Campbell Editorial - Book Reviews

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon

Like many fans of the “Outlander” series, I “met” author Diana Gabaldon on an online literary forum in the days of yore when CompuServe was the Internet service provider. At the time, Diana was posting what she referred to as “chunks” of her work-in-progress and garnering very enthusiastic comments and a fair amount of interesting discussion. The excerpts were so fluid and natural, I fair thought we might all end up speaking either Highland English or Gàidhlig before the manuscript was complete. In 1991, the writing chunks became “Outlander.”

In the years that followed, we traveled with Sassenach (English people and Lowlanders) Claire Beauchamp Randall through multiple countries in time lines beginning in 1945 and 1743. In 1945, she’s married to Frank Randall. In 1743, she’s in love with Highlander James Fraser.

As “Outlander” led to a sequel and then another sequel, I thought it rather presumptuous to review any of the installments of a series (heading toward 17 million copies sold in 21 languages and 24 countries) written by the very gracious mentor for the writers on the CompuServe Literary (now Books & Authors) Forum.

But 19 years and seven books have passed since I read the opening line “It wasn’t a very likely place for disappearances, at least not at first glance” as former combat nurse Claire Randall surveyed a 1945 Inverness bed and breakfast with “fading floral wallpaper” where she was celebrating a second honeymoon with Frank. Surely Diana would say “dinna fash” if I told her I was mustering up the grit to say a wee word or two.

Were I to distill this wordy review down to basics and say only a wee word or two, it would be this. “An Echo in the Bone” is the best book in the series since the first one.

Some readers have criticized the novel’s episodic presentation and multiple story lines. On the contrary, I view this approach as one of the novel’s many strengths, others being the evolving characterizations of individuals series readers have known for years, the exceptional detail and historical accuracy, and the author’s clear focus on the tension, danger and humor that make a darned fine story.

With “An Echo in the Bone,” we have regained the tension and tight plotting that we lost to come extent in “The Fiery Cross” and and “A Breath of Snow and Ashes” which spent too much time with everyday affairs at the expense of the stories’ primary thrusts. Well after “Outlander,” it was almost as though the uniqueness of a modern and highly skilled medical practitioner living two centuries before her own time was being asked to carry too much of the books’ weight.

“An Echo in the Bone,” however, is exceptionally strong. Multiple characters grow in multiple times and places, and the episodic approach strengthens the drama of the strong doses of harm’s way in each lifeline we’re following. Drama is not contained by linear time, a fact Diana has proven many times over, and this time out, she has honed her writer’s scalpel to a fine edge indeed.

The use Fort Ticonderoga and the September and October 1777 Battles of Saratoga as a major focal point anchors the novel in historic time and provides a memorable counterpane for compelling action sequences and character development without losing the series hallmark (often earthy and humorous) interactions between a feisty Sassenach and a volatile Highlander.

No one need try to read “An Echo in the Bone” as a standalone novel, for the characters have too much history for that and there’s no way to catch up with it short of, say, adding some distracting and/or helpful footnotes. And then there’s the cliffhanger ending, or–more accurately–the multiple cliffhanger endings. Some readers are saying (basically), “Diana, how can you do this to us?”

My last wee world or two is: How can she not, for storytelling doesn’t get better than this.

Buffaloed by Fairlee Winfield

When teenager Ovidia Odegard arrives in the United States in 1904, her first duty is to find suitable work so she can begin paying back her uncle for his out-of-pocket costs in sponsoring her immigration from Norway. Her dream, though is not only to be an American, but a Westerner, and that includes wearing a fancy buckskin jacket.

Providentially, Nancy Russell–the wife of the famed Montana cowboy artist Charles M. Russell–is looking for a housemaid at the couple’s home in Great Falls. When Ovida sees a copy of Russell’s pictorial “Studies of Western Life,” she can’t wait to board the train and head for the West she’s seen at the Nickelodeon.

When she arrives in Great Falls, she finds a dirty, modern city, and once she meets Charlie Russell, she begins discovering that the idealized West as it exists in books and movies is gone–if it ever existed. While Nancy Russell wants contracts and sales for Charlie’s art, Charlie would rather spend his time spinning yarns about the old days with his “bunch” down at the saloon. Not surprisingly, the house is a mess.

