What do you think?
Rate this book
Watershed
Set in 1937 in rural Tennessee, with the construction of a monumental dam serving as background--a cinematically biblical effort to harness elemental forces and bring power to the people--Watershed delivers a gripping story of characters whose ambitions and yearnings threaten to overflow the banks of their time and place.
Nathan, an engineer hiding from his past, and Claire, a small-town housewife, struggle to find their footing in the newly electrified, job-hungry, post-Depression South. As Nathan wrestles with the burdens of a secret guilt and tangled love, Claire struggles to balance motherhood and a newfound freedom that awakens ambitions and a sexuality she hadn't known she possessed.
The arrival of electricity in the rural community--where violence, prostitution, and dog-fighting are commonplace--thrusts together the federal and local worlds, in an evocative feat of storytelling in the vein of Kent Haruf's Plainsong and Ron Rash's Serena.
Nathan, an engineer hiding from his past, and Claire, a small-town housewife, struggle to find their footing in the newly electrified, job-hungry, post-Depression South. As Nathan wrestles with the burdens of a secret guilt and tangled love, Claire struggles to balance motherhood and a newfound freedom that awakens ambitions and a sexuality she hadn't known she possessed.
The arrival of electricity in the rural community--where violence, prostitution, and dog-fighting are commonplace--thrusts together the federal and local worlds, in an evocative feat of storytelling in the vein of Kent Haruf's Plainsong and Ron Rash's Serena.
Audio CD
First published October 8, 2019
27 people are currently reading
1635 people want to read
About the author
Mark Barr
1 book56 followersMark Barr has been awarded fellowships from Blue Mountain Center, I-Park Artists' Enclave, Jentel Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Millay Colony, and Yaddo.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
November 15, 2019
It is 1937 in rural Tennessee, and work is feverishly being done a a big, new dam. When finished these people in rural America will have electricity. The wonder of it, almost seemed an impossible dream. The author does a terrific job detailing both the hopes and struggle of both the people and the monumental struggle it takes to get everything ready.
Nathan is a young engineer, working on the project, but there is much in his life he needs to hide, including his real identity. Clare, mother of two, has left her husband with no intention of returning. Some things can't be forgiven. Now she must find a way to support herself and her children.
Beautifully written, the prose is outstanding in what I believe is a debit. It is another quieter novel, with the most attention being paid to the two main characters, the building of the dam, and the setting. The rural atmosphere is done perfectly, the first viewing of a news feel against a building wall, all the town turning out for the bug event. Dog fights, though this is a short lived section, boarding house communal living, all touches that bring this time period to life.
Nathan and Clare both change during the story, and I enjoyed watching the realizations of what they must do come to them. I liked Nathan right from the beginning, for Clare it took me a little longer.
"As the insects took up their song once again, a lone duck flew over, headed south towards the river. In the late day light Frietag could almost count the feathers on each beating wing. He watched it go.
"But what would remain with the boy as he aged into manhood, what he would carry with him to years before he fully understood it's import, was the realization that hope had been repaid for it's effort, which all too often, he would learn, is miracle enough."
ARC from Edelweiss
Nathan is a young engineer, working on the project, but there is much in his life he needs to hide, including his real identity. Clare, mother of two, has left her husband with no intention of returning. Some things can't be forgiven. Now she must find a way to support herself and her children.
Beautifully written, the prose is outstanding in what I believe is a debit. It is another quieter novel, with the most attention being paid to the two main characters, the building of the dam, and the setting. The rural atmosphere is done perfectly, the first viewing of a news feel against a building wall, all the town turning out for the bug event. Dog fights, though this is a short lived section, boarding house communal living, all touches that bring this time period to life.
Nathan and Clare both change during the story, and I enjoyed watching the realizations of what they must do come to them. I liked Nathan right from the beginning, for Clare it took me a little longer.
"As the insects took up their song once again, a lone duck flew over, headed south towards the river. In the late day light Frietag could almost count the feathers on each beating wing. He watched it go.
"But what would remain with the boy as he aged into manhood, what he would carry with him to years before he fully understood it's import, was the realization that hope had been repaid for it's effort, which all too often, he would learn, is miracle enough."
