An Old Fashioned, Feel-Good Horse Opera: "Thunderhead" by Mary O'Hara

Photo by Barbara Besler:  Battle of Wills taken at Keeneland September Sales about 2 years ago.

Sometimes, I enjoy reading a book (fiction or not) that was written, say, 70 or 90 years ago, when the author and readers did not know there was to be a WW2, atom bomb, Vietnam War, Beatles, etc.
Mary O'Hara lived from 1885 to 1980, was married several times. She appears to be a little ahead of her time, but probably she was right in tune with her ability to use her education and talent. "Flicka" was published about 1941, "Thunderhead" in 1943.

"Thunderhead" is a sequel to the very popular novel, "My Friend Flicka" which I have not read, but movies and TV shows based on the story were everywhere during my childhood. Both stories focus on the "coming of age" of pre-teen Ken McLaughlin at his parents' financially troubled "Goose Bar Ranch". His iron-willed Dad is trying to breed and sell polo ponies during the time of the World Wide Depression of the 1930's; he's losing his shirt, and he is angry.

Thunderhead is the name that was eventually lived up to by Flicka's foal, a colt who is a throw-back to the mysterious, legendary Albino; that stallion terrorized the ranchers of Wyoming by stealing their broodmares. One of the McLaughlins' mares fell for the charms of this bronco, but eventually was found--with foal.  Thunderhead is pure white, like his great-grandsire, Albino; strong and willful.

There are several plots that thread through this story: the boy, the horse, the head-strong Dad and much from the point of view of the (pre-womens liberation) Mother, Nell; she can do nothing to help her husband till he decides to alter his business plan for the ranch.

Best: the author (who wrote the books to help save her own family's failing ranch) had a talent for getting into the head of the horses to help the reader think like a horse. She did a wonderful job of painting the Wyoming landscapes with words. Perhaps the book could have been 50-pages lighter.

A Last Novel: The Swansong of Barbara Pym, "A Few Green Leaves"...

Photo by Barbara Besler for "A Few Green Leaves"

As a reminder, a theme of my reading is to catch up on the works of writers that I have missed over the last decades of working outside the home and raising a family. In my 30's, I tried a novel by Barbara Pym, but due to my own immaturity, was unable to finish it.

Now it is different. Probably, Barbara Pym is a literary genre all her own. Her novels seem like "cozy, British small village tales", but there is quite a sharp edge to her prose! It's all about those original on-liner observations she writes, choosing just the right words. It reminds you a bit of Jane Austin.

Barbara Pym was British, she lived from 1913 to 1980; by profession, she edited academic papers, preparing them for publication. She did not plan to support herself with her own writing, but her first few novels were published and she started out with promise. In the mid-1950's, her work began to be rejected by her own publisher and others. I think she fell victim to a fast change in "public taste" that occurred about that time in the arts, music, films, literature and clothing styles (and probably other areas as well.) She kept on writing, since it was her life time habit. She was rediscovered again the the 1970's.

Unfortunately, by that time, she had breast cancer. In those days, the disease was nearly always detected with a lump; usually the cancer had spread and most people died of the disease eventually.
(Now, with earlier detection, the results are often better.) Barbara Pym completed this novel just a few weeks before her own death--the shadow was over her as she wrote about village church grave yards, etc.

The main character in the novel, Emma Howick, is a modern, mid-30's, unmarried academic who finds direction and decisiveness in the course of the story. She's been floating on the currents of her life all these years, but hasn't learned to stand on her own ground. There is a gauntlet of village characters, two possible males she could end up with. Though no resolution is reached, Pym leaves Emma (and us) with a calm feeling that Emma is going to be alright.

Two Authors' "First Novels": one Noir and one, just plain Dark

Noir:

James Anderson is a regional, Pacific Northwest writer of fiction, poetry, reviews as well as an editor and teacher. "The Never-Open Desert Diner" is his first novel.

I have mentioned my local book exchange often provides 'uncorrected proof; not for sale' books for advance readers, reviewer and I guess, the library.  I love these editions and always give them "a look". I find authors I never would have.   This book was one of those.

The Hero, Ben Jones, has an interesting business: he has a short haul (200 miles round trip everyday) truck service over an isolated desert route in Utah, south of Salt Lake City. His route is so remote that the Majors in the business hire him to carry their packages. Often, he's the only vehicle on the road.

