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The Maid's Version: A Novel, by Daniel Woodrell
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The American master's first novel since Winter's Bone (2006) tells of a deadly dance hall fire and its impact over several generations.
Alma DeGeer Dunahew, the mother of three young boys, works as the maid for a prominent family in West Table, Missouri. Her husband is mostly absent, and, in 1929, her scandalous, beloved younger sister is one of the 42 killed in an explosion at the local dance hall. Who is to blame? Mobsters from St. Louis? The embittered local gypsies? The preacher who railed against the loose morals of the waltzing couples? Or could it have been a colossal accident?
Alma thinks she knows the answer--and that its roots lie in a dangerous love affair. Her dogged pursuit of justice makes her an outcast and causes a long-standing rift with her own son. By telling her story to her grandson, Alma finally gains some solace--and peace for her sister. He is advised to "Tell it. Go on and tell it"--tell the story of his family's struggles, suspicions, secrets, and triumphs.
- Sales Rank: #345340 in Books
- Brand: Woodrell, Daniel
- Published on: 2014-09-09
- Released on: 2014-09-09
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.25" h x .75" w x 5.50" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 192 pages
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, September 2013 (also a Big Fall Books Preview 2013 selection): From the opening line--"She frightened me at every dawn that summer..."--Daniel Woodrell sets a spooky tone in his ninth novel (his first since Winter's Bone). Based on a true story, this slim volume reimagines the horrific night when dozens were killed in a mysterious explosion at an Ozarks dance hall, the night "all hell came callin'." Years later, in the summer of 1965, our narrator's grandmother tells him her version of that night’s events and, eventually, the boy’s father encourages him, "Go on and tell it." The result is a story of hard times and hard people, of secrets, betrayals, and revenge. The murky, resilient truth of that night ripples across the family’s future, unfolding on the page like a mash-up of Faulker, Flannery O'Connor, Johnny Cash, and the bible. This is an entirely original, brutal, and darkly elegant book, and Woodrell is a storyteller at the top of his game. --Neal Thompson
From Booklist
In his first novel in seven years, Woodrell (Winter’s Bone, 2006) returns to the Ozarks to tell the story of a catastrophe based on a real-life occurrence. Alek Dunahew is sent to live with his grandmother, the former housemaid Alma DeGeer Dunahew. Haunted by the death of her sister, Ruby, in the explosion of the Arbor Dance Hall in 1928, Alma’s views of the cause of the disaster created a schism between her and one of her sons. But Alek is curious and listens carefully, tucking away Alma’s stories of her drunken husband, her wild sister, and her affair with Alma’s employer and the mysterious whisperings about mobsters and shootings. Told in meandering flashbacks with a lyrical cadence, the story is gripping and heartrending at the same time. Interspersed with Alma’s memories are vignettes of some of the victims of the explosion and how they happened to be at the dance hall on that particular night. With this book, Woodrell confirms his place among the literary masters. --Elizabeth Dickie
Review
Editors' Choice, Times Book Review A Best Book of 2013, Slate A Best Book of 2013, Washington Post An NPR 2013 "Great Read" Winner of the 2014 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Fiction A Top Five Book of the Year, Kansas City Star A Best Book of 2013, St. Louis Post Dispatch Kirkus Reviews selection for the Best Books of 2013 A Best Book of 2013, Capital Times (Madison, Wis.) An Irish Times Book of the Year An Irish Mail on Sunday Book of the Year A Favorite Book of 2013, National Post (Canada) One of Amazon's Top 10 Best Books of the Month An Amazon Best Book of the Year A Best Work of Fiction in 2013, Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
"The Maid's Version is one more resplendent trophy on the shelf of an American master."--William Giraldi, The Daily Beast
"The Maid's Version is stunning. Daniel Woodrell writes flowing, cataclysmic prose with the irresistible aura of fate about it."--Sam Shepard
"Further proof, as if we needed it, that Woodrell is a writer to cherish."--Adam Woog, Seattle Times
"Throughout this remarkable book, Woodrell is an unsentimental narrator of an era that is rendered both kinder and infinitely less forgiving than our own."--Ellah Allfrey, NPR Books
"Woodrell captures the run-down, put-upon underbelly of America better than anyone, because he knows it better than anyone."--Benjamin Percy, Esquire.com