ARC from Edelweiss
March 9, 2020
I'm giving this 3 stars for effort, but it's obviously a first novel that had a few too many inconsistencies and not enough character development for my taste. Bringing electricity to a Tennessee community in 1937, and the building of a dam to accomplish that task, is a grand theme that was not supported by the storytelling itself. Mark Barr has promise though, and he would do well to reconsider writing about women's sexuality and a mother's relationship to her young children, since I found both of those things lacking in understanding in this one.
March 9, 2020
5 stars for the cover but sadly neither the plot nor the writing lived up to it for me. Arkansas author Mark Barr picked a promising topic for his debut novel - the construction of a hydroelectric dam in 1937 rural Tennessee and the impact such a vast, life-changing project would have on a small town and its locals. This could have been excellent historical fiction but wound up reading like a tawdry, formulaic, daytime soap opera with the exception of one character - dogfighting, truckdriving, platestealing, homecooking, beerhoarding, boardwielding Virgil Freitag. We all need a friend like Virgil - that one person who accepts us as we are, picks us up when we’re down, and always watches our back.
I appreciate what Mr. Barr set out to do here, and he did keep me reading to the very end, and I realize I’m in the ratings minority for this novel, but I’m a prose snob and can’t go higher than 2 stars. I’m also a character snob, so I’d add a half star for Virgil if GR would let me. I’ll definitely check out what Barr writes next. There are very few authors whose first book is their best.
I appreciate what Mr. Barr set out to do here, and he did keep me reading to the very end, and I realize I’m in the ratings minority for this novel, but I’m a prose snob and can’t go higher than 2 stars. I’m also a character snob, so I’d add a half star for Virgil if GR would let me. I’ll definitely check out what Barr writes next. There are very few authors whose first book is their best.
April 9, 2020
This book has been on my list since Charles Frazier supported this book and author through the Cold mountain Fund series. I bought the book after meeting the author at a book signing. He has potential and I’m up for the next one. However, by the midway mark I really had no emotional ties to any of the characters. He had the plot potential but never delved deep enough to really finish what was started. And that epilogue (insert rolling of the eyes). I love a good epilogue but this one was better to never have been included. So my main point, don’t count this author out yet. It’s just his first book.
October 12, 2019
What a gripping, beautiful debut novel! I came to care deeply for the main characters of Claire and Nathan, and the depiction of the rural South in the 1930s was fascinating. With both beautiful language and high stakes for these characters, the book delivers on all fronts.
October 25, 2019
I loved the first half of this book - couldn’t wait to finish it so I could write a rave review about the writing, the setting, the characters . . . everything. It was one of those that is so engrossing that you resent anything that takes time away from the reading of it. And then it seemed that another author took over the second half: it fell flat. I didn’t much care about the characters, and I REALLY would have liked more information on the building of the dam, how it affected those areas that were flooded, how the local people were fundamentally and forever changed by the introduction of electricity into their lives . . . it had sooo much promise, and in my opinion, failed to deliver it.
March 16, 2020
Watershed started out floating along with lots of good material and sank on the way downstream. The best way I can properly describe Watershed is by saying it lacks the proper amount of emotion it should have with a huge cast of characters and some tough events that warrant a borage of emotions. With one exception, Freitag, none of the characters will be memorable for me weeks from now.
Honestly, Watershed is likable enough in the beginning and I would give Barr a second chance as this is, to my knowledge, his first book. The building of the TVA dam at Pickwick, TN was a huge undertaking and of great significance in changing the lives of people in rural West Tennessee. However, a great historical story is only as good as the characters who tell it. I’d like to see more fully developed characters, more emotion, and better editing in Barr’s next novel.
My rating: 2.5 stars rounded to 3 stars for Freitag, who really needs his own story to be told.
Honestly, Watershed is likable enough in the beginning and I would give Barr a second chance as this is, to my knowledge, his first book. The building of the TVA dam at Pickwick, TN was a huge undertaking and of great significance in changing the lives of people in rural West Tennessee. However, a great historical story is only as good as the characters who tell it. I’d like to see more fully developed characters, more emotion, and better editing in Barr’s next novel.
