I wanted to like this novel more
than I did. For its length (464 pages), it promises somewhat more than it
delivers. I had the same reaction to the author’s The Last Crossing (reviewed here a while ago). There are a lot of
ideas and food for thought in this novel about character, friendship, responsibility,
Native Americans, the frontier, and U.S.-Canadian relations. But in the end
it’s hard to say what it all adds up to. You can puzzle if you like over the
title. Who among the novel’s male characters is the “good man”? Is there one at
all?
Set in the late 1870s, partly in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan where
Fort Walsh was headquarters for the North-West Mounted Police; but mostly in
the frontier settlement of Fort Benton, Montana, on the upper Missouri River, the
action takes place in the aftermath of Custer’s defeat at the Little Bighorn
and settlers of the sparsely populated prairie live in terror of the Sioux and
other tribes who seem to be organizing under the leadership of Sitting Bull to rid
the West of whites altogether.
Police, Fort Walsh, 1878 |
Characters. We meet four
characters whose lives and fortunes become the central focus of the novel. Three
are men: Major Walsh, the commanding officer of the NWMP at Fort Walsh; Wesley
Case, a former Mountie, who has left the Force to take up ranching near Fort Benton;
and Michael Dunne, an informant and thug-for-hire, who works in the interest of
Fenian-Irish efforts to gain independence from Britain.
The fourth character is Ada Tarr, an independent-minded widow in whom both Case
and Dunne take a romantic interest. Each of the two men has a shadowy past reaching
back to the Battle of Ridgeway in 1866 when armed Irish-Americans invaded
Ontario and successfully engaged Canadian troops. This rocky episode of
Canadian-U.S. relations is reflected in the frontier
West in the cross-border disturbance caused by Sitting Bull’s flight to Canada for
protection from the U.S. Army.
Chief Sitting Bull |
There, as refugees, the Sioux seek sanctuary in Queen Victoria’s North
American dominion and receive a mixed welcome. The Canadian government is not interested
in making their stay more than temporary and declines to provide them with food
and shelter, an obligation Canada sees as rightly belonging to the U.S. The
Americans, meanwhile, are glad to have the Indians off their hands.
Plot. Against this
backdrop of international relations, we get the personal stories of the four
central characters. Michael Dunne is hired as a bodyguard for Ada Tarr, whose
lawyer husband believes himself threatened by an unhappy former client.
Her polite
kindness to Dunne leads him to fantasize about her as a soul mate, destined,
when her husband dies, to be his bride. Fierce is his chagrin when he learns
that she has fallen in love with Case instead. In the case of Major Walsh, there’s
another meeting of hearts as he becomes enamored of the charismatic Sitting Bull
(who gets my vote for the “good man” of the book’s title).
Battle of Ridgeway |
Storytelling. You launch
into such a fat novel hoping the story it has to tell will keep you turning
pages, and though Vanderhaeghe’s objective is more in the way of literary than genre
fiction, the novel does not stint on stories.
Most of them are back stories
sometimes arranged along a long, disjointed narrative thread, as when
Vanderhaeghe parcels out fragments of a story about Case and an acquaintance
from school days, a domineering and feckless coward, Pudge Wilson, who casts a
dark shadow over the novel long before we learn the reason why.
Wrapping up. Readers of
historical fiction will appreciate how Vanderhaeghe brings to life the frontier
world his characters inhabit. The imagery used to depict Fort Benton is raw and
unforgettable. You also appreciate how effectively historical figures are
introduced into the novel’s fictionalized accounts of actual events.
The narrative wears thin, however, in the final chapters, where
Vanderhaeghe falls back on familiar conventions to whip some excitement into a
climax that seems to go flat for lack of imagination. Beginnings are easy;
endings are hard, I know. But this one seems hurried and flat. It leaves you
wishing for something less pat and more conclusive—like who is supposed to be
the “good man” of the title.
A Good Man is currently
available in print, audio, and ebook formats at amazon, Barnes&Noble, and
AbeBooks. For more of Friday’s Forgotten Books, click on over to Patti Abbott’sblog.
Blowing my own
horn: For an in-depth, two-volume survey of early writers of frontier fiction,
read How the West Was Written (to obtain a copy, click here).
Further
reading/viewing:
Image credits:
Wikimedia Commons
Coming up: Luke Allan, Blue Peter: “Half-Breed”
I think I'll pas this one up, although it should be interesting with all the main characters just to see how it shakes out. But you've already told me that and it is quite long.
ReplyDeleteForgot to add that I like the cover.
ReplyDeleteI have seven books by Guy Vanderhaeghe, but this isn't one of them. It does sound like I'll be disappointed - I tend to prefer the novels he's set in our own time - but I am intrigued by the Fenian element. So few novels have touched upon the Fenian Raids. I know of only one, Robert Barr's The the Midst of Alarms (1894), that features one of the battles (the Battle of Ridgeway). Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Ron.
ReplyDeleteApologies, that should be In the Midst of Alarms. Don't know how that happened.
ReplyDeleteWorry thee not.
DeleteHave not read any of his works, this sounds both interesting and disappointing. When a novel starts to get me looking for something else to read I normally give up, especially at near 500 pages
ReplyDeleteHow long does it take you to read a book this long, Ron? Do you skim a lot because you're reading it to review rather than to bury yourself in? I'm not criticizing - just curious. You review so many books for us, I really would like to know what your methodology is. I do appreciate your reviews.
ReplyDeleteI read a book word for word and almost never skim (seems only fair to the writer),usually breaking it up into segments of 50-100 pages.
DeleteHave heard of this author's work but haven't had the pleasure to read yet though it sounds like I shouldn't start with this one.
ReplyDeleteI tell you. These days, with all I need and want to read, I can get pretty frustrated if a longggg book doesn't pay off pretty high.
ReplyDeleteI always appreciate the honesty of your reviews, Ron. Today, I received my copy OF HOW THE WEST WAS WRITTEN #2 and know I have a treat in store. Thanks for all you contribute to western writing.
ReplyDeleteArletta
You launch into such a fat novel hoping the story it has to tell will keep you turning pages
ReplyDeleteAgreed. So many long books just drag the story along.
Ron, I have not read frontier fiction, or even historical fiction, set in Canada or anywhere close to the Canadian border and this book, I think, provides an insight into how the Americans and Canadians dealt with Native Americans among other issues.
ReplyDeleteInsightful as ever, Ron. For long books that deliver, you can't better Ken Follett's 'The Pillars of the Earth' and ''World Without End'
ReplyDeleteagree, just finished his 'The Pillars of the Earth"; haven't read the other one but realize neither are Westerns and also realize it doesn't matter any more to him, but just agreeing with Nik, for anybody else
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