Wanderer Springs: A Novel [Hardcover]

Robert Flynn (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Jessie Tooley finally dies, Will Callaghan knows he has to go back for the funeral in Wanderer Springs, a tiny Texas town that was "born beside the railroad and died beside the interstate," which passed around it. In this perfectly pitched, evocative novel, Flynn, author of the award-winning North to Yesterday, tells the story of one of those evanescent towns of the American interior that has a lifespan of "three or at most four generations." There are no major events in the town's history, Will says, just families and relationships. You can't pick your friends or choose your neighbors, and your ancestors have already decided your enemies. Actually, it's not true that nothing major occurseverything that happens is important, because nothing is forgotten. The narrative's leisurely pace and diffusion (Flynn provides a key to the families that spawn the novel's 120 characters) could put off some readers, but most will find it genuinely rewarding.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Fifth novel from the author of Seasonal Rain (Corona, 1986), this is Flynn's most accomplished work yet. It is an intricate, brutal, funny saga told by oral historian Will Callahan, who returns to his hometown to chronicle its rural past and urban present. Not a detached observer, Will painfully reveals the dark, sad past he shares with his neighbors as he imparts a strong sense of place and people. The story is rich in detail; the characterization, deft; the voice, an amalgam of Texan idiom, frequent hyperbole, and compassionate memory. Flynn's abundant talent transforms the annals of a dying town into an exploration of larger human concerns. Edward C. Lynskey, Documentation Section, Atlantic Research Corp., Gainsville, Va.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 340 pages
• Publisher: Texas Christian University Press; First Edition edition (January 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875650716
• ISBN-13: 978-0875650715
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,878,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Flynn, professor emeritus, Trinity University and a native of Chillicothe, Texas, is the author of fourteen books. Nine novels: North To Yesterday; In the House of the Lord; The Sounds of Rescue, The Signs of Hope; Wanderer Springs, The Last Klick, The Devils Tiger, co-authored with the late Dan Klepper, Tie-Fast Country, Echos of Glory.and his most recent Jade:Outlaw. His dramatic adaptation of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying was the United States entry at the Theater of Nations in Paris in l964 and won a Special Jury Award. He is also the author of a two-part documentary, "A Cowboy Legacy" shown on ABC-TV; a nonfiction narrative, A Personal War in Vietnam, an oral history, When I was Just Your Age, and a memoir, Burying the Farm.

Also, three story collections, Seasonal Rain, Living With The Hyenas, Slouching Toward Zion, and a collection of essays, Growing Up a Sullen Baptist. He is co-editor of Paul Baker and the Integration of Abilities.

North to Yesterday received awards from the Texas Institute of Letters and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, and was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the New York Times. Seasonal Rain, was co-winner of the Texas Literary Festival Award. Wanderer Springs received a Spur Award from Western Writers of America. Living With the Hyenas received a Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Echoes of Glory received a Spur Award from Western Writers of America. Flynn's work has been translated into German, Spanish, Dutch, Afrikaans, Malayalam, Arabic, Tamil, Hindi, Kanada, and Vietnamese. Flynn is a member of The Texas Institute of Letters, The Writers Guild of America, Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Associate, and P.E.N. In 1998, he received the "Distinguished Achievement Award" from the Texas Institute of Letters. (See Flynn's Blog.)

Robert Flynn is a native of Chillicothe, Texas, the best known Chillicothe outside of Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, despite its size. Chillicothe is so small there's only one Baptist Church. Chillicothe is so small you have to go to Quanah to have a coincidence. Chillicothe is fairly bursting with truth and beauty and at an early age Flynn set out to find it.

His life and work could be described as 'The Search for Morals, Ethics, Religion, or at least a good story in Texas and lesser known parts of the world'.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars small town Texas as only a Texas can see it., April 28, 1999

By 

wmgoins "professor" (Richmond, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wanderer Springs: A Novel (Hardcover)

Robert Flynn has captured in his ficticious west Texas town of Wanderer Springs, not only that area but all of Texas, every small town from El Paso to Texarkana, Amarillo to Brownsville. All of the day-to-day exploits so interlinked with both small town glory and tragedy, the pathos of memories and the wonder of that which is remembered not as it was but as it should have, or might have, been. This is a book for anyone who wants to know more about the small town experience, the history of places with no historical signifigance, the what of what happened and where. A good book, an excellent story and well written by one of this state's best writers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Discussion of Wanderer Springs, November 22, 2001

