The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God by Timothy Schaffert
Fiction Trade Paperback Original
ISBN: 1-932961-12-7
5½ x 8¼ / 256 Pages / $14.95 / November 2005
Summary | Praise | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Widgets | Bio | Events
Summary
A blithe and redemptive seriocomic love story filled with country music, the ghosts of Halloween, and an ironic brand of down-home religion.
Newly divorced and feeling the pain of separation from his family, Hud Smith channels his regret into writing country-western songs, contemplating life on the lam with his 8-year-old daughter, and searching cryptic postcards for news of his teenage son who has run off with The Daughters of God, an alternative Gospel-punk band of growing fame. Then he finds himself inching toward reconciliation with his ex, tossing his whole talent for misery into question as they head off in a borrowed school bus, hoping so very tentatively to bring the entire family together again.
In this endearing misadventure that threatens to turn out right in spite of it all, Schaffert writes a thin line between tragedy and hilarity, turning wry humor and a keen sense of the paradoxical onto characters who deserve all the tender care he gives them.
Praise
A March 2006 Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection!
"Quixotic . . . Schaffert creates a comically mopey little burg full of whimsical dreams . . . [a] treat. The novel also . . . underscore(s) the fragility of life and the passage of time. The novel remains playful yet never far from these shadows. Mr. Schaffert does not take his material lightly. He only makes it seem that way." —Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“Laced with hope and an aching sweetness, it is as whimsical and smile-inducing as its title. Readers will fall for Hud, his family, and the one-off inhabitants of the quirky little town from page one owing to Schaffert's homey yet elegant and precise prose. The only reason to put the book down is to make it last.” —Library Journal, starred
“Schaffert has wit and a lovely writing style.”—Entertainment Weekly
“An unflinching tale of family heartache.”—Out Magazine
“[A] quirky tragicomedy.”—TimeOut Chicago
“Achy-breaky dysfunction drives a messy, funny family drama in this small town Nebraska tale, told in a winning faux-naïve style…film, along with music, plays a wonderful incidental role throughout… Deft, sweet and surprising.” —Publishers Weekly
“An honest and unflinching story of families unraveled and the heartache and joy only loved ones can spark in each other. With skill and tenderness…Schaffert unfolds his characters' hopes, strengths, and frailties in this gorgeous novel...”—Jennie Shortridge, author of Eating Heaven and Riding With the Queen
"I can't get over the delight of Tim Schaffert’s new novel, with an instantly appealing cast of characters that won my heart so quickly and thoroughly. And the ending, as sweet and transcendent as any I can remember, lifted me right out of my chair." — Gerald Shapiro
“Timothy Schaffert's first book won the Nebraska Book Award in 2003 and charmed major reviewers. This second book is surely destined for a similar response. Schaffert's style is purely his own. His characters are earthy and real, common folk with endearing foibles and vulnerabilities. Schaffert breathes life into his characters with a delicate touch, lending a poignant dignity to even the oddest misfit. The result is life boiled down to its heartiest essence….[The book] is often humorous, yes, but thanks to Schaffert's story telling style it is not a cruel parody of life's rejects. These are lives made up of large and small failures, joys, and negotiations. And Schaffert makes them shine. Highly recommended.”—Laurel Johnson for Midwest Book Review
“Poignant…This splendid new book echoes the wacky humor of Schaffert’s first book— “The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters” — and yet both treat seriously the complexity of family ties that persist against all odds.” —The Lincoln-Journal Star
“Whimsical… Timothy Schaffert…creates characters that have enough of each of us in them to be utterly real and believable….[He] provides just enough background to make the reader care, just enough curiosity to keep the pages turning and just enough humor to evoke a rueful chuckle….”—McCook Daily Gazette (NE)
