The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God

August 8, 2005
Achy-breaky dysfunction drives a messy, funny family drama in this smalltown Nebraska tale, told in a winning faux-naïve style. Divorced and down-and-out in Bonnevilla, Hud, a school-bus driver and popular local amateur balladeer, misses his eight-year-old daughter, Nina, and his ex-wife, Tuesday—a grade school art teacher who was his high school sweetheart—though he's still very much in their lives. Tuesday, for her part, can't seem to break her emotional dependence on the oddly reliable but damaged Hud. Dating isn't going too well for either of them (despite Tuesday's very long-burning torch for widowed Ozzie Yates, who repairs stained-glassed windows for area churches). Tuesday and Hud's 17-year-old son, Gatling, has joined a Jesus-centric band and is touring parts unknown. Tuesday's father, Red, owns the Rivoli Sky-Vue drive-in (recently featured in Film Comment
, a sly aside notes); film, along with music, plays a wonderful incidental role throughout. The book opens with the off-camera execution of Robbie Schrock, who murdered his young sons following a divorce; Hud, in an effective echo of the loss of Gatling, may or may not be seeing visions of the boys. Deft, sweet and surprising, Schaffert's follow-up to The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters
ends hopefully and features credibly incredible details throughout.

Starred review from October 15, 2005
In a small, off-center, Nebraska town, Hud, charming odd-jobber and father of two, struggles with the pain of a divorce he doesn't want by plucking out original country and western tunes on an old guitar, staying slightly inebriated on sips of vodka, and entertaining the idle notion of making off with his eight-year-old daughter, Nina. Meanwhile, Hud's little family, such as it is, is missing their teenage son and brother, Gatling, who has run off with an alternative gospel rock band. As grievous as all this may sound, Schaffert's appealing second novel (after "The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters") is anything but tragic. 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. Highly recommended for public libraries." -Jyna Scheeren, Troy P.L., NY"

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