By 

MHS78257 "Mo H. Saidi, MD" (San Antonio, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wanderer Springs: A Novel (Hardcover)

A Discussion of Wanderer Springs

by Robert Flynn

The novel opens with a reference to the funeral of Jessie Tooley, an old-time friend of Will Callaghan, the story's main character. It takes place in Wanderer Springs, a tiny Texas town that was "born beside the railroad and died beside the interstate.'' Flynn tells about life in a small American town with a lifespan of "three or at most four generations.'' It is the story of people struggling to get by in the rough and isolated land, which frequently witnesses brutal sandstorms, dry summers, and cold winters.
Numerous characters (over 120; more than the population of the Alamo,) come to life with impressive clarity as they are revisited repeatedly; this horizontal approach to the characters' stories paints a strong sense of the continuity of life in this small community where accidents often shape the destiny of a character: The three most striking events in this novel are Will's drop of a pass during the infamous football game against Center Point team, the lynching of Joe Whatley, and Dolores' death in a car accident.
The main character, Will Callahan speaks in the first person and the past tense and tells an intricate, brutal, funny saga. When Will returns to his hometown, he chronicles its rural past and urban present not as a detached observer, but as a painfully concern citizen who loves every stone, tree, and person of the Wanderer Springs. As he reveals the dark and sad past that he has shared with his neighbors he imparts a strong sense of place and people.
The story is rich in detail; the characterization, deft; the voice, strong and effective. Like our second novel, "All the Pretty Horses" this one uses Texan idiom, frequent hyperbole, and compassionate memory. Although Will is a likable observer and trusted historian, he is not void of feeling, passion, love, ideology, or opinion about life, religion, universe and God. He paints a beautiful picture of how a small Texas town came to be and ultimately vanished peacefully. It was pushed to its birthplace with the arrival of the railroad and was pulled out of existence on flats of asphalt.
When Will leaves the funeral he takes up the task of immortalizing a dying town and its brief existence by writing a novel describing the story of the people of Wanderer Springs; how they came to be, how they lived and how they died or left town. There are neither castles nor old barns in the town's cemetery, only high brush, hidden old railroad tracks, and sober memories.
The novel is rich with meaningful remarks and beautiful phrases such as:
"In America richness of life means a recreational vehicle and a condominium away from it all." "Only thing bigger than the law is money." "Texans believe the constitution guarantees the pursuit of happiness in a private automobile." "There was no doctor in the county who would get up in the middle of the night to treat a black woman." "I'd give up my bible before I'd give up my guns." "Marshall said things like, `Maybe God creates babies, but He doesn't create teenagers.'" "Hooper told Dixie a pregnant girl could not attend high school but a girl who had had an abortion could." "Blacks and whites lived parallel lives, like railroad tracks that never touched and seemed close only at a distance." "Death is the only peace there is, it's the only peace that lasts." "I had reached the age where I was sentimental about gravestones, enjoying the sorrow of my own death." "It's hard to lie about being bald." "In war truth is the first casualty." "A woman who laughs a lot can't be happy."
Mo Saidi, M.D.
San Antonio, Texas 78257

5.0 out of 5 stars Richly Compelling and Genuine., December 8, 2007

By 

Editor, Author, Publicist (Denver, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wanderer Springs: A Novel (Hardcover)

Wanderer Springs is a dying town in Northwest Texas, one of that string of dusty towns left to wither away when the highway from Fort Worth to Amarillo bypassed them...For Will Callaghan, that country and the town of Wanderer Springs are carved into memory, indelible in their clarity.

Called home from San Antonio by a funeral, Will begins a journey, both physical and imaginative, that crosses not only geographic and cultural boundaries but darts back and forth in time, mixing stories of the town's frontier past with episodes of Will's high school days. In sometimes hilarious and sometimes painful detail, Will relives the football game where he dropped the pass and lost the championship for Wanderer Springs forever, the time he got his gum stuck in his girlfriend's hair, the strangely distant but close relationship of a motherless boy and his taciturn father. Equally clear are the tales from the past--the Turrill family's desperate wagon ride to find a doctor for their daughter, dying of appendicitis or Lulu Byars who danced in town and caught pneumonia riding back to her dugout in a norther. Wanderer Springs said she died of frivolity.

Through it all, the clear voice of Will Callaghan, a good old boy grown into an intellectual, gives meaning to the chaos, seeks sense out of the past, recognizes our inextricable link to the past.

A masterful combination of community, great plains living in a time now lost to modern ways.