“Nocturnal America,” by John Keeble (University of Nebraska Press, 281 pages, $26.95)
Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in fiction, John Kebble’s beautifully rendered short-story collection, “Nocturnal America,” examines the power of family, love and place.
In “The Chasm,” Jim Blood, his wife and three little boys have left the city to live in eastern Washington and start a ranch. Their nearest neighbors are the Lanattos, a former dentist and his wife, and Bob
Holister, a farm cooperative executive who depends on the help he gets from his son and daughter-in-law living in the back house. Each family prides itself on its ingenuity and determination. Yet not even the beauty of the setting can soften the reality of a harsh winter or the consequences of an unexpected death.
“The Fishers” concerns a woman from Tacoma, Wash., who moved to a farm on the high desert of eastern Washington when she married. Raising her children, she did what she could to fit into the community. But once they are grown and her husband is dead, she discovers she enjoys going to concerts in the city and sitting among people she doesn’t know. She puts her house up for sale but at a price bound to discourage potential buyers. Then one day as she tries to start her car and it catches fire, she disappears. Where, no one seems to know.
“Chickens” is a tale with subtle layers reminiscent of Wallace Stegner’s work. It’s the story of a boy, the son of a minister, and his experiences growing up in a Saskatchewan prairie town in the late 1940s.
“Zeta’s House” provides a brief glimpse into the life of a family as it deals with grief, and “I Could Have Loved You (If I Wanted)” tells of love that was or might have been.
“Nocturnal America” revolves around Felicity Harper, a new hire as a cook on a tanker bound for Valdez where she once lived. A strong, quiet woman who immediately fits in with the rest of the crew, she has strapped her snowshoes to her suitcase and packed her husband’s ashes inside.
The collection’s longest story, “Freeing the Apes,” focuses on a recently retired investigator for FEMA who discovers a dead woman, dressed in an Air Force colonel’s uniform, at the base of an 80-foot cliff on his next door neighbor’s property. As the investigation of the death proceeds and long-held principles are revealed, relationships among neighbors are reshaped. As the story moves from past to present and back, clues emerge, and connections are made that lead to a violent yet logical end.
The author’s feel for people and place are key to this outstanding collection.
“Heaven Is a Long Way Off,” by Win Blevins (Forge, 304 pgs, $24.95)
Known for his knowledge of the Plains Indians and the era of the “mountain men,” Win Blevins brings readers the third in a series about the adventures of Sam Morgan.
Once a young Philadelphia runaway, Morgan has become a seasoned fur trapper and mountain man. The year is 1827. His beloved Crow wife, Meadowlark, is dead, leaving him to care for his baby daughter. But because he and his trapping brigade have been thrown out of Mexican California, he must leave her behind.
Instead of a welcome when they reach the traditionally friendly Mohave villages, they are attacked. Sam loses his rifle in the fight, and they are forced to set across the desert with no food and little water. Yet their futures depend on Sam’s rifle. Accompanied by his coyote, Coy, and his friend, Hannibal, they sneak back, retrieve the rifle and steal two horses. But Sam finds no trace of his daughter.
Determined to return her to Meadowlark’s village on the Wind River of Wyoming, he moves on to Monterrey, where he meets up with a strange group of friends and picks up information that persuades him to head east to Santa Fe.
There he comes to know the beautiful Señora Luna who owns a large ranch and befriends a boy who was stolen from his people and enslaved. But Sam’s determination to find his daughter never fades, and accompanied by the boy and Coy, he leaves and continues his search.
Filled with details of the harshness of the times and the relationships between whites and Indians, the novel offers readers a climax exciting enough to satisfy the most demanding fan of the old West.
Sybil Downing is a Boulder novelist who writes a monthly column on regional fiction.
