farmer becomes involved with urban newcomers to his rural New England area and ends up accidentally committing suicide. He is about to remove the noose from his neck when the dog Reuben bounds in and knocks the stool he is standing on from under him. The story was made into a 1983 film.

#3

Follows the life of Don Wanderhop from his childhood in an immigrant Calvinist family living in Chicago in the 1950s through the loss of a brother, his faith, his wife, and finally his daughter--a tragedy drawn directly from De Vries's own life.