The Song of Daniel [Mass Market Paperback]

Philip Lee Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 13, 1991

In the tradition of his award-winning novel THE HEART OF A DISTANT FOREST Philip Lee Williams gives us another lyrical and compassionate tale, and his most fascinating protagonist to date.

THE SONG OF DANIEL is a story of innocence, of a young man who has pushed away his darkest memories to live a simple life as a groundkeeper in a cemetery. Daniel exults in his world in a few close friends at the trailer park, where he lives and with his beloved dog Toggle.

Daniel's world is changed when he meets Rebecca Gentry, an English professor at a university near the cemetery. Rebecca and Daniel are both transformed when they meet, each bringing gifts of joy and sorrow to their days. But a shattering experience form years' past comes back into Daniel's life, threatening both his new love and his happiness. Finally, in a complex clash of innocence and experience Daniel's childlike life becomes clear and Rebecca discovers a long hidden part of herself-and the key to the poet who so fascinated and eluded her.

This is a story about homeplace, about love and loss of family, about an innocent man's journey toward experience. Williams, a masterful storyteller, has once again written a beautiful and deeply moving novel.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in Athens, Ga., and centering on a serene cemetery with its suggestions of sorrow, loss and redemption, Williams's ( The Heart of a Distant Forest ) latest novel is evocative of place and beautifully written, but is marred by sentimentality. Daniel Mitchell is a simple young man, not retarded yet not "normal"; raised in a "home," he is now living on his own and working in the cemetery. Rebecca Gentry, a recently divorced poet, teaches at the university. Blocked in her efforts to write the biography of a local poet who had killed himself years ago, she is sad to the point of despair. Walking in the cemetery, she meets Daniel and is greatly moved by his innocence. The two become friends, and gradually their lives intertwine, Daniel stepping into the real world, with its heartbreak, and Rebecca emerging from her depression. Parallel plots follow Rebecca, as she discovers the reclusive former lover of the poet and resumes work on the biography, and Daniel, as he goes through the pain of acknowledging a horrifying past. Williams, also a poet, writes lyrically, but his characters, while memorable, serve the author's themes too readily.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Childhood witness to his father's murdering his mother's lover, 28-year-old Daniel Mitchell has avoided terrible memories by remaining willfully childlike, apparently retarded. His innocence and affectionateness prompt his new friend Rebecca Gentry, a recently divorced university professor of English, to question her values and more easily to understand the life of Lawrence Dale, a poet-suicide on whom she has long been preparing a book. In a lyric style perhaps too rich in questionably relevant detail, Williams's novel, set in Georgia, explores the values and hazards of innocence and the redeeming virtues of different types of love.
- Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (December 13, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345364694
• ISBN-13: 978-0345364692
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,083,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Philip Lee Williams is the author of 16 published books, including 11 novels, three works of non-fiction, and two volumes of poetry. His books have been published by such presses as St. Martin's, W. W. Norton, Random House, Grove Press, Ballantine, Dell, Viking/Penguin, and Mercer University Press, as well a number of other smaller and university presses.

His 1000-page novel, The Divine Comics, was published in November 2011 by Mercer University Press. This book is a modern re-imagining and updating of Dante's fabled Divine Comedy. Another novel, Emerson's Brother, will come out in May 2012.

The University of Georgia Press republished his Michael Shaara Prize-winning novel A Distant Flame on April 1, 2011.

Williams's The Flower Seeker: An Epic Poem of William Bartram, came out on Sept. 1, 2010. It was named Book of the Year by Books & Culture Magazine. His most recent novel is The Campfire Boys, fiction about entertainers during the American Civil War. A collection of poetry called Elegies for the Water (Mercer University Press) came out on March 1, 2009.

In May 2007, he received the Governor's Award in the Humanities from the State of Georgia during ceremonies in Atlanta, and in June of that year he was for the second time named Georgia Author of the Year, this time in the essay category in a program at Kennesaw State University. He has since been named Georgia Author of the Year twice more.

His most recent nonfiction book, nature essays called In the Morning: Reflections Toward First Light, came out in the fall of 2006 from Mercer University Press. He is a featured author in a textbook about Georgia authors for the state's eighth graders that was released in the fall of 2008.

His novel A Distant Flame was published by St. Martin's Press in September 2004. In April 2005, it was named winner of the Michael Shaara Award as the best Civil War novel published in the United States in 2004. Williams received the award in Boston in June 2005. The book was also named, by The Georgia Center for the Book, one of 25 books that "All Georgians Should Read." It came out in a trade paperback edition in November 2005.

His first novel, The Heart of a Distant Forest, was reprinted in September 2005 by the University of Georgia Press.

His books have been translated into Swedish, German, French, and Japanese and have appeared in large-print editions as well. A number of his books have been optioned for film by such people as producer Richard Zanuck, director Ron Howard, and actress Meg Ryan. He was hired by M-G-M to write the screenplay of his own book, All the Western Stars, though the movie has not yet been made.

Two of Williams's unpublished manuscripts have also been optioned by producers in Hollywood.

Williams has also published poetry in more than 40 magazines, including Poetry, Press, Karamu, the Cumberland Poetry Review and many others. He has published essays and short stories, and one story, "An Early Snow," published in 2000, was nominated by The Chattahoochee Review for a Pushcart Prize.

An essay of Williams's appeared in the fall 2010 issue of The Georgia Review.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars read this, February 15, 2000

By 

carly (pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Song of Daniel (Hardcover)

I love the song of daniel. when you read it, you feel like you are sitting next to daniel in the cemetary, the details are so vivid. it's the first book I've ever read that I literally couldn't put down. I read it in one day, and would recommend it to anyone who needs to read a book they will never forget.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a touching story, May 20, 2003

By 

book yeti "book yeti" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Song of Daniel (Hardcover)

... I set out to read one of his earlier novels - a touching piece entitled The Song of Daniel. It was a very heartfelt and sincere story about a young man named Daniel Mitchell, living in a world of his own. It was a peaceful life - an escape from reality that he created for himself, after he had been exposed to unspeakable violence in his early childhood. This realm of Daniel's remains untouched, until he meets worldly and somewhat cynical Rebecca. As a result, they learn much from each other. In this masterpiece, Williams has conveyed Daniel's thoughts, vulnerabilities, and deepest fears with such an indescribable intricacy that puts us in his shoes. Finally Daniel deals with the uprising of his past in his own way. I really enjoyed this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A hauntingly memorable novel, May 27, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Metro Atlanta) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Song of Daniel (Hardcover)

I read Song of Daniel some years ago, and I still think of it with wonder. The plot is moving, the characters unforgettable, and the writing tender and loving. In fact, the book is the best sort of "southern" novel. To a southerner, that does not mean that the book is about the South, although Williams' evocations of the southern setting are loving and poetic. Rather, the southern novel seems to distinguish itself by the author's love of language. Williams' voice is gentle, beautiful, and touching--sometimes to the point that it evokes tears. But don't think that the book is maudlin. The tenderness is genuine, authentic. Of special interest to those familiar with the marvelous (and largely forgotten) Georgia poet, Byron Herbert Reece, a subplot involves the research of a University of Georgia professor into just such a Georgia mountain poet. Song of Daniel gripped and moved me as few books ever have. Its power over the imagination and the emotions is so great that I have not reread it yet: after perhaps ten years, it is still too strong in my memory. But it holds a special place among those books that I _will_ reread. Although they are very different writers, the only southern novelist I would compare with Williams (based on this book) is Walker Percy, and that's the highest praise I can offer. Buy this book and take it to a quiet place.