My rating: 2.5 stars rounded to 3 stars for Freitag, who really needs his own story to be told.
January 2, 2020
My mom was born just before her family's farm got electricity in the 1940's and I did a deep dive into the Governor who made that happen, so this is really in my wheelhouse. I love this book most at interior moments: walking country roads at night, driving into Memphis for the first time, a father turning on a light in his home for the first time. I love that it avoids dialect, and I love that it avoids the easy romantic ending. I love the way it treats that characters' desire for honor or respectability and makes their compromises a real struggle the reader is allowed an intimate view of.
November 10, 2019
I was totally charmed by this subtle, understated novel about the lives in and around a WPA dam project in Tennessee in 1937. Author Barr creates a time and place with attention to the details of life in a small town during the depression and how the dam project weaves the lives of the people living there with the outsiders—engineers and federal agents—which the project brings into their town, and also creates an optimism as well as the inevitable distrust, of a future with electricity. I felt like I could understand these people, their struggles with their families, relationships, work, desire, and ambition.
November 2, 2019
Such a gripping story and well written. If only it could have continued. I would love to know what happened after the damn was built and how the lives changed once electricity was available. I have so many questions. Haven’t read a book in a long while that left me thinking about the characters and wondering what happened next.
January 2, 2020
Thoroughly enjoyed this compelling tale about two people taking control of their own lives. Bonus that it was set in a time and place I've studied extensively.
February 2, 2020
Beautiful debut novel that surprises you with the clarity of the writing and the character development. Really captures the post-Depression struggles for young people to get ahead in the world and the disappointments that become commonplace in a struggling economy. The story focuses on a WPA dam project in small town Tennessee and the introduction of electricity was such a foreign concept to the locals. The intersecting lives of the townspeople and federal workers plays against the struggles at the dam project for materials and job prospects.
October 29, 2019
Loved this book! The characters are so engaging and real. I was upset by Claire and rooting for Nathan! Couldn't put it down! Now, I want a sequel to find out what happens to Claire and Nathan in the future!
Read
February 3, 2020No rating from me. I got to page 110 and declare this a DNF. It's just too slow and I can't stay embedded within this group of characters.
Such an interesting TVA late 1930's placement too. And the writing is not bad. It's just not impacted with deep characterization. You know what the characters say and often what they do- but you don't know "them". You just mainly know their troubled histories.
Regardless, there is not enough of the engineer aspect to make up the slack. Also it tends by heavy margins too far into stereotypes.
I do think people who like chick lit. travail stories will like this more than I did. Too many intriguing ones in the pile yet to force myself back to this one. I did 3 or 4 times, and that's enough.
Such an interesting TVA late 1930's placement too. And the writing is not bad. It's just not impacted with deep characterization. You know what the characters say and often what they do- but you don't know "them". You just mainly know their troubled histories.
Regardless, there is not enough of the engineer aspect to make up the slack. Also it tends by heavy margins too far into stereotypes.
I do think people who like chick lit. travail stories will like this more than I did. Too many intriguing ones in the pile yet to force myself back to this one. I did 3 or 4 times, and that's enough.
November 27, 2019
Barr successfully portrays a realistic sense of desperation and reluctance to progress that places us in the hills of Tennessee in 1937, and he does a great job of using the infrastructure project as an excuse to bring all of these characters together to interact. I’m looking forward to his next book, and crossing my fingers that it will be set in a similar time and place. Possibly with some of the same characters. I feel like they have more to do that’s worth reading about.
October 26, 2019
CRAFT: A remarkable debut novel. The author has a gifted command of language, and his dialogues are really well crafted. His descriptions of the era put me in the time period so completely I realized I was actually visualizing some of the scenes in sepia tone, like a movie set in the depression era! The characters were also generally well developed. I could see the boarding house, and I could feel the quiet desperation of the men whose jobs hung by a thread, dependent on the whim of an autocratic supervisor. And every time someone had to turn a crank to start a car or had to use a lantern for light, it reminded me of the world they were living in and why the dam was being constructed.
