HAZEL

by David Huddle

“What do you think the movie of your life would be?” asks Ms. Hazel Hicks, a proud, articulate woman without vanity. Her nephew, John Roberts, captivated by the mystery of such a uniquely serious person, sets about making the metaphorical movie of her life. What emerges, through found documents, photographs, interviews, and a sequence of narratives, is a moving story of his aunt’s long, paradoxical, Vermont life.

David Huddle’s twenty-first book, Hazel is a portrait of a woman both ordinary and exceptional, composed in glimpses of her life from child to elder. Hazel is a loner and somewhat of a pill. Although she’s not likeable in the regular ways, she’s rigorously honest in the way she examines her world, and in relationships with a few other people. Hazel’s nephew John Robert is captivated by the mystery of such a uniquely serious person. He assembles episodes from Hazel’s life, and the novel reveals a lifelong struggle by someone whose integrity is absolute. Huddle proves the complete life of almost anyone would be profoundly complex if seen whole.

100 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 19

About the author

David Huddle (Born 11 July 1942) is an American multi-genre writer. His poems, essays, and short stories have appeared in Esquire, Harper's Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Story, The Autumn House Anthology of Poetry, and The Best American Short Stories. His work has also been included in anthologies of writing about the Vietnam War.

Reviews

[Graham Apol-Hoezee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfect example of how an opening line can impact the reading experience. In this case, the impact was for the worse. In a book with such great opening lines for chapters, it's unfortunate that Huddle picked the weakest of the lot to open the novel. The bulk of the book is really quite clever, telling Hazel's story through various accounts of her family and friends in addition to the snippets of her life through her own eyes. You really feel like a close friend to the family by the end of it, for all the quirky weirdness that Hazel brought to her family. But the entire first chapter left me feeling really unmotivated to keep reading. I wish I'd been able to enjoy the charming writing better if only it hooked my attention sooner. My advice: start with a later chapter. Any chapter will do; they all open so wittily and lead into such good insight. A linear timeline is less important to this story than starting off on a good note.

[Marisha Chamberlain · Rating 5 out of 5]

In HAZEL, we meet an extraordinary, wild minded old woman of the sort often dismissed as the Plain Jane spinster type. She’s anything but. Her sexual history is bold and remarkably varied, and her decisions about life so independent-minded, she’ll shake off the reader’s complacency. She has that rare ability to learn from what happens to her. Her introspection seems limitless, yet she’s fully engaged with a world that often mocks her. She’s anti-gun, for instance, and her brothers tease her by giving her their grandmother’s shotgun. By the end of the novel, she’s shot the gun, and not at herself. You won’t want to miss knowing Hazel. The inimitable David Huddle offers another singular reading experience.