Divining Rod

by Michael Knight

Sam Holladay shocks all who know him when he murders his neighbor, Simon Bell, but in a series of flashbacks, the motive for his crime, Simon's affair with his wife, is revealed. A first novel. 15,000 first printing.

Genres: Fiction, American

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Michael Knight is the author of the novels The Typist and Divining Rod, the short story collections Eveningland, Goodnight, Nobody, and Dogfight and Other Stories, and the book of novellas The Holiday Season. His novel, The Typist, was selected as a Best Book of the Year by The Huffington Post and The Kansas City Star, among other places, and appeared on Oprah’s Summer Reading List in 2011. His short stories have appeared in magazines and journals like The New Yorker, Oxford American, Paris Review and The Southern Review and have been anthologized in Best American Mystery Stories, 2004 and New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best 1999, 2003, 2004 and 2009. Knight teaches creative writing at the University of Tennessee and lives in Knoxville with his family.

Reviews

[Askou · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zuallererst: Ich glaube, ich gehöre einfach nicht zur richtigen Zielgruppe des Romans. Anders kann ich mir nicht erklären, was an diesem Buch gut sein soll. Wäre der Schreibstil nicht flüssig, hätte es nur einen Stern bekommen.
Es handelt vom Betrügen, was auch noch gut geredet wird. Könnte ich ein Buch abbrechen, hätte ich es an dieser Stelle getan.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Knight composes the way writers are taught to create in MFA programs, and he does so with great aplomb: every character detail is peppered on the page in a showing and 'hookish' way (e.g. a silver-haired widow searches for gold across the landscape of a golf course armed with a divining rod, an adolescent girl prances across a nearby neighborhood spewing vitriol and profanities at anyone who will listen). Knight conjures these characters with a deft hand and throws them together in an engaging manner (an affair and a homicide are the key threads stitching the novella together). I enjoyed this book and would read more of Knight's work. That said, I'm not sure by novel's end if I ever gleaned a true understanding for what was motivating Knight's two central characters. They were slickly rendered 'on the page.' What they truly wanted, however, was still a bit of a mystery. This shorter work perhaps could've used another 30-50 pages to get these two figures' motivations more firmly established.

[Dean McIntyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

DIVINING ROD by Michael Knight opens with a terrible violent act of murder. The book ends with the same act. In between we come to know Simon, a young man greatly troubled by the death of his parents who has moved back to his childhood home with all its memories. And there is Delia, a young, beautiful, and married woman in the neighborhood. Sam is Delia's husband, a teacher much older in years. While Sam is away at a conference, Simon and Delia carry on a torrid affair. It's easy to guess the source of the opening and closing murder. In this his first novel, Knight does an exceptional job of revealing his characters' thoughts, feelings, and motivations. The writing is sparse, without filler, always moving on the character and plot development.

[dana brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the beginning I resisted the center of the plot, the affair. I thought it was important and I it felt like a flimsy center. But soon I learned that it wasn’t what the novel is really about or maybe I just found a way around it. The characters I knew the least about were my favorites. The two center characters were the least interesting - and that was the magic of the story for me. The actions of the main characters ripples out to touch real people - Sam, Bob, Maddie. Love them. It’s a quick read and worth every minute.

[Sam Hager · Rating 4 out of 5]

“She stood and walked a few steps, not knowing I was watching her, into a circle of darkness on the far side of the pool.” “She was gone again, an illusion.” “She was invisible to me, and I was frightened breathless.”

Haunted by by the deaths of his parents, Simon returns to his hometown and falls reckless into a passionate illicit affair with a beautiful married woman. Simon only to finds heartbreak and terrible end for everyone.

Amazing novel, highly recommended.

[Harry Junior · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional prose, with a narrative that spans a complicated spectrum of human nature, yet covers very little actual geography. Knight wastes no words, and there is very little filler. He also displays clear knowledge of causation, and consequences great and small. A pleasure to read.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Knight's first novel. Ironic that I read last collection of short stories first (Alabama), fell in love, and now finally, I get to read his very first work of fiction.

[Andrew Ziebro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too contrived. Forgettable characters

[Roni Adair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. A good twist at the end.

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved sitting with this book. And somehow the ending was exactly what I needed to read, matched my mood/the place I am in this moment so well.

[Thomas McDade · Rating 5 out of 5]

From "the lineage of . . . Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty" comes a prize-winning novel about crimes of passion in Alabama
(San Francisco Chronicle).

[Mandi Wolgemuth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read that grabs you fast and holds you tight

[Andrew Tindoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read - and a rather good one too. I did find it a bit hard to keep Sam and Simon straight in my head, particularly at the beginning - both being somewhat similar "S" names - I had stop and think a second each time I was reading a chapter about either of them. I could relate to Delia somewhat (having been married to a man 26 years my senior) the happiness he brings her and love she felt for him, a love not often understood or even believed by someone outside their marriage.

Blurb from jacket cover:

Divining Rod opens with a shattering act of violence. The the story abruptly shifts back in time to the day Simon Bell, a young attorney, returns to his childhood home in Sherwood, Alabama. Simon is haunted by the deaths of his parents, lulled by the soft murmurs of women's voices that float over to him from the nearby golf course. It is on such an afternoon - a hot, unmoving summer day - that he begins an affair with Delia Holladay. Delia is young, beautiful, and married. Their illicit liaison will bring about a final reckoning no one could have anticipate - not Delia or Simon or Delia's husband, Sam, a teacher many years her senior who thought he knew all the history of the world...until he met Delia.

Evoking a medley of distinct voices, Divining Rod tells a richly layered tale of adultery, love, and murder, as it follows the arc of a fateful passion to its inevitable and heartbreaking conclusion. By the time the narrative comes full circle, it is we who are left with feelings of regret at the injustice of lives destroyed - and a tragedy that will reverberate for years to come.

[Barbara Mcpherson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most beautifully-written books that I have read in a long time. The structure reminds me of Chronicles of a Death Foretold, with his main character's murder lingering behind each detail. The reader cannot help but fall in love with his characters who seem to live strikingly dull lives, interrupted by their own painful longings. The imagery he creates lingers long after one puts down the book.

[Jana Gutiérrez Kerns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am loving everything about this book now. The peculiar yet totally normal characters, the sparse prose, the stealthy panther pace of the plot, litlle bizarre touches that evoke Southern Gothic, the strange titular motif, AND EVEN a creepy baton twirling kid. So happy I stumbled upon the local authors section at the downtown bookstore in Mobile! Good thing I stocked up and bought two more M.Knight books.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautifully tragic...and a pleasure to read...love the we way he reveals the innermost, almost intangible thoughts and/or memories of his characters. well done! looking forward to goodnight nobody...

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember this book being not what I expected, but in a good way

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quirky and yet wonderfully written southern novel...loved it.

[Doc & Charly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little novel about an affair with a bad ending. Interesting characters.

[Bozena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tragic. Interesting story about a woman who loved two men. Of course, such love does not end well. Well written. Quick book with no unneccessary fillers.

[Toesnorth's mom]

strange, not great

[Doug Page]

I don't remember this one either.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Depressing, but pretty good.