Hazel

Fiction. 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 introduces Ms. Hazel Hicks, a maiden lady of a certain age, and as improbable a literary hero as has come along in many years. Hazel puts the 'lone' in 'loner.' She is eccentric, solitary, severe, humorless, discontented, self-absorbed, and nearly invisible to others in her family and milieu. Hazel's would seem to be the life story of one who has no life. Nevertheless, owing to her creator's utterly assured, sympathetic, multifaceted story-telling, she is never a tragic figure, or even a pitiable one. Rather, she appears with the contradictions, self-inflicted wounds, (and blessings) the reader recognizes as belonging to life. Don't miss Hazel Hicks. She may try you, she may frustrate you, she may exasperate you. But you will not forget her.--Castle Freeman, Jr.