“What makes it work is Schaffert’s deep understanding of (and compassion for) his characters, with all their irrationalities and contradictions. Though the plot allows Schaffert to display his sharp sense of irony and humor, ultimately it is the characters themselves that drive the story. Hud, for example, may be a lousy husband and father, but he means well and loves his children in his own fumbling way….Schaffert…remains a writer worth reading, a talented novelist with a style all his own.”— Nebraska Life Magazine
“Engaging.”—Harriet Klausner
“This loopy, relaxed tale…ingratiates itself, along with the hero, into our hearts…The plot bumps along, veering from the surreal - a defrocked priest selling fake "bones of martyrs" at the local drive-in movie - to the mundane, but always beckoning the reader with a gentleness of spirit that puts out the emotional welcome mat… Schaffert has a talent for creating characters for whom one develops an almost immediate soft spot. I caught myself wanting this dysfunctional bunch to get back together, God knows why. When things are finally - maybe - headed in that direction, the plot wanderings become a notch more unusual, but the sweetness can't be held back any longer. Just try to imagine a more endearing picture than three of the family members in the stolen school bus to rescue the fourth.”—The Durango Herald
“The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God” will take a little getting used-to, but pick it up and try it. Once you do, you’ll be singing its praises.”—Terri Schlichenmeyer for The Bookworm Sez book column
“A writer worth reading, a talented novelist with a style all his own.”— Nebraska Life Magazine
“The characters populating Timothy Schaffert’s THE SINGING AND DANCING DAUGHTERS OF GOD may not be particularly likeable, yet somehow they’re impossible not to love….Heart-rending…an honest story with just a touch honky-tonk.”—BookPage
“It’s a nice, sweet story, not too light, and it ends where it should end. It’s a very satisfying ending, which is unusual these days.”—Lisa Baudoin of Main Street Books, as quoted in Shelf Awareness
“Timothy Schaffert writes with an amazing kind of heartbreaking clarity and warmth. Just when I'm sure tragedy is about to strike a character I've grown to love, something wonderful happens and humor and hope shine through. The beauty of Timothy's writing is that it can speak with equal tenderness to members of a bookclub who have been meeting since 1947 and a young, urban hipster who might just be too cool to read anything but Bukowski or Burroughs.”— Rivkah K. Sass, Executive Director, Omaha Public Library
Bio
Timothy Schaffert grew up on a farm in Nebraska and currently lives in Omaha. His short fiction has been published in several literary journals and he's won numerous awards, including the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award and the Nebraska Book Award.
He is the author of two other novels, The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters
and Devils in the Sugar Shop.
Timothy Schaffert's Website
Timothy of Flickr
Timothy on MySpace
Unbridled Aloud featuring Timothy Schaffert (Fall 2006)
Unbridled Aloud featuring Timothy Schaffert (Summer 2007)
Excerpt
A nightlight near Nina's bed lit the room enough for Hud to see Nina sleeping still in a cowgirl costume, still even in boots and prairie skirt and western shirt printed with yellow roses. A straw hat hung on the bedpost. Hud tugged on Nina's skirt and she woke peacefully, too peacefully, Hud thought. "You shouldn't be sleeping next to an open window," he whispered, and Nina sat up in bed and puckered her lips for a kiss. Hud kissed her, then said, "Any creep could come along. Aren't you afraid of creeps?"
"Oh, sure," Nina said, shrugging her shoulders.
"Let's go for a drive some place," Hud said. He opened the window and lifted the torn flap of the screen.
"OK," she said, standing up in the bed, "but first, don't you like my costume? We went to a party."
"It's nice," Hud said.
"I'm Opal Lowe," she said, and Hud was touched that she dressed up like Opal Lowe, his favorite country singer. He'd taken Nina to a county fair a few weeks before to see Opal singing in the open-air auditorium. … Nina had loved it and had hummed along as Opal Lowe sang about her man's habits, of how he had liquored her up on Wild Turkey, lit her Old Golds, made her need him like water.
… Hud jotted a note in crayon: "I'll be back with her before sunlight, before you even read this," and left it atop the rumpled covers of the bed. Nina crawled onto his back, and they slipped through the torn window screen. He imagined never returning with her, imagined his picture next to her picture on fliers sent through the mail.