Against this blank desert canvas, Anderson begins sketching the outline of various weird, eccentric characters Ben supplies with the things they need to survive, packages, things he sells from the truck, etc. (He is not a drug dealer.) The plot centers on an old man who runs a small but notorious diner-style restaurant with a violent, tragic history; it has been used in Hollywood films, we learn, due to its evocative appearance and location. So old Walt, the owner, has friends among the stars.

There is an interesting mystery woman who plays the cello, a cute sassy young juvenile girl who will become Ben's sidekick later in the book (an probably in novels to follow; this novel is intended as the beginning of a series). I will not discuss much of that: spoiler.

The writing is good, the main character is likable and evokes our sympathy, the plot is a little contrived (but aren't they all?), the atmosphere is camp and kitschy, as advertised, so if a person enjoys modern, slightly off-beat stories, this would be a "first novel" to try. The publication date was March 2016.

Just Plain Dark:

The late Mario Puzo, I have read, thought that "The Fortunate Pilgrim" was his best novel; I agree. As everyone knows, his best known work was "The Godfather"; between the novel and the films, that story is an American Iconic Classic.

The book I read recently was his first novel, The Dark Arena. He certainly titled the novel correctly!

Walter Mosca, a former American GI, once repatriated to the US directly after WW II, is unable to settle. He cannot re-bond with his family or fiancee; he has been through too much to simply get a comfortable American job, marry and have kids, as so many did. He has an emotional connections still in Germany, we learn. His mother has received mail from a German girl.

Walter Mosca joined the Army at 17 and stayed for the duration. He is 22 years old when the plot of this novel unfolds. Walter had fought in real battles, he witnessed but did not participate in atrocities, he was nearly killed in a landmine explosion (though the scars cannot be seen when he is clothed.) The book was published in 1953; PTSD was not in the vocabulary in those days, but Walter was surely a victim.

He reconnects with friends from the service who are working in the German reconstruction effort; he signs on as a civilian contractor to work in Bremen, a large German city in the industrial region of Germany, totally destroyed by bombs. His job concerns relations with German civilians working for the Americans. Mario Puzo used his own war experience as basis for the location and atmosphere of the novel. It's bleak: a year after the War, bodies are still entombed in the rubble and place still smells a little of death.  About the only services available to the people is the street car line. It is winter and all is cold, grey and dark.

Walter is pulled into an illegal, Black Market money making scheme by one of his American bosses; Walter is used for "muscle" in this operation; it is dangerous.

But Walter has a love interest, Helle. She was pregnant with his child when he left Germany; she had resolved to wait a year or so for him, then raise the baby herself and find another mate. But she lost the baby and she has documents to prove to him she is telling the truth. The two love one another, so they rekindle their affection, live together (illegally). She becomes pregnant again. They are happy, with plans eventually to return to the 'States.

But this is The Dark Arena, after all. Forces, the dark forces of the post-war rules and the Black Market economy and deep, dark despair and desperation of the German people to survive close in upon them slowly, like a vise.

Of the two novels in this post, "The Dark Arena" is the better quality: the writing a very good, the scene and the characters seem so true; you are totally transported to this awful place and time. The book reminded me of "Lie Down in Darkness" by William Styron (not an enjoyable read, but well done) and Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury".

...a Book by its Cover...Robert Hicks' "The Widow of the South"...

What an eye-catching cover design on this novel of historic fiction! So evocative of the second half of the 19th Century. But is it fiction? Partly: the story is a novel based on the life of a lady--almost totally forgotten now--whose name, Carrie McGavock--was practically a "household word" at the turn of the 20th Century.

In the tiny town of Franklin, TN (now part of greater Nashville; home to country music stars) late in the American Civil War, a giant gush of bloodletting took place called The Battle of Franklin. The South lost; even had they won the battle it would not change the outcome: the surrender came about 4 months later. For the number of troops and the length of the battle: about 5 hours, Franklin is considered perhaps the bloodiest battle ever fought by Americans; a hopeless charge by the South against entrenched Northern troops in the town.

At end of the day, about 6,000 Confederates were dead--all over town--along with 1,000 Northerners.
Countless were horribly injured, waiting to die in parlors, public buildings, churches---and all over Carrie's plantation farm, Carnton. (Northern dead and injured were quickly whisked away to Nashville and beyond.)

She and the others in town nursed the injured and helped carry off the dead to a common burial in a field near town. It took months until the scene was cleared.