“Buffaloed” is Ovidia’s story as told to her grandson Billy just before she died at 94, and it all begins when she mentions a secret she has never shared with anyone: the famous Charles M. Russell mural “Lewis and Clark Meeting the Indians at Ross’ Hole” at the Montana State House of Representatives” wasn’t really painted by Russell. It was a con, or so Ovidia claims.

Ovidia dangles this con before her grandson’s eyes throughout her remembrances because, as she sees it, he wouldn’t understand it if he didn’t know what happened in the Russell household from the moment she reported for work. What had she gotten herself into?

That scene, Billy, what I saw when the door opened is drawn in my memory with indelifble pencil. I'll never forget it. Charlie Russell stood in the little parlor right off the entry, shirt off, half-naked, his bare torso twisted at a contorted angle, one arm raised as if to throw a spear. Instead of a spear though he helf a long handled paint brush. He was looking backward ovef his shoulder into a large mirror as he twisted and turned. Meanwhile an Indian woman in full buckskin costume squatted on a dirty read and yellow blanket in front of him. She held a long pipe and wore a great many beaded neckllaces. Heavy turquoise stones hung down from her earlobes.

This well-researched book is just the kind of yarn that the master of tall tales, one Charles Marion Russell (1862-1926), would endorse without hesitation. The dialogue, the atmosphere, and the historical period in “Buffaloed” are superb. Fans of Russell and Montana history will discover that the book includes real events and places along with a supporting cast of historical personages.

In his book “Montana Adventure,” a friend and contemporary of Russell, Frank B. Linderman, writes that “Charlie Russell was the most lovable man I have ever known.” This is the Charlie Russell who emerges in Fairlee Winfield’s wonderful novel.

Now, if you live in Montana, mostly everything having to do with Charlie Russell is sacred, and that includes a lot of living and story telling that was also delightfully profane. Ovidia does have a confession to make in regard to that mural, but this is a novel, of course.

Winfield’s disclaimer at the beginning of the book reminds us that “Buffaloed” is a work of fiction. In addition to the standard reference books about Charles and Nancy Russell, Winfield also had a more personal resource for this story: her Norwegian grandmother did work in the artist’s home and had a lot of humorous and gritty stories to tell.

lowest part of his neck with water dripping from their ends. His tail just misses the ground, and the feathery hair growing from around his lower legs is caked with mud. His natural high-stepping action makes moving through the muck almost easy.

"Torden, Hear the Thunder" is a delightful story about eleven-year-old Niesje Brouwers and her powerful, high-stepping Friesian horse. Niesje, who is helping her aunt and uncle for a year on their Dutch farm when she discovers a seriously wounded black stallion on the property. While her uncle is dubious about the horse's chance of survival, Niesje is determined to save it; ultimately, a strong bond is formed. While the Brouwers don't know where the horse came from, the reader knows it has survived an explosion on a World War I battlefield in Belgium.

While this historical novel was written for children 9-12 years old and older, it's an interesting story for adults and young adults, especially those who love Friesian horses and/or who are attuned to the world of dressage The story focuses on Niesje, farm life, and her developing friendship with Torden. She worries about being allowed to participate in dressage-for which she must ride astride in an "unladylike manner"-and about what she will do when it's time for her to leave the farm and go back home where there is no provision of keeping the horse.

C. Kirkham, who has written a realistic and accurate book, ends up indirectly teaching the reader a lot about a horse breed that almost became extinct. And then, in the final climatic chapters, an unexpected adventure teaches Niesje more about the world's dangers than she expected to learn.

"Staccato" is staccato: sharp, crisp, almost percussive--like gun shots, like a cane tapping on the floor or striking a shoulder, like light reflected off a black Porsche Targa, like the piercing cold of a Great Smoky Mountains night.

Two years into his career as a world-class concert pianist, young Nicholas Kalman finds his absent father's journal. It's written as a warning to Nicholas, or perhaps a confession. "Beware of this man you call, Uncle," it says.

The uncle is Alexander, the tyrannical, club-footed, cane tapping maestro and mentor. He's crafted the talented Nicholas into a dazzling musician who crushes the competition in every venue. He drinks. He expects perfection. He lashes out when angry.

Alexander demands unquestioning obedience from Nicholas, the cloyingly submissive second-string pupil Timothy, the imposing butler Sampte, his niece Elaine, sheriff's deputy Steven Hawk, and everyone else who dares enter his ten thousand square foot mansion in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Deborah J. Ledford's thriller tears through mountains and music with a steady rhythm in perfect time with the maestro Alexander's music room metronome. Nicholas finds a his lover's body in his Porsche. Timothy perfects his Prokofiev to steal the limelight. Sampte does what he's ordered to do. The metronome ticks and the cane taps as the bodies pile up, as Nicholas searches for a killer and runs for his life, as Hawk investigates a grim case, as Alexander orchestrates notes and lives, as readers turn "Staccato's" pages, quickly, crisply, sharply throughout Ledford's toccata-like virtuoso performance.

Since A View Inside Glacier National Park includes my article about the 1964 Montana flood, it would be unfair for me to write a formal review. Here, then, are my first thoughts on the day my copy of the book arrived in the mail.

In his introduction, Ranger Naturalist Bill Schustrom writes that it's gratifying to see visitors returning to the park year after year. "There is a spirit or an intangible aspect here drawing us back. As we return there is a community of share experiences--stories."

Anyone who has visited Glacier National Park shares a common bond with the writers of these stories, even those based on events from years ago...Susanna Anderson's memories of a trip to the park prior to World War II...Verna Jarrow's hike to Sperry Glacier around 1930...Joyce O'Neil's recollections of the 1929 fire...Jan Mertmaker's 1938 CCC story...Anne Marie Broenen's experience at St. Mary Lodge during the flood of 1975...and my own memories of Many Glacier Hotel during the flood of 1964.

I am happy to see a story about the fire of 1936 by the late Ray Kinley, my old friend and long-time Glacier employee. John Hagen, founder of the Glacier Park Foundation, remembers hiking the North Circle Trail. Tessie Bundick, historian for the Glacier Park Foundation, has written of her experience as a "Texas flatlander" working as a seasonal employee at Many Glacier Hotel in 1962.

Of his vision quest along the Backbone of the World, Ken Camel writes, "I was surrounded by a powerful landscape. The Spirit was now talking directly to my soul. I didn't need to hear any words as he who opens his mind is ready to learn. His message: 'My young soul, look around you; seek not to look to other lands for your Dream. Look to our land, and the lands of your ancestors. This is where you belong, and your People need to Share this vision.'"

Those of us who have shared this vision and told our stories of the last 100 years hope more will come and experience the Crown of the Continent each in their own way and their own time during the next 100 years. Surely, their own stories will follow.

Last week, I received my paperback copy of Smoky Trudeau's Observations of an Earth Mage. When I interviewed her on Malcolm's Round Table the week before, I had the e-book: and I liked that a lot. But I wasn't quite prepared for the large-format clarity of the color pictures or the harmony of the nature stories and poems on the printed page when I tore open the package from Amazon last week.

Here's the publisher's description: "Observations of an Earth Mage" is an enchanting collection of prose, poetry, and photographs celebrating the beauty and splendor, humor and drama of the natural world. From the Great Smoky Mountains in the East and the prairies of the Midwest to the magnificent vistas of Yosemite and the Pacific Ocean to the West, share the mysteries of the natural world as seen through the eyes of author and photographer Smoky Trudeau. Meet Myrtle the ten o'clock bear and the grumpy chipmunk. Explore the desert in all its glory, discover the teeming life of a tidepool, and tromp the trails of our nation's spectacular parks and monuments.

I am enjoying the stories in this book a great deal because they remind me of my own hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains and the Appalachian Trail, time spent along the shoreline in California (my native state), and the climbing I have done in Colorado and Montana. If you're not already an outdoors person, this book will welcome you into another world and tempt you to start taking walks in the park.

During the interview, Trudeau said "I hope that, upon reading the book, readers will want to get outdoors themselves, take a hike, go camping, splash in a tidepool. But more than that, I hope they learn how to see the natural world with the eyes of someone who is a part of it, a participant, rather than as a spectator." I told her my boots are always dumped next to the front door where they'll be handy.

One never knows when he or she will hear the call of the wild.