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Hammon Falls
When George Hammon's teenaged wife dies inchildbirth in 1914, he flees small-town Iowa forEurope and the horrors of the Great War. Survivingbattles, homelessness, and disease, he squandershis days on women and wine, trying to forget hislost love.But life is not idle in Iowa during his absence, andwhen a bitter and weary George comes hometwenty-two years later, he finds a web of murder,suicide, and shocking revelations.The future of his family rests on one terriblechoice...but is he prepared to make it?Spanning the years 1893 through 2009, "HammonFalls" weaves a tapestry of estrangement, loss,love, sacrifice, and redemption.
358 pages, Paperback
First published June 21, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 29, 2012
In a just and perfect world, this book would have made international best-seller-dom, and rot like Fall of Giants would fade away into obscurity, freeing thousands of readers to dedicate their time to more worthwhile endeavors. Don't let the independent publisher cover fool you, this is not a vanity press, and, in fact, is not a blundering first-time-author foray into seeing their names in print. This is an amazingly fleshed-out, sophisticated, thoroughly researched, and well-constructed novel that I would recommend even if I didn't have a sympathetic leaning for it's Iowa story. It's an epic tale of a tragic family, ranging from rural township of 1913 to post-flood Iowa of 2008. Co-written by UNI associate librarian David Hoing, the story is a fictionalization of co-author Hileman's intriguing ancestor, a young bride of seventeen who died at childbirth in 1913. The story is complex, the characters grow and develop from page to page, and no one is black and white. The authors tell the story skillfully, not drowning you in unnecessary detail, but giving a full, lush picture with every scene. History is woven seamlessly to plot.
With full disclosure, I will tell you that I did not expect to like this. It's a prison book group pick, and the authors will actually be visiting us on the inside tomorrow. I thought it would be a dreary Iowa nostalgia piece, published out of regional loyalty. Not so. This is the real thing. How to get Random House or S&S to notice?
With full disclosure, I will tell you that I did not expect to like this. It's a prison book group pick, and the authors will actually be visiting us on the inside tomorrow. I thought it would be a dreary Iowa nostalgia piece, published out of regional loyalty. Not so. This is the real thing. How to get Random House or S&S to notice?
October 10, 2010
Love, loss, tragedy, betrayal, the horrors of war and much more you will find in Hammon Falls, an epic American saga spanning over 115 years from the 1890’s to the present day.
Roger Hileman wrote a screenplay based on his ancestors, Lester Hileman and Cora Felton and the birth of their child. Roger, together with long time friend, Dave Hoing, has turned the play into an impressive and memorable work of historical fiction.
We meet Margaret Hammon, widowed when her husband, G.W. Hammon, was killed in the Spanish-American war in 1898. G.W. was the most prominent citizen in Johnson’s Landing, a small Iowa town renamed Hammon Falls in his honor after the war. Margaret, now a wealthy recluse, raises their only child George alone. As a teenager in 1914, George had everything he could want except for a father and his mother’s affection. He takes a job below his social status as a laborer at a stable.
Cora Curtis is the only daughter of widower Orville “Luka” Curtis, a boxer, beer distributor, and gangster in the making. Luka, an established playboy, had his eye on Margaret’s money and property. But, the aloof and religious Margaret had no time for the vulgar Orville. It was only a matter of time before the offspring of the area’s two richest families would get together. The blossoming teen romance of George and Cora would end abruptly with a tragic birth and George running away to war torn Europe.
William Hammon would grow up with nothing more from his father than a battlefield photograph from 1915, taken at the height of the Great War in Belgium. George would stay in Europe for two decades after WWI, through the Spanish Flu pandemic, heartbreak and a battle with alcohol in the slums of Paris and Ireland.
The story unfolds out of sequence with chapters named after the main character, with the setting and year named such as Will, Waterton Iowa, 2009, or George Ypres Belgium 1915. Many storylines such as George’s short time with Cora, Luka’s rise in organized crime, and William as a teen, are explored to completion for a wonderful ending that leaves no loose ends. Plenty of conflict, surprises, and drama exist to keep the pages turning and I finished the book much sooner than expected.
Readers who haven’t previously been fans of historical fiction will be after reading this book. Those who enjoy this genre are in for a treat as Hammon Falls delivers with an intriguing story, interesting and believable characters, and dialogue authentic to the mid-west. The authors have thoroughly researched the settings and represented time periods. The character development is amazing throughout and I could fully imagine even secondary characters. The prose has a lyrical quality that is a joy to read. At the end I found myself not ready to let this story go—wishing I could continue to immerse myself in just a few more pages. The cover suggests the book is self published; however, Hammon Falls was published by a royalty paying, traditional press and has been quality edited and formatted.
