Stuart Dybek

    On Thursday night, I attended a reading by a well-known author, Stuart Dybek. At first, I wasn't very excited about it. I thought that it was going to be boring, I was going to be the only one there, and that I'm wasting my time, but it was nothing like I thought it was going to be. I got there and seats were already filling up and once it started, the place was completely full. The students behind me were in a creative writing class and one of there assignments was to come to this last reading. They were just as unenthusiastic as I was and the Stuart Dybek stood up and began...
    He was a very sarcastic and funny man. He read a portion of one of his books and the title was "Chop Suey Sandwich." Within the fourteen pages that he read, he talked about his father making his lunch (chop suey sandwich) , the legacy of boxing in his family, how he tried to live up to that legacy and was beat down, and his friends at the all boys Catholic school he attended. The literature was very raw, which was something I liked most. He didn't hold back or change anything. Another thing I liked was the comedy in it. It wasn't as boring as I thought it was going to be.
    Dybek's readings are very straight forward. He doesn't sugarcoat anything because there's no need to. When he submitted the piece to ESPN, they wanted him to change it because it was too dirty, but he refused. What he writes is what he writes and if you don't like it, then don't read it. Overall, I loved it. I'd definitely go to another one of his readings.