
Painting Beyond Walls
David Rhodes
(Author)Description
Product Details
Publisher | Milkweed Editions |
Publish Date | September 13, 2022 |
Pages | 432 |
Language | English |
Type | |
EAN/UPC | 9781571311412 |
Dimensions | 9.1 X 5.8 X 1.3 inches | 1.7 pounds |
About the Author
David Rhodes is the author of Painting Beyond Walls. As a young man, he worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across Iowa. After receiving an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in 1971, he published three novels in rapid succession: The Last Fair Deal Going Down (Atlantic/Little, Brown, 1972), The Easter House (Harper & Row, 1974), and Rock Island Line (Harper & Row, 1975). In 1976, a motorcycle accident left him paraplegic. He continued writing, but did not publish again until 2008, with his celebrated novel, Driftless. Several years later, a sequel, Jewelweed, was published to wide acclaim. After another decade, he returns to American letters with this extraordinary novel, his first to be set in the future. David Rhodes lives with his wife, Edna, in Iowa City.
Reviews
"An impressive and beautiful novel . . . Painting Beyond Walls joins Driftless and Jewelweed to shape the second half of an impressive career. Characters from his earlier novels appear prominently in this book, as does its setting, the Driftless Region of southwestern Wisconsin. . . . In his first book, The Last Fair Deal Going Down, Rhodes created a city beneath Des Moines, a sub-city. Before he enters it, the protagonist tells his sister, 'I'll write you a giant novel . . . a book that is the inside of me, a great, sprawling ironclad prodigy of emotion.' David Rhodes, a Midwestern treasure, has now written six such novels."--Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Terrific . . . Fans of Rhodes will appreciate the return to fictional Words, Wisconsin, and the familiar cast of characters that populate the unincorporated village. They'll recognize Rhodes' voice, as singular and lyrical as ever, and his distinct style; often waxing profound for page after luxurious page before suddenly punching out a hilarious one-liner. Rhodes continues to explore the human condition in profound but unpretentious ways."--Madison
Magazine
"David Rhodes, a Wisconsin resident, takes characters from his widely-praised novel Driftless and Jewelweed and imagines them into the future in Painting Beyond the Walls. In doing so, he reinvents the 'Midwestern pastoral' genre, confronting questions of science, technology, power, evolution and the effects of a rapidly changing society on a rural area."--Pioneer Press
"A thought-provoking meditation on human relationships at the cellular level as well as our relationship to Earth, the cosmos, and life itself. . . . Rhodes has a knack for writing acute psychological realism; these characters live and breathe, and by the time the novel ends we feel like we know them. Additionally, several story arcs reveal a humanistic, righteous indignation regarding the violence toward women so endemic to Western civilization, and characters frequently engage in thought-provoking discussions of everything from cellular science to sexual politics and world economies. The epilogue recalls Michel Houellebecq's The Elementary Particles, albeit much more optimistic. Although elements of the novel are adjacent to the near-future sci-fi writers like Kim Stanley Robinson, Rhodes is primarily concerned with the timeless human phenomena of love, loss, origins, family, and community."--Kirkus Reviews
Praise for David Rhodes"'A new, hitherto unknown novelist swam into my ken, ' Floyd Dell wrote in his autobiography more than forty years ago, about a time back further still when Sherwood Anderson pressed a manuscript into his hands. American readers can now enjoy a similar shock of recognition by picking up David Rhodes."--New York Times Book Review"One of the best eyes in recent fiction belongs to the novelist David Rhodes. Rhodes' eye, like any fine novelist's, is accurate both about literal detail and about metaphorical equivalencies. The most important point, however, is that nothing in Rhodes' vision is secondhand."--John Gardner, from On Becoming a Novelist"A brilliant writer."--Cleveland Plain-Dealer"Wildly imaginative."--Saturday Review"Rhodes writes with both symphonic grandeur and down-to-earth humility."--BooklistPraise for Jewelweed"A generous ode to the spirit's indefatigable longing for love."--Minneapolis Star Tribune"A master of nuance, Rhodes picks up on those 'inaudible rhythms' that drive human actions."--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel"Emits frequent solar flares of surprise and wonder."--Cleveland Plain Dealer"An impressive and emotionally gratifying novel."--Library Journal"A rhapsodic, many-faceted novel of profound dilemmas, survival, and gratitude."--BooklistPraise for Driftless"The best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years."--Chicago Tribune"A profound and enduring paean to rural America. Radiant in its prose and deep in its quiet understanding of human needs."--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel"Each of these stories glimmers."--New Yorker"Moves at a stately pace as it offers deep philosophy and meditative asides about life in Words, Wisconsin, in the Driftless zone -- which is to say, about life on earth."--NPR, "All Things Considered""A symphonic paean to the stillness that can be found in certain areas of the Midwest. The writing in Driftless is beautiful and surprising throughout, and it's this poetic pointillism that originally made Rhodes famous."--Minneapolis Star Tribune"Few books have the power to transport the way Driftless does, and it's Rhodes's eye for detail that we have to thank for it."--Time Out Chicago"A fast-moving story about small town life with characters that seem to have walked off the pages of Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology."--Wall Street Journal"Encompassing and incisive, comedic and profound, Driftless is a radiant novel of community and courage."--Booklist, 2008 Editor's Choice (starred)"A wry and generous book. Driftless shares a rhythm with the farming community it documents, and its reflective pace is well-suited to characters who are far more comfortable with hard work than words."--Christian Science Monitor, Best Novels of 2008"Rhodes' first novel in over 30 years is set in a rural area of Wisconsin so remote and forgotten that it's left off the map. Most of the residents have chosen to be isolated from the world around them and one another. Nevertheless, their concerns--the meaning of spirituality, family, love, and desire--are global and universal. The characters and their struggles come vibrantly alive."--Library Journal (starred)
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