Roger Hileman wrote a screenplay based on his ancestors, Lester Hileman and Cora Felton and the birth of their child. Roger, together with long time friend, Dave Hoing, has turned the play into an impressive and memorable work of historical fiction.
We meet Margaret Hammon, widowed when her husband, G.W. Hammon, was killed in the Spanish-American war in 1898. G.W. was the most prominent citizen in Johnson’s Landing, a small Iowa town renamed Hammon Falls in his honor after the war. Margaret, now a wealthy recluse, raises their only child George alone. As a teenager in 1914, George had everything he could want except for a father and his mother’s affection. He takes a job below his social status as a laborer at a stable.
Cora Curtis is the only daughter of widower Orville “Luka” Curtis, a boxer, beer distributor, and gangster in the making. Luka, an established playboy, had his eye on Margaret’s money and property. But, the aloof and religious Margaret had no time for the vulgar Orville. It was only a matter of time before the offspring of the area’s two richest families would get together. The blossoming teen romance of George and Cora would end abruptly with a tragic birth and George running away to war torn Europe.
William Hammon would grow up with nothing more from his father than a battlefield photograph from 1915, taken at the height of the Great War in Belgium. George would stay in Europe for two decades after WWI, through the Spanish Flu pandemic, heartbreak and a battle with alcohol in the slums of Paris and Ireland.
The story unfolds out of sequence with chapters named after the main character, with the setting and year named such as Will, Waterton Iowa, 2009, or George Ypres Belgium 1915. Many storylines such as George’s short time with Cora, Luka’s rise in organized crime, and William as a teen, are explored to completion for a wonderful ending that leaves no loose ends. Plenty of conflict, surprises, and drama exist to keep the pages turning and I finished the book much sooner than expected.
Readers who haven’t previously been fans of historical fiction will be after reading this book. Those who enjoy this genre are in for a treat as Hammon Falls delivers with an intriguing story, interesting and believable characters, and dialogue authentic to the mid-west. The authors have thoroughly researched the settings and represented time periods. The character development is amazing throughout and I could fully imagine even secondary characters. The prose has a lyrical quality that is a joy to read. At the end I found myself not ready to let this story go—wishing I could continue to immerse myself in just a few more pages. The cover suggests the book is self published; however, Hammon Falls was published by a royalty paying, traditional press and has been quality edited and formatted.
December 1, 2011
As far as I’m concerned, there can be no acceptable explanation as to why the dynamic Dave Hoing/Roger Hileman duo has not yet attained bestseller status. Hammon Falls has it all: vivid description, a riveting plot, complex characters and relationships, literary depth, and more.
Spanning the years 1893 through 2009, Hammon Falls takes its readers on a journey through multiple settings, points of view, and time periods, with every scene, every emotion, and every action described in beautiful prose that sparkles but is never overwrought. Hoing and Hileman are musicians as well as authors, a fact that can be seen in the following passage, where their language both appreciates music and creates it:
Slowly the music changed from a bright major key to a slow
minor one. It grew so soft it might have been inaudible
but for the utter silence in the hall. Winter had arrived
in the notes, winter and a bitter, frightening train ride,
winter and illness, winter and blood, winter and despair
in a strange city. Winter, and spring would never come
again.(279)
In addition to their skill with lyricism, Hoing and Hileman are also masters of clear, direct prose, seamlessly shifting from lyricism to plain language and back again, as the scenes themselves dictate.
Because the chapters alternate among an interwoven group of plots and subplots, each told from a different character’s perspective, the narration expertly delays action and winds tension more and more tightly until the reader is absolutely driven to know what happens next. I yearned so many times to skip ahead, yet I never did because I was so engrossed in the current chapter that I couldn’t stand to leave it. Each perspective affected me this way equally, with individual storylines reminding me of such great literary works as Oedipus Rex, Sister Carrie,, and A Raisin in the Sun.
The characters of Hammon Falls, as well as the plot lines, recall these great works in that they are so complexly human that even as we see them battling against each other, we wish that they all, somehow, could win. We grow to know them like family, and when we know a character that well, we can’t help but empathize with them, even when we think they are wrong.
Any one of these aspects—from the brilliant characterization to the engrossing plot to the literary yet accessible style—would be enough for me to rate this book five stars. All together, they create a work that I suspect will be award-winning and, at some point, bestselling.
