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Montana 1948 (1993)
Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 175 pages, $17.95 hardcover , ISBN
0-915943-13-1
This is a small novel (the hardcover edition is only about the size of a trade paperback), but it packs a big punch. Told 40 years after the fact, the novel is the story of what happened the summer when the narrator, David Hayden, was 12 years old.
David and his parents, Wesley and Gail, lived in Bentrock, Montana, which David describes as "hard country—the land is dry and sparse and the wind never stops blowing. The heat and thunderstorms in summer can be brutal, and the winters are legendary for the fierceness of their blizzards and the depths to which temperatures drop" (p. 15). Although educated as a lawyer, in 1948 Wesley was the sheriff of Mercer County. Wesley's own father, Julian, held that position for many years but insisted that his son take over the job when he himself became too old. Of his grandfather David says, "He wanted, he needed, power. He was a dominating man who drew sustenance and strength from controlling others" (p. 20).
Wesley's brother Frank, a physician, also lived in Bentrock. An old knee injury kept Wesley out of the service during World War II, but Frank entered the service and returned home a war hero.
Because David's mother, Gail, worked at the courthouse, the family employed Marie Little Soldier, a Native American woman, as housekeeper. When Marie becomes sick, Gail calls Frank to examine her. But Marie refuses to let Frank near her unless Gail is in the room. Later, Marie tells Gail that Frank routinely abuses the Native American girls and women when examining them. Gail tells Wesley, who initially doesn't want to hear about the situation. But after Wes does some investigating, he decides that he has to arrest Frank.
The rest of the novel details the bitterness and rivalry caused by Wesley's arrest of Frank. As David witnesses the results of his father's action, he begins to learn about power struggles, family jealousy, small-town politics and ethics, justice, and courage. An additional minor, but unmistakable, theme is the white man's attitude toward Native Americans.
But the novel leaves many questions unanswered. "He's guilty as sin, Gail. He told me as much" (p. 149), Wesley tells his wife. The confrontation between Wesley and Frank is actually the crux of the story, yet the reader doesn't get to see this meeting or hear this discussion. Perhaps Watson is being true to his narrative structure here: since David is telling the story, he can only relate what he himself saw or heard. However, Watson has earlier been imaginative enough to allow us to overhear a conversation between Wesley and his father by having David listen through the heating vent. By failing to allow David to see or overhear what Frank and Wesley say to each other, Watson keeps the true significance of the story's action from both David and the reader.
Despite this flaw, Montana 1948 is a powerful novel of a boy's coming of age and his initiation to life's harsh realities.
Justice (1995)
Milkweed Editions, 226 pages, $17.95 hardcover, ISBN 1-57131-002-9
The prequel to Montana 1948, Justice fills in the background of many of the characters who appear in the later book. In several stories covering the time period of 1899 to 1937, we learn of the backgrounds and relationships of the people who play crucial roles in what happens in Montana 1948. But although the information we gain from reading Justice fills in some gaps in the later story, that information does not compensate for the major flaw of Montana 1948, which is that the author avoids showing the confrontation between brothers Wesley and Frank Hayden.
The significance of Justice lies mainly in its relationship to Montana 1948. I doubt if many would find this book valuable purely on its own. And I wish that Larry Watson had gotten to know his characters this well before he wrote the later work.
In a Dark Time (1980)
Charles Scribner's Sons, 240 pages, $8.95 hardcover, ISBN 0-684-16285-7
Written in the form of a journal, In a Dark Time relates the story of Peter, a young teacher at Wanekia (Minnesota) High School. Someone is strangling women students at the school, and Peter begins his journal on the day in April 1973 when the third body is discovered in the third-floor boys' lavatory.
Peter, a shy, sensitive, introspective English teacher, keeps the journal because he wants to understand what is happening in his small community.
I think I, as much as anyone, want to know who the murderer is. But I want to know more than his identity. I want to know why. I would like to be able to look into his eyes and see what is there, to see how that person is different, how he came to the point in his life when he began, for what reason, to strangle young girls to death.(p. 13)
Everyone in the town is affected, and as the murders continue unsolved people become suspicious of one another. Everyone starts looking for some clue, some small sign by which the murderer might give himself away:
Now then, if I am considering people as possible killers because of the way they look, are not others doing the same? Might they not scrutinize my appearance as well? And make judgments accordingly? Therefore I groom myself carefully (but not too carefully—I don't want to appear obsessive about this).(p. 60)
"For every odd or unusual action there is a pair of eyes to notice it. (And since no one's life is any longer as natural or as usual as it was before the murders began, there is much to notice.)" (p. 97).
Peter is amazed to discover that he, along with everyone else, seems to feel ambivalent about violence: wanting it to stop, but enjoying the notoriety they gain by being associated with it.
Once the murderer is identified and the school year ends, Peter decides he can no longer remain in Wanekia or continue to teach. He thinks he'll set out for California in search of a fellow teacher, the beautiful Alexandra, who has fled to her brother's house there.
Among my many reasons for going there is my eagerness to see the ocean . . . Of course, fascination with the sea is a condition that is ageless and well documented. In Whitman, for instance, the sea is a symbol of both life and death. But since I don't intend to continue teaching, I no longer have any use for symbols.As he does in his later novel, Montana 1948, here in his first novel Watson also uses symbols and images to suggest the significance of events for his characters. The problem with this approach, though, it that it only probes at meaning. In Montana 1948 Watson avoids presenting the final confrontation between two brothers that would clarify the novel's meaning for both the narrator and the reader. Peter, the narrator of In a Dark Time, also avoids specifying the lessons he has learned by using images and symbols to talk around them. Is it Peter or Larry Watson who is unable or unwilling to articulate the novel's significance?Even before the ocean comes into view, you can hear it. The sound of it, like someone breathing in your ear, is at first subtle, and you can never be certain when you began hearing it. As you move closer, the sound becomes more distinct, as if you threw open the doors of an auditorium and released the noise of a crowd, hundreds of people, all cheering wildly in one great voice.
(p. 240)
Another novel on a similar theme: The Church of Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns
Search Notes in the Margin |
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