Winterkill

I do not read much current fiction. There is a lot of stuff coming out every day that ranges from mediocre to simply god-awful, and who knows what you are going to get when you pick up a book? I only have so much time available to read books, so it is too valuable to waste on crappy fiction. Therefore I tend to avoid the newer stuff until the chaff has been sifted out. This was an exception. I stumbled onto "The Reader" while this novel was being featured. It was about two-thirds of the way through the book, and after listening to two episodes, I was hooked and grabbed a copy at the nearest bookstore to read for myself. It is a touching story that appeals to the reader on many levels. The exploration of the two father-son relationships should ring true for many readers, as should Danny's attempts to come to terms with the fact that he is no longer a young man who can easily withstand the rigors of the rodeo circuit. Danny is a marvelously complex character who intrigues the reader. Lesley is careful not to make Danny seem overly heroic or noble, for that would simply make him into a caricature. Instead, he becomes a character that all too many of us can relate to, regardless of our ethnicity. For the reviewer that complained that "by the end of the novel nothing in the plot has been solved or put to rest," I feel that that was one of the stronger aspects of the book, and would gently point out that few things in real life wrap up neatly at the end of a 30 or 60-minute episode. This is fiction we are talking about, not fantasy. Lesley richly deserves the two Pulitzer nominations he has garnered, and perhaps someday it will be a win and not just a nomination. He is one of a handful of contemporary authors whose work I will read without hesitation.

Lesley's fourth novel, "Storm Riders," is his best so far. This is not to take away from his previous efforts - his work just keeps getting better and better. The story of a man who tries to be an adopted father to a mentally disabled Tlingit Indian boy (his ex-wife's cousin) and then eventually fails is handled with compassion and almost brutal honesty, otherwise a standard trait of Lesley's writing style. Lesley's ability to portray the problems of the `little guy' and those living on society's peripheries (to paraphrase Ursula Le Guin's characterization of his writing) is unparalleled; an entire battalion of bleeding-heart journalists and weekend social activists couldn't do a better job if they tried.

This book got me back into reading fiction for the first time in years. I asked a friend who reads a lot of different authors for something, and he said try this one. So I did, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I live in California, but am fond of the Pacific Northwest, and have done a lot of travelling there. Lesley has a fine ability to evoke what is special about the land and people of this area. The book has some interesting accounts of the ways of the tribes in the area, such as the Celilo, a fishing tribe whose prime fishing grounds are wiped out in one poignant scene by a newly constructed power dam. The story follows Danny Kachiah, a Nez Perce who barely ekes out a living working the local Rodeo circuit as a bronco-rider. He is trying to re-assume the role of father after his divorced wife is killed in a car accident, leaving him with his estranged son, Jack. But it is Danny's relationship with his father, Red Shirt, that is central to this book. Danny is haunted by the memory of his father, a tough, smart old Nez Perce, and by the remarkable stories his father has related to him over the years. Throughout the book, it is the memory of his father and of the cultural traditions of his tribe that Red Shirt has passed on to him through his stories and teachings, that guide his actions as he attempts to get his life back together, and especially, to re-establish his relationship with his son.

Craig Lesley's Storm Riders is a very good read. I don't often anymore find a book that I want to keep reading right to the end. This is such a book. I wished for more. Lesley has the gift of the story-teller. He's a born yarner. This is his fourth novel, and I think he reaches higher here than in the others. Less landscape, more heartscape. The many crises in raising a child damaged by fetal alcohol syndrome are rendered convincingly and movingly. In a deceptively plain style, Lesley peoples complex events with well-rounded characters. Wade, the mentally damaged child who shares the focus of the novel, is utterly alive to me in his sometimes charming, often frightening behavior. Wade's stepdad Clark is for the most part a model of patience and commitment, so much so that I had to ask myself if he weren't too virtuous and strong. I asked myself whether I knew any such dads. The answer is yes, several of them. I hear dad-bashing so often -- deadbeat dads, you know-- it's wonderful to read at last about a really good dad, portrayed realistically. Clark is no ivory saint, but he's as good a dad as you'd ever want. Another reviewer has questioned Lesley's decision to write this story of his own experiences as fiction rather than straight exposition. I feel, as probably many others do, that story-telling is a primary means of sharing. Lesley is a novelist, not a psychologist. The same reviewer objected to Lesley's detailed commentary about the U. S. Navy's massacre of Tlingit villagers more than 100 years ago. I found the commentary both interesting and functional. Sounds to me like praising with faint damns.

I really enjoyed the book, I am from the northwest, so some of the places that he talks about in the book, I actually have been there. I love how he mentions some Reservations that were burried under the dam. Like Spearfish,, I haven't heard that in a long time. I love that Danny is getting to know his son Jack. And how he thinks back about Red Shirt. He is a great writer, and I will be reading some more of his books very soon.