Spanning the years 1893 through 2009, Hammon Falls takes its readers on a journey through multiple settings, points of view, and time periods, with every scene, every emotion, and every action described in beautiful prose that sparkles but is never overwrought. Hoing and Hileman are musicians as well as authors, a fact that can be seen in the following passage, where their language both appreciates music and creates it:
Slowly the music changed from a bright major key to a slow
minor one. It grew so soft it might have been inaudible
but for the utter silence in the hall. Winter had arrived
in the notes, winter and a bitter, frightening train ride,
winter and illness, winter and blood, winter and despair
in a strange city. Winter, and spring would never come
again.(279)
In addition to their skill with lyricism, Hoing and Hileman are also masters of clear, direct prose, seamlessly shifting from lyricism to plain language and back again, as the scenes themselves dictate.
Because the chapters alternate among an interwoven group of plots and subplots, each told from a different character’s perspective, the narration expertly delays action and winds tension more and more tightly until the reader is absolutely driven to know what happens next. I yearned so many times to skip ahead, yet I never did because I was so engrossed in the current chapter that I couldn’t stand to leave it. Each perspective affected me this way equally, with individual storylines reminding me of such great literary works as Oedipus Rex, Sister Carrie,, and A Raisin in the Sun.
The characters of Hammon Falls, as well as the plot lines, recall these great works in that they are so complexly human that even as we see them battling against each other, we wish that they all, somehow, could win. We grow to know them like family, and when we know a character that well, we can’t help but empathize with them, even when we think they are wrong.
Any one of these aspects—from the brilliant characterization to the engrossing plot to the literary yet accessible style—would be enough for me to rate this book five stars. All together, they create a work that I suspect will be award-winning and, at some point, bestselling.
March 21, 2012
Do a search in the Kindle store for books with the title “sins of the father.” The idea that a bad decision can snowball through multiple generations is at least as old as the bible and is the basis of many stories. It is such a popular premise because it works well in illustrating consequences. "Hammon Falls" is epic in scope, stretching seventy years and two continents.
Hoing and Hileman spin a good yarn. I’m sure someone could point out imperfections somewhere, but they’re going to have to get nitpicky to find them. The characters are real, with imperfections, some minor and others serious. The small town atmosphere and the changes over time in both the characters and the world around them all ring true. "Hammon Falls" is a classic tale, done well.
**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy. **
Hoing and Hileman spin a good yarn. I’m sure someone could point out imperfections somewhere, but they’re going to have to get nitpicky to find them. The characters are real, with imperfections, some minor and others serious. The small town atmosphere and the changes over time in both the characters and the world around them all ring true. "Hammon Falls" is a classic tale, done well.
**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy. **
November 22, 2011
More than a novel. Beautifully written, painfully true.
Every family has a story to tell, but few ever tell it. We look with fascination at the remains of a life in an old scrapbook. Who is that pretty brunette with bobbed hair, dressed in white, staring back at us from a sepia print?
Roger Hileman stared back. And wondered. With nothing more than a few newspaper clippings, some grainy photos, and a letter, he wrote a screenplay and showed it to his lifelong buddy Dave Hoing. Together Hoing and Hileman transformed an obscure 20th-century girl's short life into a novel that is compelling and unforgettable.
Most of the novel is fiction, and the real-life story doesn't take long to summarize. Cora Felton "had to" marry Lester Hileman; their infant son was born infected, disfigured and not breathing; Lester left the boy in his mother's care; the child grew up, married, raised four sons of his own and lived a normal life, like anyone. Unlike everyone else, though, Lester's story piqued the interest of two men who know how to write.
The main plot of Hammon Falls unfolds during WWI with a young man, his socially prominent, controlling mother, and a seedy boxer whose only child loses her innocence to the young man and ultimately dies in childbirth. The novel ends in the 21st century with an old man trying to grasp how the sins of our fathers¬--and mothers---determine our lives, down the generations.
Dave Hoing's famously beautiful prose captures the timeless poignancy and elegance of a forever-young grandma. I love the Gaelic phrase he composed for the dedication page:
Ta se ag cuir baisteach, Cora, Ach ta tu go halainn
(It is raining, Cora, But you are beautiful)
His writing is so poetic and beautiful, I have to stop and re-read at times to luxuriate in his words.