Carrie became world famous because eventually, the farmer whose field was used for the burial, wanted to replant with crops. But Carrie and her husband organized an effort  to bring all the remaining dead back their own farm for burial in the family cemetery. She spent the rest of her life documenting the dead, answering letters from families who wondered if their relative was with her at Carnton and tending the large cemetery. It still remains today.

Carrie McGavock was so well-known in her old age (she died in 1905) that the story of her work was influential to Margaret Mitchell when she was crafting "Gone With the Wind".

We "accidentally" visited Carnton and the Cemetery years ago, about 1993: the house was a hulk, though the grave yard was maintained by a local group. Since then, the author was this novel and others in the Nashville-Franklin area have raised funds and renovated Carnton as it was before the Battle. It serves as a venue for special occasions, etc. as well as a tourist site.

Even if not for the history, the novel stands alone as an exciting story of courage--and even a little romance. It reminded me a bit of "Cold Mountain", my all-time favorite Civil War novel.

"Meh" Thrillers from (not-so) Great Britain...

The best books by John LeCarre may be behind us by now; but I keep on reading all I find.

Lately, that included "Single & Single", a post Cold War crime thriller, featuring violence, money laundering, vice peddling of all kinds, gun running and so on. A readable novel, certainly.

The relationship between the spymaster (or undercover agent runner, in this case) and his agent, the son of the money launderer who has "turned"is delved.  As in "Our Game", the agent goes rogue in former USSR Georgia; as in "The Night Manager", the agent flirts with love---this female character was stronger, more interesting than the ladies in either of the above.

Bad Bait:

I was interested to find a British novel, made and sold in the UK which somehow found its way to my local paperback exchange: John Harvey's "Good Bait". "No one in Britain is writing better crime fiction" gasps The Times on the front cover. I feel I was duped, or standards of crime fiction writing have declined in the UK. I enjoy fine British writers, etc. I was disappointed.

The novel was a standard, modern police procedural; the eastern Europeans are the bad guys in this novel, the police detectives felt quite contrived; one character was shamelessly used as a literary crutch, as the story limped along. The author peppers and pads the story with musical and literary references from mid-to-late 20th Century...that felt old, but that is because I've been there. I looked up the You Tube for the jazz selection "Good Bait"...I'm not a jazz lover.

This book was engaging enough to pass my "Thirty Page Test", so I was "trapped"; then the story fizzled for 300 more pages.  So I was not happy with "Good Bait" or John Harvey!

Reading "Faulkner" in Mississippi...

While William Faulkner was not a perfect person, he had compassion, empathy and even sympathy for good people of whichever race; and he scorned evil and cruelty in anyone, regardless of race.

I read "Go Down, Moses", a group of stories and short novels from the early 1940's. The stories were published individually for nationwide distributions in magazines like Atlantic Monthly or Saturday Evening Post; later gathered together to loosely form the flow of a novel about the former slaves, servants and tenants of the McCaslin plantation (17 miles from Jefferson) and how their history influenced young Isaac McCaslin (direct heir to the property of his Grandfather) to renounce his inheritance and assume a modest role in town, living on a small stipend, till near 80. (Considered very old in 1940).

"The Bear" is one of Faulkner's most well regarded works; I don't know how you read that story without the context of the preceding tales in this book.

"Was" tells the love story of Tomey's Turl and his future wife, Tennie Beauchamp; the sad but hilarious way they got to be together, as slaves on neighboring plantations just prior to the Civil War.
Their descendants are important characters in subsequent stories.

Except for the tragedy of young Rider in "Pantaloon in Black". The excellent young worker is simply a tenant on the McCaslin place and has an important, well paying job at the sawmill, until grief becomes his undoing.

Great Book. It was dedicated to Caroline Barr, "Aunt Cally", Faulkner's own childhood nanny, whose house is shown above, along with the old kitchen building from Rowan Oak in Jefferson...no, Oxford MS. Aunt Cally lived to be fully 100 years old, died in 1940.

I also reread "The Reivers", Faulkner's swan song. This was made into a crappy movie in 1969 which I refused to see even then. Whoever thought tiny Steve McQueen should portray Six Foot Four Boon Hoganbeck? I know, box office.

Aunt Cally appears as Lucius Priest's nanny in the story, which is, after all, a reminiscence.

Having recently read "Where the Red Fern Grows", it was interesting the similarities between the two little boys in either story; both saving up to buy themselves some hunting dogs in 1905, and getting into a peck of trouble on the way.

Two (Much Better!) Books.