STORY: It isn’t a perfect book, but it was interesting enough to keep me reading. I cared about the characters. I was surprised by some of Claire’s choices at first, but I came to realize I was applying my own morality and had to accept her. Women had very few choices in her time, so she was actually quite brave, although her relationship with her children could have been more fully developed to support the ending. As for the ending, the romantic in me might have wished for something different, but I’m actually glad it wasn’t predictable. I think it left enough unsaid, though, that I could fill in my own blanks—or the author could write a sequel! But the ending was complete enough that a sequel is not required. (And let me state unequivocally that I do not like books where the endings are so incomplete that it is obvious that a sequel must follow—just so the author can sell more books!)
I look forward to this author’s next book.
STORY: It isn’t a perfect book, but it was interesting enough to keep me reading. I cared about the characters. I was surprised by some of Claire’s choices at first, but I came to realize I was applying my own morality and had to accept her. Women had very few choices in her time, so she was actually quite brave, although her relationship with her children could have been more fully developed to support the ending. As for the ending, the romantic in me might have wished for something different, but I’m actually glad it wasn’t predictable. I think it left enough unsaid, though, that I could fill in my own blanks—or the author could write a sequel! But the ending was complete enough that a sequel is not required. (And let me state unequivocally that I do not like books where the endings are so incomplete that it is obvious that a sequel must follow—just so the author can sell more books!)
I look forward to this author’s next book.
November 20, 2019
Good story writing and reading and relevant topics for the time.
December 7, 2020
My first reaction to "Watershed", by Arkansas author Mark Barr, was that this could not possibly be his debut novel. The characters are too real, the plot too fascinating, and the various strands of the story too intricately entwined. This excellent read pulled me right in and I couldn’t put it down. I would swear that over my lifetime I’ve met every one of the characters, from the exacting supervisor to the slick salesman to the nerdy inventor to the backwoods redneck. They were as real as could be, and when I finished the book, I found myself disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to spend more time getting to know them. The storyline has a clever way of lulling the reader into thinking one knows where it’s going, only to be pleasantly surprised – in some cases, shockingly outraged – by a sudden, unexpected, yet all too plausible shift in the plot. And as a student of history, I thoroughly appreciated the detailed presentation of the daily lives of ordinary people against the backdrop of an often-overlooked historical setting. It is obvious that the author researched carefully and deeply. I enjoyed every page of "Watershed". This is Barr’s first novel; I sincerely hope it won’t be has last.
December 8, 2019
An interesting story of a huge dam being constructed in Tennessee to bring electrical power to the community.
The author writes of the construction workers, the office workers and the bosses, the supply ordering and issues, the boarding house, Pinkerton’s security guards, and the various small town and farm folk. We get to see their personalities and what their daily lives are all about in this novel and how they all interact together.
Its a slow read but the prose is done quite well.
I would have liked to know more about the dam itself since it really was the main “character”of the story. At the end, we read about electricity coming on in someone’s home, but nothing about the dam being completed to get to this point or how electricity otherwise impacted the town, etc. If there was more relevant information given to satisfy, I would have given it a 4 star rating.
The author writes of the construction workers, the office workers and the bosses, the supply ordering and issues, the boarding house, Pinkerton’s security guards, and the various small town and farm folk. We get to see their personalities and what their daily lives are all about in this novel and how they all interact together.
Its a slow read but the prose is done quite well.
I would have liked to know more about the dam itself since it really was the main “character”of the story. At the end, we read about electricity coming on in someone’s home, but nothing about the dam being completed to get to this point or how electricity otherwise impacted the town, etc. If there was more relevant information given to satisfy, I would have given it a 4 star rating.
November 26, 2023
I just re-read the synopsis, and I don’t feel like that’s the book I just read. There wasn’t enough follow through in the plot. The character development could’ve been better too - I didn’t feel connected to any of them. I was unable to predict where the story may go and, since I didn’t care much about any particular characters, there was no one to pull for. This left me feeling disoriented. My reading also felt very choppy because of how short the chapters are. At about 250 pages in, I felt like things started to pick up and I was eager to see where the story went…and then it ended abruptly. 2 stars because the the premise is unique and, while the plot was not fleshed out as well as it could’ve been, the writing was good.
February 7, 2021
What a joy to read a great novel, and then turn to the acknowledgements and see many familiar Little Rock-adjacent names.
