STILL THE NIGHT CALL

A young Missouri man on a failing dairy farm contemplates what he feels will be the last day of his life in this novel.

At the age of 32, Calem Honeycutt is already a homeowner, but he didn’t move far from his parents. They are a mile away at their dairy farm in the Ozarks where Calem still works. He didn’t feel like going to college or getting what some call a real job, as he is too tied to the life and landscape of his upbringing. (“There are two cricks that run through our land, three ponds, and a waterfall that will leave a hell of an impression if you’re ever lucky enough to see it.”) His parents are reliable and supportive, if somewhat stoic, though his sister, Caitlyn, whom he genuinely likes, is now an urban progressive liberal who is outraged by her family’s conservative opinions. Calem hunts, fishes, and sees friends, but he is single and deals with despair. He has convinced himself this will be the last day he will ever live. He plows through the day, racked by memories of old times and fascinated by new views of familiar landscapes. Some fun is on the horizon, since he is going fishing with his friend Miles that evening. Even so, bad news comes in about the dairy farm, pushing Calem and his family toward new, possibly insurmountable anxieties. Senter’s impressive novel is a truthful, honestly told story that puts a human face on a region that’s steeped in tradition, brimming with the allure of nature, and grappling with the constant threat of being swallowed up by the latest corporate entity. Calem’s world is intricately described as a land of four-wheelers, black walnuts, hog suckers, and Holsteins, and it’s a place that offers seemingly endless freedom but brutal government and marketplace restrictions. The author’s careful plotting, over the course of one remarkably intense day, defies expectations as it moves toward its haunting conclusion.

A candid tale that triumphantly understands the Midwestern psyche, delivering moments of beauty and tragedy.