Several years ago, I happened upon an illustrated copy of "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes" by Robert Louis Stevenson; I raved and resolved to read more of this classic author.

Lately, I found a copy of "The Black Arrow", a late medieval romp through the English War of the Roses. Written in Victorian times, it must have been a sensation, since it featured a young noble woman dressing as a young boy to escape a fiendish guardian (about to marry her off to another villain for money, while he also steals her rightful legacy). Similar outrages are done to the hero, young Dick Shelton; he was orphaned by this evil guardian (adapt at manipulating laws, in a lawless time.) Of course, Dick and Lady Joanna are destined for one another.

Once your eye adapts to the "Shakespeare-lite" dialogue, in contrast with the more modern Victorian style test, it's a breeze.

It doesn't matter about the plot, "good" eventually prevails. Stevenson's writing crams so much action, drama, image, natural scenery, emotion and intrigue into short little paragraphs; it is amazing what talent he possessed. He died young, that's sad. No wonder the entire world mourned his death.

I know how I missed "Christy" by Catherine Marshall (published 1967) all these years. The marketing for the book made it "feel" like a "Sound of Music"-plot; it seemed like it would be sappy.

But I found a copy and approached it with new eyes. Considering the book is already half a century old and relates the experiences of a young volunteer teacher in East Tennessee 50 years before that, the story is remarkably fresh and current-feeling. The author died in the 1980's.

Christy wants to be independent, not just hang around her wealthy family in Asheville, NC until she marries a local scion and settles down. So she takes on the teaching assignment in the back country and is greatly challenged by the difference between her expectations and the reality; the hardships.

If you ever were tempted to skip vaccinations for infectious diseases like typhoid, this book will remind you why these diseases were a scourge and best avoided!

Of course there is some romance; she has so much to learn. Most people my age have read this book if they are interested; younger readers who like romance, coming of age and history would enjoy the story.

Random Eclectic Reading..with clairvoyants

The stuff I pick up and somehow, am able to complete! Now that I am not commuting every day by train, I seem to be more selective than these two books.

Dorothy Gilman's "The Clairvoyant Countess" was published in the mid-1970's; one of the "bad guys" runs a network of ice cream and popsicle sales trucks (actually selling drugs under cover) tracked by a computer that takes up an entire commercial space basement! So the story was modern in its day.  Madame Karitska is a clairvoyant, not a fortune teller; an older lady with a long series of adventures behind her; she works in cooperation with Detective Lt. Prudden of the Police Dept of a fictional large city, solving a series of crimes using her powers.

Dorothy Gilman wrote the Mrs. Polifax series, which I have not dipped into; probably won't. Another of her novels, "Caravan" from 1992 I liked. Sadly, Gilman passed away in 2012.

Anne Cleeland, another American writer who writes British police thrillers: her story "Murder in Thrall-An Acton and Doyle Scotland Yard Mystery" was found as an "advance uncorrected proof" from my local (and wonderful) paperback exchange. It's a pretty standard detective "let's try to guess who done it".

I was shocked at the set-up: Acton is a celebrated senior detective sleuth with New Scotland Yard; a member of the the nobility, as well. But he is a sicko---not completely criminal since he works for "good"; he develops a complete emotional and sexual fixation on a young police trainee, Doyle (who is naive, attractive, Irish, working class but motivated, spirited and gifted with an ability to magically detect when someone is lying). Out of the blue, he pops up with a marriage proposal and she accepts it instead of reporting him to HR! He's done creepy things like sneaking into her apartment, before this.

How, in today's world, did this book get published. But apparently, the series is pretty popular.

All Dogs Go to Heaven...Sadly, in Fiction about Dogs, the Ending will Make You Tear Up

"Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls...

The author of this lovely, classic "dog story" was able to tell just one or two good stories; but it is a wonderful book.

In Mid-20th Century America, elderly Bill Colman leaves his office on a picture perfect day and sets off for home. On the way, he encounters a pack of scrapping dogs, attacking a lone old Redbone Coon Hound, obviously a stray. As Bill helps this dog, he remembers his long ago, turn of the century-era boyhood and his tender memories of a pair of this breed who captured his heart--and saved his life.

Young Billy is one of the best little "good souls" you will ever meet in fiction: he's smart, he loves his family, he helps his family, he works hard, he is determined, he is kind, unselfish and has a great sense of humor. His one passion is the desire for a pair of Redbone Coon Hounds so he can train them and hunt raccoons in the eastern Oklahoma hills where he lives. He applies his mind, heart and prayers; patiently, he works to earn the money to buy the dogs.

