Review: Sallowsfield

Written By Celia

 

Sallowsfield: A Novel

By Cliff Hudder



Literary Fiction / Humor / Saga / Texas / Yorkshire

Publisher: Texas Review Press

Pages: 390

Publication Date: October 21, 2024

 

SYNOPSIS

Wyatt W. Sallow, MBA—poet, business ethics professor, and coach of the 8th ranked collegiate chess team in East Texas—travels to the heart of northern England to trace his family origins in mundane Sallowsfield, only to find his supposed ancestry a mirage. He does have a real past, however: one that stalks him across the green hillsides in echoes of his catastrophic marriage, the lingering shadow of a lost child, and—there, in person, inexplicably emerging from the town’s faux-Victorian train station—“X,” the enigmatic object of his unrequited passion and a figure as perplexing as an algebraic variable.

On his eight-day tour/pilgrimage/mock epic journey, Wyatt pursues the specter of his lost love and crosses paths with the citizens of this down-at-its-heels market town as they struggle to grasp the all-consuming obsessions, ghosts, and X-factors that confound their days.

Thought-provoking yet dryly humorous, Sallowsfield weaves diverse elements into a story both light-hearted and philosophical, exploring along the way universal human touchstones of obsession, ruined love, and the inexplicable mysteries that shape our lives.

CLICK TO PURCHASE:



ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Cliff Hudder received an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Houston in 1995 and a PhD in American Literature from Texas A&M in 2017. He has been an archaeological laborer, a film and video editor, photographer, air compressor mechanic, electrical lineman, and educator. 

His fiction has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review and other journals and his work has received the Barthelme and Michener Awards, the Peden Prize, and the Short Story Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. His novella, Splinterville, won the 2007 Texas Review Fiction Award, and his novel, Pretty Enough for You, was named a Top Ten Texas Favorite by Lone Star Literary Life in 2015. In 2017 Cliff was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.

Sallowsfield by Cliff Hudder was definitely unlike any book I’ve read before. The timeline is most definitely not linear and with the plenitude of characters, it was definitely a story that engrossed this reader. Mix that with a variety of locations that this story takes place in, and you, as the reader, will definitely find your attention demanded by this tale. Along with the variety of characters, the reader should expect to find corresponding points of view. This is something that is a tough balance for me, as I do enjoy having more than one point of view, but can become easily overwhelmed with more than a few, honestly.

Wyatt Sallow was quite the character! He made the story enjoyable with his inadvertant humor and robust love for his son. In fact, each character that Wyatt came across ultimately brought out something different in him. This is one of those beautiful “real life” reflections that I love to see in works of fiction.

Anyone interested in reading Sallowsfield should prepare to get engrossed in the tale and with the attention that this work demands. It will definitely pay off in the end, but it is important to set aside the time needed to really enjoy this book - it is not superficial in any way. It is definitely an adventure in the plainest and most complex ways - mishap after mishap, but the meaning of life along the way.

I received a free copy of this book from Lone Star Book Blog Tours in exchange for my honest review.








FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH BLOG PARTICIPATING IN THIS TOUR.


blog tour services provided by


Celia
Previous

Reviews Past Due: April
Next

Reviews Past Due: March