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WORK TITLE: Tornado Weather
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Kennedy, Deborah Elaine
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://deborahekennedy.com/
CITY: Forest Grove
STATE: OR
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Children: a son.
EDUCATION:Miami University, Oxford, OH, master’s degree; graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and novelist. Has worked as a reporter, teacher, and editor, cookie packer, ice cream scooper, and children’s baseball coach.
AWARDS:Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author (nomination), for Tornado Weather.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals and websites, in including Salon, Sou’wester, Third Coast magazine, and the North American Review.
SIDELIGHTS
Deborah E. Kennedy grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and holds a master’s degree in fiction writing and English literature. She is a contributor to periodicals and websites and has worked as a reporter, teacher, and editor. Kennedy’s debut novel, Tornado Weather, revolves around the disappearance of young girl and the local townspeople’s various suspicions or knowledge about what happened. Kathy Sexton, writing in Booklist, noted that the primary focus is on “the town itself: a place where political issues play out on a personal stage.”
The story takes place in a midwestern, blue-collar town of Colliersville, Indiana. Five-year-old-Daisy Gonzalez is met by her father everyday at the bus stop. However, one day he is not there and Daisy, who was disabled after a hit-and-run accident killer her mother three years earlier, disappears. Daisy’s father, a local schoolteacher, is devastated to the point that he is unable to eat, sleep, or work as the town, which has only one police officer, tries to find Daisy. For example, the bus driver, Fikus, who let Daisy alone on the street, enlists the help of an old workmate named Irv, who now lives as a hermit and collects roadkill, to help him uncover clues about Daisy’s disappearance. Meanwhile, the town’s police officer believes there is a connection between Daisy’s disappearance and the accident years earlier that killed her mother and left Daisy disabled.
Another story line revolves around a journalist named Gordy, who has gone undercover investigating the Yoder Dairy. Th dairy has become a topic of debate in town since Helman Yoder decided to broaden operations and use Mexican migrants as workers, replacing local workers. As a result, the community is facing economic stress and racial tensions as the only two members of the Colliersville militia movement gain a new sense of importance. Meanwhile, many in town think that the troublesome Seaver family may have something to do with Daisy’s disappearance. Renee Seaver has no issue with Mexicans but is hoping to use her father’s dislike of Mexicans to get Daisy’s father, who is her math and history teacher, to quit pestering her about her schoolwork. On top of everything is the forecast of a tornado that is on its way and likely to destroy any chance of finding any clues concerning Daisy’s disappearance.
“Kennedy’s heartbreaking debut novel captures the warped and isolated landscape of today’s American Midwest,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor, adding later in the same review: “Kennedy’s superb chorus leaves an indelible impression.” Melissa Lockaby, writing for Xpress Reviews, noted that Tornado Weather is primarily “about living in a community where neighbors are strangers and secrets really aren’t secret.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, June, 2017, Kathy Sexton, review of Tornado Weather, p. 56.
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2017, review of Tornado Weather.
Publishers Weekly, May 29, 2017, review of Tornado Weather, p. 40.
Xpress Reviews, June 30, 2017, Melissa Lockaby, review of Tornado Weather.
ONLINE
Deborah E. Kennedy website, https://deborahekennedy.com (April 13, 2018).
DEBORAH E. KENNEDY
Deborah E. Kennedy
Beth Behler
Deborah E. Kennedy is a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana and a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Kennedy has worked as both a reporter and editor, and also holds a Master's in Fiction Writing and English Literature from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Tornado Weather is her debut novel.
About
Deborah E. Kennedy is a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana and a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her writing has appeared in Salon, Sou’wester, Third Coast Magazine, and The North American Review. Deborah has worked as a reporter, teacher, and editor, as well as a cookie packer, ice cream scooper, and children’s basesball coach. She also holds a Master’s in Fiction Writing and English literature from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She currently lives in Forest Grove, Oregon with her mother and young son. Tornado Weather is her debut.
Tornado Weather
Kathy Sexton
Booklist.
113.19-20 (June 2017): p56.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Tornado Weather. By Deborah E. Kennedy. July 2017. 320p. Flatiron, $24.99 (9781250079572); e-book
(9781250079589).
Kennedy's moving debut novel, about people living in small-town Indiana, reads like interconnected short
stories as each chapter is told from a different character's perspective. The loose plot concerns a young girl
who has gone missing, but the bigger story is of the town itself: a place where political issues play out on a
personal stage. Longtime residents have lost their jobs to immigrants who are paid a pittance and forced to
live in squalor. A teenage boy is in the midst of transitioning, while a local pastor shows films like Praying
the Gay Away. Most characters are just trying to find their place in the world. Kennedy's writing is very
good, and her dialogue rings true and keeps the stories moving. Though a pat ending loses some of the
nuance found in the rest of the book, Kennedy has painted a distinctive picture of a Midwestern blue-collar
town that will remind readers of Richard Russo's work. Fans of Did You Ever Have a Family (2015), by
Bill Clegg, will also find much to admire.--Kathy Sexton
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Sexton, Kathy. "Tornado Weather." Booklist, June 2017, p. 56. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A498582708/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=dde4d9a5.
Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498582708
3/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1521919879200 2/4
Kennedy, Deborah E.: TORNADO
WEATHER
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Kennedy, Deborah E. TORNADO WEATHER Flatiron Books (Adult Fiction) $24.99 7, 11 ISBN: 978-1-
250-07957-2
Class, race, and natural disaster collide in this first novel.Five-year-old Daisy Gonzalez has gone missing.
Her disappearance is a crisis for her father and a problem for the police. For just about everyone else in
Colliersville, Indiana, it's a symbol of the town's decline. Although the question of what has happened to
Daisy serves as a catalyst and a unifying conundrum, this is not a typical mystery novel. Instead, it reads
more like a collection of connected short stories. Gordy is a journalist who's gone undercover to investigate
conditions at the Yoder Dairy. That business itself is a flashpoint for conflicts both public and private.
Helman Yoder's decision to expand operations and replace local workers with Mexican migrants has
aggravated racial tensions in the community and given Colliersville's militia movement--all two members--
a renewed sense of purpose. It's also exacerbated Helman's wife Birdy's reliance on prescription painkillers.
Renee Seaver doesn't necessarily have anything against Mexicans, but she's happy to use her father's
antipathy if it will get Mr. Gonzalez--her math teacher, her history teacher, and Daisy's father--off her back.
Benny Bradenton is Renee's connection to the other side of Colliersville, where the (relatively) rich kids
live. And then there's the storm....As Kennedy takes readers from the trailer park to the McMansions, from
the laundromat to the psych ward, she brings this flailing Midwestern town to life. She creates a rich chorus
of distinct and authentic voices. The sheer volume of characters becomes overwhelming, though, and not
every character is fully developed. Wally--or Willa--Yoder is particularly problematic. It would not be
surprising if the people of Colliersville had difficulty adjusting to a transitioning transgender teen, but it
feels like the novel itself doesn't know quite what to do with this kid, and this confusion comes off as
skepticism. A larger difficulty is that Daisy's disappearance starts to feel inessential and inconsequential--a
self-indulgent hook rather than a necessary part of the narrative. The final chapter only reinforces this sense.
A cacophonous debut.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Kennedy, Deborah E.: TORNADO WEATHER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A493329340/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cdcd2849.
Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A493329340
3/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1521919879200 3/4
Tornado Weather
Publishers Weekly.
264.22 (May 29, 2017): p40.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Tornado Weather
Deborah Kennedy. Flatiron, $24.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-250-07957-2
Kennedy's heartbreaking debut novel captures the warped and isolated landscape of today's American
Midwest. Narrated by myriad characters whose voices swirl into a vortex that becomes, literally, a tornado,
the story hangs ever so loosely on the disappearance of Daisy Gonzalez, daughter of a local schoolteacher in
Colliersville, Ind., who was disabled in the hit-and-run that killed her mother three years prior. The owner
of a dairy farm nearby has replaced all his workers with Mexican laborers, and tensions in the community
run high. Colliersville has only one policeman, but many others in town feel responsible for the missing
girl, and a search ensues. Hector, Daisy's devastated father, cannot teach, nor eat, nor fathom what has
happened. Fikus, the bus driver who left Daisy alone on the street the day she disappeared, convinces his
old workmate, Irv, a hermit roadkill collector, to help him search for clues. Wally, adult child of the dairy
farm owner who works at the local hair salon and wants to be called Willa, has an opinion about Daisy's
disappearance, but Trevor, who talks to animals, knows better. Though this story is hung on a child gone
missing and a tornado on the horizon, the focus is the flawed folks who people it. The author is a fine
mimic, inhabiting her characters in such a way that we know them from the inside out. The denouement,
coming as it does from a surreal, bird's-eye view, is very strange indeed. Kennedy's superb chorus leaves an
indelible impression. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Tornado Weather." Publishers Weekly, 29 May 2017, p. 40. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A494500684/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=fdce355b.
Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A494500684
3/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1521919879200 4/4
Kennedy, Deborah E. Tornado Weather
Melissa Lockaby
Xpress Reviews.
(June 30, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Full Text:
Kennedy, Deborah E. Tornado Weather. Flatiron: Macmillan. Jul. 2017. 320p. ISBN 9781250079572.
$24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250079589. F
[DEBUT] In the small Indiana town of Colliersville, where residents struggle to make a living and
prejudices still exist, five-year-old Daisy Gonzalez goes missing, and everyone has a theory as to what
happened to her. Her father blames himself for not meeting her at the bus stop. Her friend blames himself
for not following her home. Many believe the Seavers, the bad seeds of the town, are responsible. It could
be that Colliersville's only policeman is right: the accident that killed Daisy's mother and left Daisy in a
wheelchair is related to the girl's disappearance. The tornado forecast is not the only threat to finding the
child; it is also the perfect storm that promises to uncover bad feelings and long-held misconceptions held
by the town's inhabitants.
Verdict Less about the mystery of Daisy's vanishing and more about living in a community where neighbors
are strangers and secrets really aren't secret, Kennedy's debut novel is perfect for readers of Liane Moriarty,
Lauren Groff, and Jojo Moyes. --Melissa Lockaby, Univ. of North Georgia Libs., Dahlonega
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Lockaby, Melissa. "Kennedy, Deborah E. Tornado Weather." Xpress Reviews, 30 June 2017. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A500135136/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7fa61a7a. Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A500135136