Witless

Affairs of the heart, murder, suicide, riot, gossip, politics, heroism, cowardice--Witless bubbles over with the passionate extremes of life. Two peoples settle in Britts Mill, a small town in Southern Wisconsin, in the middle of the nineteenth century. The first are fun loving, free-spirited people who build the town’s dance hall and saloon. They love, they dance, they play cards, they pull off pranks, they build their dreams. The second are the congregation of the Church of the Bridge. They pursue austerity in this world and hope for paradise in the next. Hubert Dartmouth, founder of the Church, is struck by lightning, survives, and commits his life to censuring worldly pleasure. His son and grandson each take the leadership of the Church, when their times come, and pursue the same end. The conflict between these cultures begins as inconsequential friction but grows over a half a century to erupt into an explosive conclusion.

Set against this background is the love story of Arthur Woodaepfel and Anna Baird-Langdon. He is a teacher, determined to provide his students a wide range of life-enriching experiences. She is a dancer, the wife of a farmer, and his co-conspirator. They share a passion for progressive education first, then find in the isolation this imposes a devotion to each other. Their bond is inevitable, and inevitably leads to catastrophe.

Witless is, first of all, an engaging story; one that sweeps you forward from situation to situation with humor and energy. Underneath that story is a thoughtful exploration of the consequences that must follow when divergent cultures fail to find compromise.