RM staff
Earlier this fall, Dale Moll had his first book, “Only the Grass Suffers,” published.
The basis for the setting is Perryville, itself, the author pointed out.
The title is from the old African saying, "When two bulls fight, only the grass
suffers." The idea is that when two adversaries battle, it is usually other
people around them who suffer more than the combatants.
The book took 11 months to write between 2018 and 2019.
“Then, I let the story age to see if I would still like it,” Moll noted. “Of course, 2020 was a crazy year, and there were some revisions to be made.”
Moll graduated from St. Vincent in 1968. After teaching English and film study for five
years in St. Louis County, Dale and his wife moved back to Perryville from 1978-1992.
Moll was asked about his writing background.
“I always wanted to try to write something of value like a full-length novel,” Moll said. “It was a lot of fun and miserably hard at the same time. My initial concern was whether an original story could be sustained to justify a lengthy book.
The new book is adult literary fiction.
“I guess you could call it a family drama in which two adversaries affect the lives of two different families,” Moll said. “There is a subplot to reinforce the novel's theme.”
