The Ancient Minstrel By Jim Harrison (Grove Press)
The late Montana author Jim Harrison, author of “Legends of the Fall,” was one of America’s top writers. “The Ancient Minstrel,” Harrison’s last work, is a collection of three novellas that showcase the author’s mastery of sex and booze, rural life and flawed character.
In the opening novella, “The Ancient Minstrel,” Harrison pokes fun at himself as he tells the tale of an aging curmudgeonly writer who is anything but at peace with himself. He ruminates over past honors and failures and drinking sprees, over infidelities and his crumbling marriage. His real love is neither his wife nor the women he has bedded — but a pig he acquires on a whim.
Darling, as he calls her, presents him with nine piglets, who, he admits, are more interesting to him than his tavern friends. He names them — a dangerous thing to do with an animal you plan to slaughter one day — and takes them for walks, loves their foibles and grieves over their deaths.
“Eggs,” the second novella, is about a farm girl who loves chickens as much as the Ancient Minstrel loves pigs. Her life is divided between England, where she is stuck during World War II, and Montana, where she eventually inherits her grandfather’s farm. All would be perfect if she just had a child — no husband, just a child.
“The Case of the Howling Buddhas” features a detective, a recurring character in Harrison’s books, who’s hired to rescue a girl from a sect whose rituals include howling like hyenas. But the story is really about the detective, a lecher who is fixated on young girls and, against his better judgment, beds a 15-year-old neighbor.
The Gambler’s Apprentice
By H. Lee Barnes (University of Nevada Press)
Young Willy Bobbins is on a cattle-rustling jaunt into Mexico with his pa, Clay, when things go terribly wrong. Pa is captured, and Willy barely survives a dunking in the Rio Grande. Clay is a hard man, and Willy isn’t sure he wants to rescue him from the federales. “Ma,” he asks, “do you want him back?” She does, so Willy pays the ransom for his ungrateful father, who blames the son for not coming sooner.
Little wonder then that after his brief career as a rustler, Willy rides away from home and, while still a teenager, becomes a hardened gambler.
“The Gambler’s Apprentice” is a tightly written tale of growing up violent in Texas in the World War I era. Willy is tough, with a wry sense of humor, and he and his cohorts are an engaging bunch. They include a mentally and physically challenged cousin, Beau; Sonny, a gambler who teaches Willy the tricks of the trade; Lisette, a mulatto prostitute; and Panther Jack, the manwho owns Lisette.
The plot may be a bit improbable, but the characters and the land ring with authenticity. “The Gambler’s Apprentice” is an absorbing tale that leaves readers wishing for more — a good thing, since it is the first of a trilogy.
The Last Ranch
By Michael McGarrity (Dutton)
While writing his succession of Kevin Kerney mysteries, which are about a Santa Fe sheriff, author Michael McGarrity began probing Kerney’s backstory. He became intrigued with the history of his protagonist’s family, McGarrity notes in a news release, and decided to write the stand-alone story of generations of Kerneys. The result is a trilogy of novels that cover a 100-year period.
“The Last Ranch” is the third of the novels, a lengthy story of Kevin and his father, Matthew. It begins during World War II, when Matthew comes home from Sicily minus an eye. He returns to the family ranch run by his father, Patrick. The two have had their differences — explored in the second book — but they have come to terms. More difficult is Matthew’s relationship with longtime girlfriend Anna Lynn, who moves out of Matt’s life after she’s confronted by an old adversary of his. (It helps to have read the first two of the three books, although “The Last Ranch” really is an independent novel.)
While helping his father with the ranch, Matt attends college, where he meets Mary. They marry and have a son, Kevin.
“The Last Ranch” is as vast as New Mexico’s high desert. Readers will come to love the land as much as the Kerneys do and feel their anger as the federal government pressures them to sell their ranch so that it can become part of White Sands. In fact, the fight with the feds — the small rancher against the omnipresent government bureaucracy — is the best part of the book. It’s a good story and brings readers up-to-date on the Kerney saga.
The characters are tough westerners, who can be wooden at times. And there is much extraneous material in the book. But McGarrity is a prolific author, so it’s possible he’s setting us up for more Kerney books.
Sandra Dallas: sandradallas@msn.com
