Table Of Content“So beautifully is this novel rendered, scene by scene, character
by character, sentence by sentence, that the end of the journey is
muchlessimportantthanthejourneyitself.Everythinginthisbook
sparkles and rings true. As the best books do, it seemed to end too
quickly.…Dingley Falls is one of the best books I have read in a long
time.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Superb! What an exuberant novel for these troubled times! If
not the Great American Novel, which Norman Mailer keeps prom-
ising, Dingley Falls is surely the Great American Comedy. The two
may just be synonymous.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Alovable,sprawling,old-fashionedkindofnovel,fullofenergy
and gems of characterization.”
—Washington Post Book World
“A real accomplishment…Michael Malone has the true narra-
tive gift, the true eye for character in action, and a fluent prose,
wrought carefully and well.…His Dingley world, with all its tangles,
really exists for the reader and stays with him.”
—Robert Penn Warren
“Malonehaswovenacomplextapestrythatleavesthereader,at
story’s end, as stunned and emotionally spent as the reader of
Tolstoy’s War and Peace.”
—West Coast Review of Books
“For craft and knowingness and the provision of a faultlessly
wonderfulread,therehasn’tbeenabooklikeitinmany,manyyears.
It’s a gorgeous accomplishment.”
—Gordon Lish
“InDingleyFalls,Malonehasproducedaremarkableworkoffic-
tion.…He combines humor, compassion, and literate writing with a
storytelling ability that is rare in contemporary fiction.”
—Houston Chronicle
“A pleasure to read as few modern novels are. Malone offers a
worldthathearkensbacktotheliteratureofanearliertime,peopled
by characters whose lives we share, and who remain with us long
after the book has been closed.…Dingley Falls is a tonic.”
—Marilyn French
“Malone’s novel is a wondrous achievement. It is full of the
things that books should brim with: humor and suspense and wit,
among them. Malone is an awesome craftsman. The book is beauti-
fully textured, superbly structured. Best of all, his writing…sings.
The characterization is remarkable….Malone’s novel is as lusty,
whimsical, tragic—even as bizarre—as life itself.”
—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Awildoriginal—funnyandpassionateandwise—andMichael
Maloneisoneofthoserarewriterswhocanslowlyuncovertheheart
ofanentiretown.MaloneisawonderfulstorytellerandDingleyFalls
is a marvelous journey into absurdity, humor, and compassion.”
—Alice Hoffman
“A satisfying tale of tangled lives and colliding desires in small-
town America…an engrossing novel.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“One of those special books you wait for…a rare jewel.”
—Birmingham Sunday Books
“It’s a dazzling book and I read it, spellbound, in one long gulp.
FormeitputsMalonewayupthereinthechoicestcompanyofcon-
temporary American writers.”
—Irwin Shaw
dingley falls
by Michael Malone
FICTION
Painting the Roses Red
The Delectable Mountains
Dingley Falls
Uncivil Seasons
Handling Sin
Time’s Witness
Foolscap
First Lady
Red Clay, Blue Cadillac
The Last Noel
NONFICTION
Psychetypes
Heroes of Eros
Dingley Falls
A novel
by Michael Malone
For a singer
“Dodie”
John Darwin Penland
1950–1979
Song’s a good prayer.
So is laughter.
Copyright©1980,2002byMichaelMalone
Coverandinternaldesign©2002bySourcebooks,Inc.
Coverphoto©GettyImagesandDigitalVision
FirstpublishedinNewYorkin1980byHarcourtBraceJovanovich,Inc.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformor
by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and
retrievalsystems—exceptinthecaseofbriefquotationsembodiedincriti-
cal articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher,
Sourcebooks,Inc.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and inci-
dentsportrayedinitaretheworkoftheauthor’simagination.Anyresem-
blance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely
coincidental.
PublishedbySourcebooks,Inc.
P.O.Box4410,Naperville,Illinois 60567-4410
(630)961-3900
FAX:(630)961-2168
www.sourcebooks.com
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Malone,Michael.
DingleyFalls:anovel/byMichaelMalone.
p.cm.
ISBN1-4022-0007-2(pbk.)
1. Cityandtownlife—Fiction.2. Anonymousletters—Fiction.3.
Connecticut—Fiction.4. Hatemail—Fiction. I.Title.
PS3563.A43244D562002
813’.54—dc21
2002006928
PrintedandboundintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
LB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
acknowledgments
I’ve never understood why those who write fictions should not
acknowledge debts as publicly as those who write facts. I’d like to
thank Mrs. Arthur E. Case for her generous friendship, and Dr.
BarbaraOttoandDr.J.J.Quilligan,Jr.,forconsentingwithsuchkind
cheer to diagnose the peculiar symptoms afflicting Dingleyans.
DuringthefouryearsithastakentofinishDingleyFalls,numbersof
readers, both in and out of what is for some odd reason called “the
industry,” have given me good criticism, wise advice, and warm sup-
port. My heartfelt appreciation to them all.
Description:In the sleepy town of Dingley Falls, Connecticut, something funny is going on. Strange forces are pulling together the oddest of couples: a mild-mannered matron and a lascivious avant-garde poet; a sleek headmaster and a shy young curate; a hippie librarian and the wayward daughter of a local tycoon
