The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God by Timothy Schaffert

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Schaffert's disarming second novel is a quirky yet tenderhearted tale of families broken apart, and families that can't seem to come back together. The narrative spins around Hud Smith, a ne'er-do-well who spends his time running between his three part-time jobs: school bus driver, country/western songwriter, and hotel bar crooner. A sad sack with a charm all his own, Hud's still in love with his ex-wife, Tuesday, and remains devoted to their eight-year-old daughter.

Once a happy couple, Hud and Tuesday broke up when their teenage son, Gatling, ran off to join a band of traveling Christian musicians. Although he won't admit it, Hud believes that if he can find Gatling and bring him home, they can be all be a family once again.

The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God showcases Schaffert's uncanny talent for combining the mystical and the realistic. Set in modern-day Nebraska, it nonetheless has a dreamlike quality, reminiscent of both a religious conversion and an alcoholic stupor at the same time. A novel that feels bigger than its loveable characters, this is an evocative story of families and sadness that's as old as the hills and as contemporary as today. (Spring 2006 Selection)

From the Publisher

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 lamb 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.

The New York Times - Janet Maslin

The novel also includes two spectral figures, the Shrock boys, whose murder is announced on its opening page. These ghosts are intermittently summoned, if only to underscore 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.

Publishers Weekly

Achy-breaky dysfunction drives a messy, funny family drama in this smalltown Nebraska tale, told in a winning faux-na ve 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. (Nov. 21) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

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 Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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