Watermark Books and Cafe

Sarah's book reviews can be heard on alternate Mondays on KMUW 89.1. You can read her most recent review below or listen to it here: http://www.kmuw.org/index.php/book/august_29_rode_by_thomas_fox_averill/ 

“Rode” by Thomas Fox Averill (UNM Press, ISBN 9780826350299, $24.95) 

Inspiration can come when one least expects it. Thomas Fox Averill, a professor of English and Writer-In-Residence at Washburn University, was at the Winfield Bluegrass Festival when he was captivated by Jimmy Driftwood’s ballad “Tennessee Stud.” After extensive research on the origins of the song, followed by a trek through Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Mexico and back again, Averill wrote a novel inspired by the song and the time in which it was written... "along about eighteen and twenty-five."  

In authentic language, Averill crafts a mesmerizing tale of an outlaw, his heroic horse, and the woman he holds in his heart. Robert Johnson begins as a thoughtful but simple man whose only intention is to simply raise horses.  This is interrupted when he is the suspect in a murder he did not commit. Drifting across the rugged country, Johnson encounters people, good and bad, who could star in novels of their own: gamblers, villains, horse thieves and evangelist bootleggers. Johnson’s loneliness forces him to return to his native Tennessee and the love of his life.  

Both an odyssey and a love story, “rode” will clutch your heart, the way the ballad of the "Tennessee Stud" took hold of Thomas Fox Averill's, and transport you to the days when a man really could be saved by his horse. 

Review by Sarah Bagby

Rode (Hardcover)

By Thomas Fox Averill

$24.95

ISBN-13: 9780826350299
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: University of New Mexico Press, 8/2011

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