David Rhodes and his Novels About Driftless Wisconsin

 By Bruce Shawkey

David Rhodes, published his novel, Driftless, in 2008 after a long hiatus from writing. This book marked  his return to fiction after thirty years, following a motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down.

Background — David Rhodes was paralyzed from the chest down due to a motorcycle accident in 1977, which significantly impacted his life and writing career.

Setting — The novel is named after the Driftless Area, a region in the Midwest known for its unique geological features, devoid of glacial drift.

Critical Reception — Critics have praised "Driftless" as one of the best works of fiction to emerge from the Midwest in recent years, highlighting its vivid portrayal of small-town life.

Dawn and I saw David Rhodes at a reading in the Madison, Wis., public library. I was fascinated by his productivity and his ability to overcome his disability. 

Fascinating story of his friend who made an elevator for him:

One morning in 1978, the novelist David Rhodes rolled his wheelchair to the door of his farmhouse in rural Wisconsin to find his neighbor, Dick Woolever, waiting to make him an offer. “God woke me up in the night and told me how to make an elevator for you,” he said. This was three years after a motorcycle accident left David paralyzed from the chest down.

Appearing like this was apparently not out of character. A farmer and something of a polymath, Dick Woolever is a legend in the hilly region of Wisconsin known as the Driftless area. He had once devised a system that would allow him to pull the engine from a car using only the power he applied from a belt around his waist. Dick Woolover was a big guy. He was an expert electrician and welder, known for fashioning mechanical devices from materials he might find on his farm or could order from a hardware store. So maybe David wasn’t crazy to let this man take a chainsaw to the ceiling in a corner of his dining room. Within weeks, Dick had a working elevator fabricated from four vertical metal rods, cable, plywood, belts, rotating drums, an electric motor installed in the attic, and a hand-held control switch. He did it all for about $300, the cost of materials.