"The Maid's Version will sweep readers away."--Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today
"A distinctive blend of lush metaphor and brisk storytelling."--Laura Miller, Salon
"In fewer than 200 pages, but with a richness of theme and character worthy of the weightiest Victorian novel, Woodrell brings West Table to life in the varied experiences of its sons and daughters. "--Wendy Smith, Washington Post
"Woodrell's language echoes melodically with the vernacular of the Ozarks, traces of folk song, the cadences of the Bible. Sometimes he offers, seemingly with little effort, as if from a bottomless repository, pithy similes. This of Alma: "grief has chomped on her like wolves do a calf". At other times, sentences leisurely unspool: "The Missouri river floated sixty yards from the street, and there was a small crotchety tavern on the corner." [Woodrell] belongs within a great, predominantly male tradition of American writing that stretches back to Mark Twain and runs on through Willa Cather, William Faulkner, James Dickey, Larry McMurtry to Cormac McCarthy. From the vantage of their willed exile they have produced, down the generations, some of their country's finest fiction and poetry."―Peter Pierce, the Australian
"You might have seen Jennifer Lawrence's breakout role in Winter's Bone, but did you know the movie is based on a novel by the audaciously talented Woodrell? The author of nine widely-praised novels is sometimes described as a master of Ozark noir, but his gripping narratives and pitch-perfect language transcend genre."―Reader's Digest, "23 Contemporary Writers You Should Have Read by Now"
"The Maid's Version is able to tell a community's history in stunning second-, third-, and even fourth-hand recollection."―Mesha Maren, LA Review of Books
Most helpful customer reviews
109 of 115 people found the following review helpful.
This book is a little gem; will be on my best of the year list
By sb-lynn
Brief summary and review, no spoilers.
This amazing little book has as its centerpiece the mystery surrounding an explosion at a small-town Missouri dance hall back in 1929. Forty-two people were killed and many more injured. One of those killed was a young woman named Ruby, the beloved younger sister of one of the book's main characters, Alma Dunahew. We know that Ruby was having affairs with married men and we know that the town had problems with mobsters, gypsies and even a vengeful preacher who warned against dancing and partying. What we don't know until the end is just who was really to blame.
When the book first starts out we are introduced to Alma from the viewpoint of her 12 year old grandson who is briefly staying with her. From the opening line we see Alma brushing her floor-length grey/white hair and her grandson is a little apprehensive of her. We find out that Alma has had an incredibly difficult life and that she had been estranged for a while from her own son's life. The reasons for that become clear as we read on.
The story jumps around and is told from the viewpoints of many different characters at different points in time. The relevance of some of these characters can become clear at the end of their little chapter but often we don't really understand their importance until later on. For example we may meet someone in one vignette and come to briefly know them and then find out they were killed at the dance hall; and in that way we truly feel the extent of the tragedy and loss. Many of the characters we meet are central to the mystery of what happened and to our understanding of how the characters evolved into the people they are. Their histories and backstories are often brutal and heartbreaking.
In this way we almost see the story as bits and pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and it is only at the end when we have a complete picture of what went on.
I loved this book. Loved it. And if you've ever read this author before you know how beautifully he writes and how the reader gets such a feel and understanding of both place and time from the little vignettes and stories he weaves throughout the the book.
The writing and the descriptions are just out of this world wonderful. Here's just a taste:
"Alma was of a height that earned no description save 'regular,' sturdy in her legs and chest, and her hair was an ordinary who-gives-a-hoot brown, with finger waves above the ears that always collapsed into messy curls as the day went along."
Or,
"Preacher Willard accepted the Ten Commandments as a halfhearted start but kept adding amendments until the number of sins he couldn't countenance was beyond memorization."
Highly recommended. Just beautifully written from the opening line to the satisfying, chilling conclusion. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.
43 of 49 people found the following review helpful.
"What'd did you learn today, Alek, and what use will you make of it."
