The Storm Season

First published in 1992, William Hauptman's first novel (and apparently the last, though we should all hope not) came and went rather quietly. I remember picking it up at a Waldenbooks that spring, drawn by the Larry McMurtry blurb on the cover, and buying it on the spot. I was absorbed right away with the fictional city of Nortex, with the Drennan family, and with the nearly intangible sense of dread and disillusionment set against the backdrop of the Reagan Eighties. At the heart of this big picture is Burl's quest for meaning, symbolized by his chasing tornadoes all across the Panhandle. Hauptman is definitely a writer's writer, which is not to say he's esoteric or intimidating; if anything his prose is as clear and accessible as water. Over the years I've given this book to friends, only to have it given back to me with a general "ho-hum" shrug after they read it. I was forced to conclude that I'd imagined something great in it. But every so often I picked it up again and was rewarded for my faith, largely by passages like this one: "The storm towered over him, a sheer wall of marble sixty thousand feet high. He had to stare straight up to see the top, which was still in sunlight, a great ceiling of gold. As he watched, it faded to cream, to rose, to ice blue. The lower levels were lead gray. As it rolled away, the moon seemed to rise behind it. Suddenly, the whole storm was lit by one incredible flash of golden lightning. Burl held his breath, but heard nothing." McMurtry, my favorite writer, once captured the death of the cowboy in his first novel, HORSEMAN, PASS BY. Hauptman here captured a similar watershed moment: the death of Texas oil (through Willie Drennan, Burl's father) and the dreams that went with it (through Burl himself). Kudos to UT Press for keeping THE STORM SEASON in print. Now if only Hauptman would give us more; fifteen years is a long wait.

The writing is beautiful and simple. Never mushy. I was hooked in no time. I may be biased because I' a bit of a weather nut... The story is anyone's, but yet unusual. It's easy to like the main character--he guy is searching for something...but again, William Hauptman does not make it mushy. And the ending is perfect...