I enjoyed the novel proper a good deal, but what really made the book for me was the epilogue, in which the focus narrows and in doing so, beautifully shifts the entire axis of the book.
I enjoyed the novel proper a good deal, but what really made the book for me was the epilogue, in which the focus narrows and in doing so, beautifully shifts the entire axis of the book.
December 24, 2019
I liked the first part of the novel with its strong sense of place and a certain time and also the characters. However somewhere along the way it lost its momentum and the story became flat and dull, the plot never rising to a level it potentially could have.
I feel like its a lost opportunity. A better storyline with this background where the completion of the dam concides with the culmination of the plot of the characters, would have made a more interesting and richer novel.
I feel like its a lost opportunity. A better storyline with this background where the completion of the dam concides with the culmination of the plot of the characters, would have made a more interesting and richer novel.
February 18, 2020
Auspicious debut. I really loved Barr’s characters & setting.
January 19, 2020
The writing was beautiful. Rural Tennessee post depression. The story started out good, but then fell flat. I was hoping for more info about the building of the dam & how the flooding affected the people. Also, how the bringing of electricity too these people was a big change & not embraced by all. The author touches on this at the very end. He could have gone farther & deeper.
April 3, 2020
Very enjoyable read.
March 28, 2020
I was really surprised how much this left me thinking about life and action that you have to claim responsibility for. Well written book with strong character development. Great book for anyone to read.
November 26, 2019
Good debut with interesting historical dam building via TVA in Tennessee. Characters vacillated a bit too much on their values & actions for my liking and shared secrets that unraveled them and the tight plot development.
January 27, 2020
I have a confession to make. I often judge books by their covers. If the cover is appealing, I’m more likely to pick it up and decide then if I would want to read it. When I saw Mark Barr’s book, Watershed, on Instagram the cover immediately caught my eye. Mark was kind enough to donate a copy of to our Little Free Library! When it came back after someone else read it, I knew I just had to read it before putting it back out. IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT! Mark’s writing sucks you in from the beginning. My wife is a High School English teacher and she often talks about “character development.” Mark’s characters are relatable, engaging and you want to keep reading the next chapter to see what they’re going to do or what’s going to happen to them! Not being from the south, you are not only transported back in time, but also to a whole new location and you don’t want to leave! Mark has found a new fan and I can’t wait to read his next work! #littlefreelibrary #markbarr #watershed #historicalfiction
January 5, 2020
I really enjoyed this debut novel. It's late 1930's and the government is bringing a new hydroelectric dam to Dawsonville, TN. The writing was very good, the story was good and you could almost feel the humid Tennessee air. I especially enjoyed the unlikely friendship between Nathan and Freitag. My only issue would be that for some characters there did not seem to be any resolution. What became of Nathan at the conclusion of the novel, for instance? Perhaps I missed something. Anyway, I'll be looking out for Barr's next novel. He has some writing chops.
December 7, 2019
The allure of Mark Barr’s debut novel, Watershed, fulfilled my hopeful expectations.
When I initially read a description noting the story was set against the backdrop of the construction of a dam in Tennessee in 1937 and how that project served to bring electricity to rural parts of the country I considered that aspect of the novel intriguing in that it would illuminate a time, place, and undertaking I knew little about.
The challenge, with historical fiction, is the balancing act of providing an informative look at a period of history within a captivating story. Barr deftly melds the two with an engrossing story wherein the historical context is a catalyst that serves to set in motion events that bring the characters together. Readers are rewarded with a tremendous sense of the time, place, and motivations of the characters along with an excellent story.
Highly recommended!
When I initially read a description noting the story was set against the backdrop of the construction of a dam in Tennessee in 1937 and how that project served to bring electricity to rural parts of the country I considered that aspect of the novel intriguing in that it would illuminate a time, place, and undertaking I knew little about.
The challenge, with historical fiction, is the balancing act of providing an informative look at a period of history within a captivating story. Barr deftly melds the two with an engrossing story wherein the historical context is a catalyst that serves to set in motion events that bring the characters together. Readers are rewarded with a tremendous sense of the time, place, and motivations of the characters along with an excellent story.
Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews