This is a novel about life in the Central Valley of California.

'...In 'The Cleft Rock', Hobart gives us the Dodd family of California. The book presents four overlapping generations of Dodds, with their husbands and wives, between 1920 and the present (1949)."

"The family has power in the state. Some of them own thousands of acres in The Valley, direct electric companies, make laws governing the ownership of land and allocation of scarce water -- or influence the lawmakers. Even those who have no wealth have influence. The Dodds have divergent views and clashing aims. Strong emotional ties bind the family -- and increase the friction between them...''