Hazel

This week’s other featured books, “Quantum Convention,” by Eric Schlich, “Face Painting in the Dark,” by Ann Cefola and “Silver’s Redemption,” by Patty Wiseman, can be found by scrolling down below this post, or by clicking on the authors name on our Authors page.

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THE BOOK: Hazel (A Novel)

PUBLISHED IN: 2019

THE AUTHOR: David Huddle

THE EDITOR: David Rossiter

THE PUBLISHER: Tupelo Press

SUMMARY: Hazel is a portrait of an ordinary and exceptional person, revealed in a sequence of narratives that present chapters of her life from childhood into her senior years. Hazel is a loner and something of a pill. Though she’s not likeable in conventional ways, she’s admirable in the rigorously honest way she examines her life and in her relationships with a few other people. Eccentric though she may be, her integrity is absolute. Because she’s such a uniquely serious person, her nephew, John Robert, becomes intrigued by her and eventually becomes her informal biographer. In assembling episodes of various phases of Hazel’s life, the novel attempts to reveal a lifelong struggle and an astonishing complexity of personality.

THE BACK STORY: Each chapter reveals something new and surprising about Hazel.

WHY THIS TITLE: After trying out numerous titles, my editor and I came to the conclusion that only one title would do justice to the novel: Hazel.

WHY SOMEONE WOULD WANT TO READ IT: Because Hazel is both a challenging and a rewarding character. Castle Freeman, Jr., says of her, “Don’t miss Hazel Hicks. She may try you, she may frustrate you, she may exasperate you. But you will not forget her.” And David Allan Cates says of Hazel, “You’ll stand there for a while, blinking. You’ll see your own life new.”

REVIEW COMMENTS:

“Long one of the true masters of American fiction, David Huddle here shows himself at the height of his powers. Hazel stuns us, for one thing, by its capacity to arouse affection for the title character, who, abstractly described, would seem to invite dislike. The author’s deft rendering of that character persuades us that all humans are three-dimensional (though Hazel herself seems to have more dimensions than a mere three). To call Hazel’s narrative strategy ‘inventive’ would almost amount to an insult, so dazzling and persuasive is its delivery of this truth.”

AUTHOR PROFILE: David Huddle is the author of seven poetry collections, six short story collections, five novels, a novella, and a collection of essays titled The Writing Habit. He won the 2012 Library of Virginia Award for Fiction for Nothing Can Make Me Do This and the 2013 Pen New England Award for Poetry for Blacksnake at the Family Reunion. Huddle’s most recent books are Hazel, a novel, published by Tupelo Press in June 2019 and My Surly Heart, s a poetry collection published by LSU Press in October 2019. Originally from Ivanhoe, Virginia, Huddle has lived in Vermont for nearly fifty years.

AUTHOR COMMENTS: I learned a great deal about myself in the process of writing about Hazel, even though she and I resemble each other only slightly.

SAMPLE CHAPTER: https://thegeorgiareview.com/posts/little-double-barrel/

LOCAL OUTLETS: Phoenix Books, Burlington, Vermont

Crow Bookshop, Burlington, Vermont

The Vermont Book Shop, Middlebury, Vermont

WHERE ELSE TO BUY IT: Amazon

PRICE: $17.95

CONTACT THE AUTHOR: dhuddle@uvm.edu.