The writing is clear and simple, like the heart and spirit of the little boy. The descriptions of the puppies, once they arrive, are so endearing: you see, hear, smell and feel the warm squirming little bodies. The dogs have different personalities, key to the story. The adults in the story are mainly good and supportive, though sometimes not able to provide the child everything he wants--he has to work to achieve his goals.

I don't know how I missed this book all these years, since it was published in the early 1960's. Anyone who enjoys solid, authentic-feeling fiction could love this story. Some may object to the hunting: but raccoons are prolific and mostly, a pest; these were the only animals intentionally hunted. To me, this story is "up there" with "To Kill a Mockingbird" for the portrayal of the child narrator and the richness of the story. (But I think the book might be too intense for my 12 year old niece.)  Dog books always end with the death of the dog---that seems to be a rule: Love and Loss.

This is not a Redbone Coon Hound!

Exploring the American Western Genre: "Fighting Caravans" by Zane Grey

Restoration Village in Abilene Kansas

A decade or so back, I came upon a copy of Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" and loved it; it left my mind open to reading other American Western-based fiction. Raised in the 1950's, I acquired a poor opinion of Westerns, since so many lower quality films and TV shows featured such plots.

Then I read the American Classic Western, "The Virginian", followed by a wonderful gem called "Jubal Sackett" by Louis L'Amour (part of a family saga series of novels).

Last summer, we traveled to Maple Falls, WA to rescue family documents and photos from the derelict property of my late Uncle; among the large collection of volumes in his (damp, rodent infested) storage shed was his boyhood copy of "Fighting Caravans"from 1929 (and a new paperback version of "Riders of the Purple Sage".) For sentiment, I chose to read the "Caravans" novel first.

It is what I call a "fly on the wall"-historical fiction novel. Fictional Clint "Buff" Belmet, a boy of 12, goes West with his parents in 1854. Through his eyes and experiences, we meet many actual historic figures of the West, such as Kit Carson, Lucien Maxwell, Charley Bent and many others. Clint can't walk across the street in a western town without having some hero "take a shine" to him, or else he gets crosswise with a villain. Typical Western.

It's a bit of a melodrama: first thing that happens, he meets a little 10 year old pioneer girl, May Bell, who attaches herself to him as the two are the only children in the group. Clint learns to drive a wagon loaded with goods, he can already fish, he soon learns to hunt. The two families part ways, but the kids promise to marry someday. As the author deals with the "children" as characters, the plot is a little sappy. As the characters mature, so does the action.

We see the Native Tribes both sympathetically, for their plight and through the eyes of the encroaching multitudes of new settlers and wagon drivers. There is constant conflict. The American Civil War makes that worse. And worse still in the decade after the war, when "riff-raff" from both armies go west to seek their fortune.

A couple of films were produced based on this story, but do not seem to follow the plot line of the novel.

The main benefit of the novel was that I used it as an opportunity to "google-research" the era, the historic characters, the Santa Fe Trail, the history of the mid-19th Century supply wagon era, which preceded the rail road by only a few years. Part of "Continued Education...."

How Did I Miss this Book? "A Woman of Independent Means" by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey

The novel was published in 1978, a 1991 paperback edition was hiding in my book case for years. With the cold January weather, it's natural to curl up and indulge the urge to dig deep for an enjoyable book.

The novel is styled using the device of letters written by the book's heroine, Bess Steed, born about 1890; her letters span 1899-1968. The character is roughly contemporary with both my grandmothers. Like both of them, Bess knows certain hardships (even for the well off) of life a century ago: at 15, she is bedridden for a year with TB, later her life is upended by infectious diseases which are now more controlled and treatable. (One of my grandmothers lost her mother and baby sister to TB in 1900; the other lost three siblings by that same year when she was 10.)

Bess is irrepressible: she considers death the enemy, refusing to let anything stand in the way of her goals. She's a bit of a social climber in the country-club world she aspires, but endearing. You will chuckle at her social engineering antics.

The novel is a real page-turner, without chapters. The letters each make a natural divider of the action so you keep reading "just one more" all night.
The beginning reminded me of "Winesburg Ohio" with its small town flavor.
Later, I thought of William Styron's grim novel "Lie Down in Darkness", with the spoiled daughter Eleanor who gives her mother grief in parts of the book.