By Amelia Gremelspacher
This lovely book is breathtaking in its unadorned and precise description of a small Ozark town which had been the scene of the Arbor Dance Hall explosion of 1929. Our narrator Alek had been sent to live with his grandmother Alma at the age of 12 in order to reconcile the rift between her and his father. Over that summer, Alek learns the stories of the people in Alma's world that filled her summer forty years ago. He grows to know his grandmother as she is today, and how she was during that summer leading up to the fire. Starting from the first page, he observes a woman of precise habits whose hair is so long she must braid it to keep it off the floor. Their relationship deepens as the summer progresses and Alma talks to him about that terrible night. She has suffered mightily since then, and she had lost her way. For a time, "she was not currently within her skin, and they weren't sure who or what was.". The mystery of the explosion had never been solved, but Alma has her own beliefs on the solution. Her belief is conveyed with some tension that informs the depth of the mystery. As they grow closer, she challenges him to relate what he has learned. I think she half hoped he would intuit the truth as she saw it. Alma is one of my favorite characters in recent history, and she talks to her grandson and during the flashbacks, I came to admire this woman with many dimensions. She has braved the difficult task of seeing within herself, and has born that price of bearing what she sees.
Each person in this book is revealed in short vignettes that interact in a dance that soon appears to have been almost inevitable. Alma had known them all in her role as a servant from a poor family. Working in the big house, her observations bridge the gap in social status, and reveals the threads that bind everyone. At times the book returns to days of 1960's, and we are able to learn the harvest of those past events in the lives of Alma and her family. . This is a short book, but conveys a complex picture of a world at a certain time and place, and the echoes that reverberate for years. The setting is painted in terms that bring the reader directly to that world. With simple words, the town is portrayed exactly. As the book progresses, the actual explosion appears in the minds and actions of the characters in a way that sears the readers as well. The prose is so well crafted that I cannot point to one misplaced word. Woodrell has used his writing to weave a web of reality based on a true event. I have seldom been this impressed with a book, and fervently hope you will share it with me.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Sometimes knowing the truth is more painful than not knowing...
By Larry Hoffer
Certain authors have a language and a style all their own. I don't mean an invented language, like Tolkien, Pratchett, or Rowling, but rather a way of capturing language that is unique to them. Daniel Woodrell, who has written books such as Winter's Bone and The Death of Sweet Mister is one of those authors. His ability to capture the language of people in the Ozarks makes his books feel tremendously authentic and even more captivating.
In 1929, the small community of West Table, Missouri was rocked by a fire and explosion in the Arbor Dance Hall, which killed 42 people. As with any tragedy, immediately talk turned to the causes of this disaster and who was responsible. Was it caused by the local gypsies? Mobsters from St. Louis on the hunt for one of their own? The frenzy unleashed by a preacher who lashed out at the immoral behavior of the dancers and partiers? Or was it simply a tragic accident?
Alma DeGeer Dunahew knows what caused the tragedy that killed her flirtatious sister, Ruby. But Alma, who works as a maid for one of West Table's most prominent families, is viewed as crazy by the town citizens, many of whom don't really want to know what happened that night, or are willing to turn a blind eye to the truth if it protects the town from the effects of the Great Depression. Her need to speak the truth leads her to lose her job, her mind, and estranges her from one of her sons, John Paul.
Years later, Alma finally has the opportunity to tell her story from start to finish, to her grandson, Alek. And the story, populated with mobsters, hobos, preachers, local businessmen, criminals, and lawmen, not to mention brief glimpses of many of those who were killed or injured in the fire, is a complicated one, but one that utterly captures the Dunahew family's struggles. Alma encourages Alek to "Tell it. Go on and tell it." And tell it he does.
The Maid's Version is a short book--only about 170 pages--but it is packed with a powerful narrative and so many colorful characters, it's difficult to remember who everyone is. Woodrell's storytelling ability is in fine form, as is his evocative language, and while this book may not be as strong as some of his previous ones, it's still a tremendously interesting and, ultimately, tragic story. It does take some concentrating, however, because the book meanders back and forth between 1929 and 1963, when Alek is, essentially, hearing Alma's story.
Daniel Woodrell is an exceptional writer. While this book doesn't have the tension or violence of some of his other books, Alma's story is very much worth hearing.
See all 248 customer reviews...
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