"A fast-moving story about small town life with characters that seem
to have walked off the pages of Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River
Anthology."--The Wall Street Journal
The few hundred souls who inhabit Words, Wisconsin, are an extraordinary
cast of characters. The middle-aged couple who zealously guards their
farm from a scheming milk cooperative. The lifelong invalid, crippled by
conflicting emotions about her sister. A cantankerous retiree, haunted
by childhood memories after discovering a cougar in his haymow. The
former drifter who forever alters the ties that bind a community. In his
first novel in 30 years, David Rhodes offers a vivid and unforgettable
look at life in small-town America.
"[Rhodes's] finest work yet . . . Driftless is the best work of
fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years."--Chicago Tribune
"Set in a rural Wisconsin town, the book presents a series of portraits
that resemble Edgar Lee Masters's 'Spoon River Anthology' in their
vividness and in the cumulative picture they create of village
life."--The New Yorker
"Encompassing and incisive, comedic and profound, Driftless is a
radiant novel of community and courage."--Booklist (starred review)
"A welcome antidote to overheated urban fiction . . . A quiet novel of
depth and simplicity."--Kirkus Reviews
"It takes a while for all these stories to kick in, but once they do,
Rhodes shows he still knows how to keep readers riveted. Add a blizzard,
a marauding cougar and some rabble-rousing militiamen, and the result is
a novel that is as affecting as it is pleasantly
overstuffed."--Publishers Weekly