The novel opens with an old man gazing into his father's eyes in the haunting way we peer at old photos of ancestors we never met:
*Yellowed and tattered behind the glass, the picture had hung in the bedroom of every house he had ever owned. In it a teenaged boy ... stood alone on a vast scarred plain, layers of clouds stopped mid-swirl by the camera's lens. The boy's (uniform) rippled in long-silent wind...His face was slightly out of focus, as if a sudden small movement blurred the image. Only one eye, the right one, was clearly defined. Even squinting against the wind, it captured light in a way that made the whole photograph revolve around it, a whirlpool of gray spiraling into, or out of, a single bright point. In that eye Will saw the sum of the teeenager's life. Although there was much more to come, his tale was already one of surprise, and sadness, and fear.
Handwritten on the bottom of the picture were the words, 'Ypres, 1915,' the year Will turned one.
For the thousandth time, the ten-thousandth, the millionth, Will studied the solder in the photograph. It was his father George at nineteen.*
From here, we are swept to blood-soaked Ypres, to post-pandemic Paris, to newly liberated Ireland, and back to Iowa. We meet mobsters, socialites, and soldiers, a wise black stable hand, a spiritual Irish lady, and a heartbroken alcoholic. We see one family's heirloom cross time and distance to become another family's treasure. We see a doomed romance that is agonizing and searingly real.
Hammon Falls is well crafted, depicting multiple points of view, settings and time periods, and enriched by imagery that defines each character's story arc: Life and death, light and dark, water and wind.
Although we know from page one how some of the novel's storylines must end, we are compelled to watch as the characters play out their parts, inexorably. However, the authors are sly enough to hold back a few surprises for us, and those ultimately turn tragedy to triumph.
Finally, Hammon Falls offers a bonus most novels don't: photographs. We get to see the portrait of the haunting girl in white who inspired this novel. We see her young husband Lester, fictionalized as George Hammon. We see snapshots of Lester and his son as old men, but Cora is frozen in time at seventeen. It sounds like a riddle: what kind of grandma never grows wrinkled and gray? The answer evokes tears, not laughter.
Hammon Falls is an American epic of a fallen family and a post-WWI nation, of innocence lost, responsibilities shirked, and a timeless search for who we are, what our grandparents before us were like, and how the choices they made determined who we are.
Every family has a story to tell, but few ever tell it. We look with fascination at the remains of a life in an old scrapbook. Who is that pretty brunette with bobbed hair, dressed in white, staring back at us from a sepia print?
Roger Hileman stared back. And wondered. With nothing more than a few newspaper clippings, some grainy photos, and a letter, he wrote a screenplay and showed it to his lifelong buddy Dave Hoing. Together Hoing and Hileman transformed an obscure 20th-century girl's short life into a novel that is compelling and unforgettable.
Most of the novel is fiction, and the real-life story doesn't take long to summarize. Cora Felton "had to" marry Lester Hileman; their infant son was born infected, disfigured and not breathing; Lester left the boy in his mother's care; the child grew up, married, raised four sons of his own and lived a normal life, like anyone. Unlike everyone else, though, Lester's story piqued the interest of two men who know how to write.
The main plot of Hammon Falls unfolds during WWI with a young man, his socially prominent, controlling mother, and a seedy boxer whose only child loses her innocence to the young man and ultimately dies in childbirth. The novel ends in the 21st century with an old man trying to grasp how the sins of our fathers¬--and mothers---determine our lives, down the generations.
Dave Hoing's famously beautiful prose captures the timeless poignancy and elegance of a forever-young grandma. I love the Gaelic phrase he composed for the dedication page:
Ta se ag cuir baisteach, Cora, Ach ta tu go halainn
(It is raining, Cora, But you are beautiful)
His writing is so poetic and beautiful, I have to stop and re-read at times to luxuriate in his words.
The novel opens with an old man gazing into his father's eyes in the haunting way we peer at old photos of ancestors we never met:
*Yellowed and tattered behind the glass, the picture had hung in the bedroom of every house he had ever owned. In it a teenaged boy ... stood alone on a vast scarred plain, layers of clouds stopped mid-swirl by the camera's lens. The boy's (uniform) rippled in long-silent wind...His face was slightly out of focus, as if a sudden small movement blurred the image. Only one eye, the right one, was clearly defined. Even squinting against the wind, it captured light in a way that made the whole photograph revolve around it, a whirlpool of gray spiraling into, or out of, a single bright point. In that eye Will saw the sum of the teeenager's life. Although there was much more to come, his tale was already one of surprise, and sadness, and fear.
Handwritten on the bottom of the picture were the words, 'Ypres, 1915,' the year Will turned one.
