The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 15 August 2007
by Larry Watson
In Bentrock, Montana, there aren't many secrets. The narrator of this short, but intense, novel is the sheriff's son. His uncle is a doctor and his grandfather was the sheriff as well, in his time. They live just across the street from the courthouse. They are the pillars of a community of hardscrabble farmers and ranchers, with a smattering of Native American citizens. In late summer of 1948, David Hayden is just a boy, living through a normal languid summer in remote northeastern Montana. One afternoon, though, his family's live-in Indian sitter, Marie Little Soldier, falls sick with pneumonia. When she vehemently objects to being seen by David's doctor uncle, the summer breaks apart in a fast-moving story of betrayal and tragedy. Somehow, uncle Frank is a threat, and David soon sees the dark underside of a bright country life. David has those childhood skills that entail hearing all that stuff his parents don't want him to hear. He is a deft eavesdropper and manages to witness dark events behind closed doors. What unfolds is a family drama of pain, prejudice, and injustice. David's father must chose between loyalty to his family and the justice he is sworn to uphold. He must navigate a town with a casual prejudice toward the Indians living on the nearby reservation. It is 1948, after all. The story devolves into a tale about our secrets, those we hide from even ourselves. It unveils some of the stories that lie behind the history of any one place or community. The landscape of the novel is skillfully laid out. The place reflects the personalities. David, his parents and his grandfather are the characters most deeply portrayed in this brief novel. It is an unhappy story, shot through with the themes of family and memory. The scenery is vivid, and the tale evocative of a modern version of much earlier archetypal stories of the West.