Woodrell’s dancehall fire acts as a smokescreen for town’s sordid secrets
At its core, Daniel Woodrell’s stunning new novel tells the story of a 1929 explosion that ravaged the Arbor Dance Hall in the small Missouri town of West Table, killing 42 people, mangling numerous others and stripping an entire community of its heart and soul.
It is a tragedy that brands itself into the local atmosphere, the sort of event that will be whispered about forever, the memories of its grief and horror leaving its mark on practically every family for miles around. However, all may not be quite as it seems.
