A Welcome Journey Back to the Driftless Region

Title: Jewelweed
Author: David Rhodes
Host: Gail

In his latest novel, David Rhodes reunites readers with some of the characters Rhodes' fans met and embraced in Driftless. After a long stint in a hellish prison for profit for a crime committed out of youthful foolishness, Blake Bookchester is paroled into the sponsorship of Winnie, the earnest local pastor. As he works to adjust, he reconnects with Danielle Workhouse, who is clawing her way up out of a hardscrabble existence by taking a job in the mansion of the Roebucks, caring for the family and their dying son. Her son Ivan and his best friend August explore the woods and the adults' mysteries, accompanied by Milton the pet bat, a hermit who lives in a melon patch, and a feral boy.

Geographical detail of the driftless region in Wisconsin

As their lives entwine, old hurts surface, secrets are uncovered, and risks taken jeopardize the tenuous hold these character have on the futures they so desperately desire.

Insights and Opinions

+ Who knows if it was because we were all excited about discussing this book, but we had a very full house with Gail, Vicky, Lois, Shirley, Blanche, Steve, Faith, Joanne, Margy and Liz. This, of course, makes for lots of loud talking all at once.

+ Rhodes is courageous in what he is trying to do with this book, and Milkweed Editions is courageous in allowing him his freedom to do so. He steps over the edge into the supernatural and then draws back into realism. He takes the reader to a new realm. Does Pastor Winnie really levitate? Or is this a state of mind? A metaphor? Ultimately, we decided that everyone has other-worldly moments, and we all call them different things. But they exist. It doesn't matter if they are "real" to anyone else. And isn't his writing a form of levitation?

+ In some places, the dialogue seems artificial and speech-y, but Rhodes is doing this by design. Brooke's initial conversation with Winnie in prison about Spinoza and books, and Brooke's later break-in into Flo's room for a long conversation about Spinoza with a woman who, earlier in the book, could barely speak, are two examples. But there is another layer here, in which you suspend judgment and just go with the magic of it all. This is perhaps not intended to be a realistic novel.

+ Rhodes delivers a superb balance between extraordinary realism and the allegorical. When he describes drought conditions and writes of "trees clenched" into "leaf fists," you feel the parched landscape in your gut. He has a deep understanding of nature to be able to write like this.

+ This is a satisfying novel, with deeply felt characters, page-turning plot points, and beautiful prose. There was some disagreement among us about the ending, and whether it was a bit too pat -- Blanche felt it tied up perhaps too neatly with a big bow. Margy thought the ending was "blue-collar Jane Austen." Vicky felt it was more similar to a Shakespearean comedy ending, where everyone gets together. But ultimately we decided we didn't care, and that we loved the book.

+ All of Jewelweed's major characters are outsiders in their own way -- Ivan being held back a grade, August too intellectual for his own good, Danielle damaged and holding so tight she can't recognize friendship when it's offered, Blake teetering on the edge of recidivism, Winnie as the fish out of water in her congregation.

+ At this point, we drifted into a rolling conversation about God, spirituality, pantheism, agnosticism, atheism, and Native American perspectives, being lovers of tangents. But Rhodes' book is conducive to tangential thinking. And some of our best discussions happen when we rove.

+ Rhodes believes in the goodness of human nature. Every character has an underside of goodness, even the villains.

+ Although this book has a few flaws (very few), it's a work of art. We loved it.

Oddments and Telling Details

+ There is a groundswell of opinion that every third or fourth book should be on the lighter side -- a bit of relief from the heavy, sad, or significant. As one participant put it: "In this great pudding of intellectuality, we need a few raisins." So, at least three times per year, we will read something that is NOT about the lost boys of Africa, NOT about the slums of anywhere, NOT about women sold into sex slavery, and does NOT have so many characters that you have to keep a notebook while reading.