For the thousandth time, the ten-thousandth, the millionth, Will studied the solder in the photograph. It was his father George at nineteen.*
From here, we are swept to blood-soaked Ypres, to post-pandemic Paris, to newly liberated Ireland, and back to Iowa. We meet mobsters, socialites, and soldiers, a wise black stable hand, a spiritual Irish lady, and a heartbroken alcoholic. We see one family's heirloom cross time and distance to become another family's treasure. We see a doomed romance that is agonizing and searingly real.
Hammon Falls is well crafted, depicting multiple points of view, settings and time periods, and enriched by imagery that defines each character's story arc: Life and death, light and dark, water and wind.
Although we know from page one how some of the novel's storylines must end, we are compelled to watch as the characters play out their parts, inexorably. However, the authors are sly enough to hold back a few surprises for us, and those ultimately turn tragedy to triumph.
Finally, Hammon Falls offers a bonus most novels don't: photographs. We get to see the portrait of the haunting girl in white who inspired this novel. We see her young husband Lester, fictionalized as George Hammon. We see snapshots of Lester and his son as old men, but Cora is frozen in time at seventeen. It sounds like a riddle: what kind of grandma never grows wrinkled and gray? The answer evokes tears, not laughter.
Hammon Falls is an American epic of a fallen family and a post-WWI nation, of innocence lost, responsibilities shirked, and a timeless search for who we are, what our grandparents before us were like, and how the choices they made determined who we are.
September 5, 2012
I suggested this book to my book club, because the author is local. As I was reading it, I realized that unless the reader is a native of Waterloo, it will not be a very compelling read. In fact, at the end of the book, there is a brief description of the authors. Mr. Hileman may be a distant relative of Cora Hileman, who was the model for Cora Hammon in the book. Cora Hileman's story was a true one, and I'm left wishing that the book was about that story, instead of the fabricated ones. I know the book is supposed to be fiction, but I was born and raised in Waterloo and see uncanny similarities in one of the characters. I suspect that to protect the identities of several characters, the names were changed. I have to wonder though, why were some of the street names and company names changed, and others not?
As in every other self-published book I've read, there were typos and words missing from sentences, etc.
I applaud authors who get their books published. I just wish they were all as polished as if reading a book published by Random House, for example.
As in every other self-published book I've read, there were typos and words missing from sentences, etc.
I applaud authors who get their books published. I just wish they were all as polished as if reading a book published by Random House, for example.
October 4, 2011
The guys who wrote this book came tonight to do an author visit at the library I work at. It was great. I have to admit I was irritated the first quarter of the book because I was born and raised (and continue to live) in and around the town it fictionally takes place in and didn't love the slight modifications of names of people and places. But by page 90 I was completely hooked and knowing the places enhanced the whole experience for me! The story is amazing and woven in a quite unique way. If you've ever lived in Iowa around Waterloo/Cedar Falls, I think you will enjoy this book!
April 22, 2011
I liked it. Since the authors chose to change the names on streets and businesses, it was fun figuring out what they were really talking about. A little disconcerting at times to jump back and forth in time, but the chapters headings helped quite a bit with that. Some interesting characters, and a good storyline.
April 30, 2021
Loved everything about this book. Great characters and a wonderful storyline.
November 3, 2024
4.5. It took a little getting used to since it wasn’t in chronological order but such a good book.
May 7, 2017
The characters in Hammon Falls will break your heart, make you rejoice in the goodness of human beings, and leave you wanting more. A work, primarily, of fiction, Hoing and Hileman have taken their golden nugget of truth and crafted a stunning piece of literature that makes the reader feel as though they have been granted access to a very private, poignant, priceless family history. This is made all the more real by the authors' use of photographs and short, almost diary-like chapters.
Hammon Falls succeeds 100% in its depiction of time and place; whether that time and place is a present day, elderly man's home, the bloody trenches of WWI, or the early 1900's hometown of a boy and girl. Hoing and Hileman make you want to visit all the locations, whether real or imagined, just to "see where it all happened."
Though we know from the beginning of the book what the ending will be, just as in any family history, nothing is as simple as it seems.
Read this book for the history, read it for the love story, read it for the story of a family, but just be sure to read it.
Hammon Falls succeeds 100% in its depiction of time and place; whether that time and place is a present day, elderly man's home, the bloody trenches of WWI, or the early 1900's hometown of a boy and girl. Hoing and Hileman make you want to visit all the locations, whether real or imagined, just to "see where it all happened."
Though we know from the beginning of the book what the ending will be, just as in any family history, nothing is as simple as it seems.
Read this book for the history, read it for the love story, read it for the story of a family, but just be sure to read it.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews