present meets the past...

History. I like the idea of a man, an historian, reconstructing his grandparents lives because they seem more interesting than his own and perhaps he would learn something about himself. Comparing the past and present characters is a wonderful device. Sometimes the voice seemed awkward (so here I am judging the wonderful Wallace Stegner but isn't this what blogs are all about?) when Lyman is trying to put words into his grandmother's mouth or imagining what she might be thinking but I guess I got used to it. It stopped bothering me.

Stegner did get in trouble because he based his grandmother's character on a real artist/writer named, Mary Hollock Foote. He was accused of plagiarism. I recently read that he felt he "borrowed" these relatives.

Living in the Old West. This book gives a vivid account of living in the "old west". I read it years ago and the one scene that stayed in my memory is the stage coach ride to the New Almaden mine. For the first time I really thought about how uncomfortable and dirty travel would be. In later parts of the book there is more train travel but even that must have been pretty uncomfortable.

What does it take to succeed in the Old West? I think Oliver is a sympathtic character. So what did it take to suceed? Education, connections, skill or just lots of luck. He has some great ideas, the cement process and the irrigation plan in Idaho. He just doesn't have that luck part.

Mothers doing what is best for the children. I can really appreciate the drama Susan goes through when she has to constantly put her "family" ,the children first in her plans. A job for Oliver in South America is out of the question because she didn't feel safe taking a small child there. A wise decision or not? Who's to know.

Stegner writes about his own life: " By getting scarlet fever, I had balked my father's dream of going to Alaska and digging up the baseball-sized nuggets. Then there was a bad time. You (his mother) left my father , or he you; nobody ever told me. But Cece (his older brother) and I found ourselves in a Seattle orphans' home, put there while you worked at Bon Marche"

Mrs Elliott accuses Susan of running Oliver's life: "Of course you make the decisions. You tell him how his life is to go. If you didn't, you'd be up in the Andes right now." Does she run his life?

The big dream. Oliver has big ideas but they just don't work out. Is it his personality? Ideas before there time. What's going on here? Should he have given up on the Big Ditch long before he's beaten down and drinking too much?

Forgiveness. So will Lyman forgive his wife? Susan and Oliver live in Grass Valley together at the end of their life.

"But he never forgave her." I said. "She broke something she couldn't mend. I all the years I lived with them I never saw them kiss, I never saw them put their arms around each other, I never saw them touch!"

That's really sad.

Western Literature. "and you will find that it is a book not about the place but about motion, not about fulfillment but about desire. There is always a seeking, generally unsatisfied."

That just about sums it up.

WOW! What a great read.

JML