West: A Novel

West is like a time bomb. I read it one week-end loving the narrative and the prose style. Later on reflection, I was jolted by a succession of explosions as I appreciated deeper and deeper insights that had been planted in my mind by Davies . For example, the disappearing culture of the Shawnee boy and the taming of the West made me think back on how the world has changed over my lifetime due to globalization. Davies has a gift for exploring profound universal issues through the intimate lens of the psyches of a handful of carefully crafted characters. Don't be fooled by her gentle style as she will shake your comfortable worldview profoundly. By leaving it to the reader to join the dots, West is a refreshing change from the shrill voices of so many writers with a message.

So simple. So uncomplicated. Carys Davies so good. I’m not tempted to offer an overview of this novel. No one would believe it could be worth reading. But trust me her characters are truly believable, three will touch the reader. The strength her characters present will perhaps offer the reader an understanding of what it took to settle, capture this country. And I believe all that you think, feel about this novel might very well surprise you. Bravo, Ms Davies.

3.5 stars would have been my choice. The story is intriguing if at times overwrought and at other times undernourished. A father and widower in the early 1800s becomes consumed with the possibility of mega fauna still roaming the American west, so leaves his ten year old daughter on their farm in western Pennsylvania, in the care of his spinster sister, while he heads into the wilderness in the wake of Lewis and Clark. At times the language seems derivative of Cormac McCarthy, though not as finely done. The story bounces between Cy Bellman, the father, and Bess, his daughter back home. To her credit, Davies raises many serious points: what kind of love (or selfishness) would permit a supposedly loving father to abandon his daughter, what is the affect on one's psyche of losing a young and vibrant spouse, what kind of life did women suffer in that society, how were girls mistreated and misvalued, to coin a word, and what level of blame or responsibility does a conquering force (white Europeans) accept or need to accept for the destruction of indigenous cultures (American Indian). The book is short and the ending was abrupt. These important themes could have been explored in much greater detail over a longer period of time. The truncated story was ultimately unsatisfying, merely raising important issues without seeking any fuller understanding or resolution.

There are nuggets here. They are rich and golden and they stay on for a spell - a Native American name, the power of a photo in a rustic age, travel by foot, ungentle men. Is the story as big as the title? That’s what I keep coming back to - the writing is vivid and easy and tells the tale well - but has the tale been told in full? Perhaps that’s the best type of tale.