Driftless

Table of Contents

 

 

 

PRAISE FOR
DRIFTLESS

“After what had to have been years of effort beyond the usual struggle of trying to make a good novel, we get [Rhodes’s] fourth, and, I have to shout it out, finest book yet.
Driftless
is the best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years.”

—Chicago Tribune

“A profound and enduring paean to rural America. Radiant in its prose and deep in its quiet understanding of human needs.”

—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“
Driftless
is 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.”

—Wall Street Journal

“Comprised of a large number of short chapters, the novel opens with a prologue reminiscent of Steinbeck’s beautiful tribute to the Salinas Valley in the opening of
East of Eden,
with a little touch of Michener’s prologue to his novel,
Hawaii.
The book moves at a stately pace as it offers deep philosophy and meditative asides about life in Words, Wisconsin, in the Driftless zone—which is to say, about life on earth.”

—NPR, “All Things Considered”

“Few books have the power to transport the way
Driftless
does, and it’s Rhodes’s eye for detail that we have to thank for it.”

—Time Out Chicago

“A wry, generous book.
Driftless
shares a rhythm with the farming community it documents, and its reflective pace is well-suited to characters who are far more comfortable with hard work than words.”

—Christian Science Monitor,
Best Novels of 2008

“A symphonic paean to the stillness that can be found in certain areas of the Midwest. The writing in
Driftless
is beautiful and surprising throughout, [and] it’s this poetic pointillism that originally made Rhodes famous.”

—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“
Driftless
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. Each of these stories glimmers.”

—New Yorker

“Rhodes consciously avoids drama to deliver a portrait of a real rural America as singular, beautiful and foreign as anywhere else.”

“Rhodes shows he still knows how to keep readers riveted. As affecting as it is pleasantly overstuffed.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Rhodes illuminates the wisdom acquired through hard work, the ancient covenant of farming, and the balm of kindness. Encompassing and incisive, comedic and profound,
Driftless
is a radiant novel of community and courage.”

—
Booklist,
2008 Editor’s Choice, starred review

“Though
Driftless
is a deeply contemporary tale—what it has to say about the way corporations treat small farmers is, for example, quite pressing—it also has the architectural complexity of the great 19th-century novels, but without the gimcrackery too often required to hold their stories together. It partakes as much of the moral universe of
Magnolia
as of
Middlemarch.
And it earns comparison to both.”

—
Books & Culture

“Unique, funny, absorbing, at times frightening. A novel crafted by a real writer.” —
California Literary Review,
Best Books of 2008

“Rhodes’s first novel in more than 30 years provides a welcome antidote to overheated urban fiction.”

—Kirkus

“A terrific novel that coalesces around the unexpected connections among people in the fictional community of Words, Wisconsin. The characters’ perceptions about the landscape, their lives and each other are continually arresting yet almost casually right on.”

—Isthmus

“Winner of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, Rhodes’s first novel in over 30 years is set in a rural area of Wisconsin so remote and forgotten that it’s left off the map. Most of the residents have chosen to be isolated from the world around them and one another. Nevertheless, their concerns—the meaning of spirituality, family, love, and desire—are global and universal. The characters and their struggles come vibrantly alive.”

—Library Journal

“
Driftless
has been a long time coming, but definitely worth the wait. This is David Rhodes’ most accomplished work yet—vividly imagined, shrewd, and compassionate. He is a master at uncovering the extraordinary lives of seemingly ordinary people. The characters of his small rural town become as mysterious, interconnected, and richly idiosyncratic as the landscape they struggle against and embrace. A wonderful novel.”

—Joseph Kanon, author of
Los Alamos
and
The Good German

“I have seldom read a book that so proves that each one of us stars in our own lives. Read this book some place where no one is depending on you for any other calls on your time or attention. Supper can wait.”

—Joanne Greenberg, author of
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

ALSO BY DAVID RHODES

The Last Fair Deal Going Down
Easter House
Rock Island Line

To Edna

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T
HE
DRIFTLESS
STORY TOOK OVER TEN YEARS TO COMPLETE AND IT’S not like I wasn’t trying. One reason may be the characters who wanted to be written about. They were for the most part not the kind of characters who usually find their way into print—very private, never satisfied with their assigned roles, always wanting their voices to be more accurately rendered and their feelings better dramatized. Some were more comfortable with my wife, Edna, than with me, and for over a decade she tirelessly advocated on their behalf. Her assistance was instrumental throughout the entire process.

The work would never have been finished without the additional help of many generous people. The life and times of my friend Mike Cannell provided vital inspiration. Others helped with sage advice, editing, critical insights, living facts, and invaluable intuitions. These include: Mike Austin, Pam Austin, Steve Barza, Barry Clark, Jenny Clark, William Davis, Peter Egan, Jim Goodman, Francis Goodman, Rebecca Goodman, Darrel Hanold, Linda Kiemele, John Kinsman, Charlie Knower, Patti Knower, Lewis Koch, Jim Kolkmeier, Leslie Kolkmeier, Jerry McConoughey, Judy McConoughey, Kathleen Nett, Jim Noland, Bronwyn Schaefer Pope, Luther Rhodes, Stephen Rhodes, Paul Schaefer, Ed Schultz, Alexandra Stanton, Blaine Taylor, Judy Taylor, and Peter Whiteman. I’m grateful to my agent Lois Wallace, and I especially want to acknowledge Milkweed editor Ben Barnhart for his creative discernment and priceless suggestions on structure and tone. Thanks to all.

PROLOGUE

I
N SOUTHWESTERN WISCONSIN THERE IS AN AREA ROUGHLY ONE hundred and sixty miles long and seventy miles wide with unique features. Its rugged terrain differs from the rest of the state. The last of the Pleistocene glaciers did not trample through this area, and the glacial deposits of rock, clay, sand, and silt—called drift—are missing. Hence its name, the Driftless Region. Singularly unrefined, it endured in its hilly, primitive form, untouched by the shaping hands of those cold giants.

As the glacial herd inched around the Driftless Region, it became an island surrounded by a sea of receding ice. There, plant spores and pollen, frozen for tens of thousands of years, regained their ability to grow. Moss fastened to the back of rocks. Birds and other creatures carried in seeds, which sprouted, rooted, and prospered. Hardwoods and evergreens rose into the sky, with warmth-loving tree tribes settling on southern hillsides and cold- loving tribes on northern slopes.

Rivers and streams—draining fields for the glaciers and migratory paths for animals—poured into the Mississippi River valley. The waters rushed thick with salmon, red trout, and pike, which in turn attracted osprey, heron, otter, mink, and others who lived by fishing. In time, larger animals moved in, including bear, woolly mammoth, giant sloth, saber-toothed tiger, mountain lion, and a two-hundred-pound species of beaver. (The name
Wisconsin
is believed by some to be a derivation of the word
Wishkonsing, place of the beaver.
)

With the wildlife came humans, and for thousands of years people about whom there can now be only speculation conducted civilization from those ancient woods. The summer camp of the Singing People was once located in the Driftless.

The first Europeans to arrive were trappers, hunters, and berry
pickers—men who lived much as the people who were already there, often mating and living with them. In time, trading posts sprung up along the larger rivers, attracting more trappers and hunters. Rafts piled high with furs floated downstream, until the supply of cash animals was nearly exhausted.

Then a larger wave of immigrants came, displacing the frequently moving trappers, hunters, and foragers. Trading posts gave way to forts, farms, and villages.