Synopses & Reviews
For Dick and Jane, Dallas after World War II is a place of promise and prosperity: the first home air conditioners are making summertime bearable and Dick’s position at his father’s business, the Cadillac dealership, is assured. Jane has help with the house and the children, and garden parties and holiday celebrations are spirited social affairs. For the oldest of their three daughters, however, life is full of frustrating mysteries. The stories the adults tell her don’t make sense. Too curious for comfort, she finds her questions only seem to annoy them. Why won’t they tell the truth about Santa? What is that Holy Spirit business, and what is the difference between an angel and a ghost? Why is her mother often so tense and sad? And why does her father keep flying into violent rages?
Hap and Hazard and the End of the World is an intimate, finely crafted novel about the innocence and vulnerability of childhood and the dangers posed by adults who cannot cope with life’s complexities. It is also about the ingenuity born of loneliness and neglect, and the surprising, strange beauty of the world.
Review
“Smart and subtle....[A] moving example of a family trying to make life work.” Publishers Weekly
Review
“[A] captivating debut novel....Drawing on her own family letters, diaries, and oral histories, newcomer DeSanders captures the voice and thoughts of a young girl observing her frayed family while questioning the mysterious larger world. A brave and honest work that won’t disappoint.” Library Journal
Review
“A time capsule of American awakening.” Kirkus Reviews
Review
“Paints a vivid picture of childhood in postwar America, replete with all of the joys and sorrows that are part of growing up.” Booklist
About the Author
A fifth-generation Texan, Diane DeSanders is a history buff, theater lover, poet, mother, and grandmother. Between careers as a history teacher and antiques dealer, she has worked in regional theater in almost every capacity. She now writes, gardens, and sings in Brooklyn, New York. Hap and Hazard and the End of the World is her first novel.
Diane DeSanders on PowellsBooks.Blog
Describe your book.
The book I am promoting is my first novel. It is a coming-of-age story set in postwar Dallas, Texas. It’s the story of an upper-middle class family under the stress of a father with PTSD; a mother who struggles to keep everything under control and appearing normal; and an eldest child who struggles to understand what is really going on in the adult world...
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