The Signal

Jul 30, 2009 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This one is a one day read, but very engrossing. Not your typical cowboy story by a long shot! The author has done several short story collections, so this is properly a novella. The sparse language makes the plot twists all the more surprising, sort of like finding that hidden canyon on the long hike in!

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Nov 16, 2011 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a short mystery novel set in the great outdoors of Wyoming, involving lots and lots of hiking and wilderness. Strengths: the characters and their banter, and the great outdoors setting. I thought the writing involving the setting was splendid. Made me feel like I was there hiking along with them, breathing the mountain air, feeling the crackling fire, and seeing the fantastic vistas. I really liked the character of Vonnie (the female lead) - she was a spitfire, and lobbed wisecracks rig...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Lydia rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Signal was not what I expected. It’s a novel about a man who has lost everything in his life and wants to fix it, but does not entirely seem to be able. The book is broken into the six days he spends with his ex-wife on a camping trip, but includes flashbacks frequently enough for the reader to understand the motivations and feelings of the main character, Mack. This gives the reader a full understanding of Mack and makes him a rounded character.
Throughout the book, Mack is trying to fix...more The Signal was not what I expected. It’s a novel about a man who has lost everything in his life and wants to fix it, but does not entirely seem to be able. The book is broken into the six days he spends with his ex-wife on a camping trip, but includes flashbacks frequently enough for the reader to understand the motivations and feelings of the main character, Mack. This gives the reader a full understanding of Mack and makes him a rounded character.
Throughout the book, Mack is trying to fix his life and rekindle his relationship with his ex-wife, Vonnie, while also attempting to respect her newfound relationship. Carlson does a really good job going through Mack’s past and explaining, slowly but surely, what happened to Mack, from how he met Vonnie, to when his life went off track, and how he felt trying to get it back together. All this background and explanation gives the reader a clear understanding of the characters, but takes a long time to get through. The action in the book doesn’t start until day four of six. This is when the two of them run into some poachers, almost literally. This is when the pace picks up and the drama really sets in. Before this point, everything is about explaining the past.
The title, the Signal, refers to a job that Mack is doing for a questionable man, Yarnell. Yarnell has lost a valuable piece of equipment in the mountains and has asked Mack to go into the mountains to search for the signal the equipment gives off and ultimately bring the machinery back. I found this title pertinent to the book because Carlson does refer to it through the novel as Mack checks his device to try and find the missing machinery, but it seems to take a backseat for the entire story. Even when Mack is actually at the crash site, digging through broken pieces of equipment and discovers the dead body of his friend, I wasn’t concerned with the signal at all, because at this point the poachers were chasing Mack and he was trying to reach Vonnie. In fact, he may still have been in the mountains with Vonnie even if Yarnell had never contacted Mack. This was a trip that they had taken every year for the past decade. It seemed to me the book could be more aptly named.
The first half of the novel, and to some extent that second half as well, is extremely depressing. Everything that Mack said or did made me sad; he is going through a difficult time in his life, having just quit being an alcoholic and getting out of the drug game. This made even his happy memories sad, especially after the reader learns how close he was to his father and how distraught he was when his father died. The first two days I spent reading this book, I lived semi-comatose, wandering my apartment and campus feeling depressed about events that never happened to me and a character that never existed. This shows great ability on the author’s part because inciting emotion in the reader is a sign of a well written piece, but that fact did not make me any happier about my predicament.
Overall, my opinion of the book is a positive one. I felt that it was slow to begin but contained an interesting and realistic story that really picked up in the last third of the book.
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Oct 03, 2011 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Adventure, Romance, Mystery

The Signal by Ron Carlson.
Penguin Books, New York, 2009.

Ron Carlson portrays his novel as a story about romance and adventure. However, he puts a twist on what could be a classic tale. This is not a story about a budding romance, but one about a final trip before a couple’s divorce. Further, the adventure that is taken is not a simple hike through the woods. These characters are experienced in the wilderness and have taken this trip nine times previously. Carlson also...more Adventure, Romance, Mystery

The Signal by Ron Carlson.
Penguin Books, New York, 2009.

Ron Carlson portrays his novel as a story about romance and adventure. However, he puts a twist on what could be a classic tale. This is not a story about a budding romance, but one about a final trip before a couple’s divorce. Further, the adventure that is taken is not a simple hike through the woods. These characters are experienced in the wilderness and have taken this trip nine times previously. Carlson also throws in some mystery about what ‘the signal’ is and where it is going to lead the protagonists.

The novel opens with Mack, one of the main characters, arriving at the trail head which doubles as the meeting place for his wife, Vonnie. He reveals that this is the tenth, and last trip before the couple splits up. They go through the motions and hike to the familiar locations. Little does Vonnie know that Mack is checking his Blackberry each day for a signal from a lost parcel in the woods. The trip moves smoothly until one of their final days when they have to run from some shady characters and Vonnie ends up hurt and later disappears. Mack must now follow the signal on his phone, as well as rescue the woman he used to love.

The novel is a quick read for those who enjoy diving into books. The one fault is the language used about fish, hiking and camping. It can get a little confusing if you prefer hotel rooms to tents. Also, trying to keep straight the names and relationships of the secondary characters can cause you to have to pause your reading to make the connections. Besides these two faults, one of the strengths used by Carlson was to have Mack continually tell an old campfire story throughout the book that had a parallel to his own life.

Mack and Vonnie are the two consistent characters throughout the novel and their past is revealed bit by bit as they trek through the wilderness. Carlson did a wonderful job portraying the couple’s first meeting and how they continued their courtship through the years. Mack is the narrator and the reader is able to get into his brain and hear more of what he thinks; while Vonnie’s voice is only heard when she actually speaks to Mack or when Mack remembers things about her. Carlson’s use of a one-sided narration gave greater depth to the man’s view on a situation of separation. Also, Mack’s knowledge of the woods painted a beautiful picture of his surroundings.

All in all, Carlson created a powerful story with relatable characters and an adventurous storyline. Most readers would be carried right into the mountains of Wyoming and caught up in the intricate relationship between man, woman, and woods. Some would rather curl up with another book that doesn’t involve the fishing and hiking jargon. As long as the reader enjoys romance, adventure, and a little bit of mystery this novel is a good read as well as a quick one.
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Apr 06, 2011 Keytrice Castro rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ron Carlson’s The Signal, published by Viking Penguin in 2009, is a captivating story of a picturesque cowboy, Mack, on his final fishing trip with his ex-wife, Vonnie. The two met while he was just a hand at his father’s ranch; by then he knew everything about the forests around him as if he lived in them—and he practically did. His earthly experience and her deep curiosity drew them together as each summer passed, and soon they were in love, making the best they could with what they had. As Ca...more Ron Carlson’s The Signal, published by Viking Penguin in 2009, is a captivating story of a picturesque cowboy, Mack, on his final fishing trip with his ex-wife, Vonnie. The two met while he was just a hand at his father’s ranch; by then he knew everything about the forests around him as if he lived in them—and he practically did. His earthly experience and her deep curiosity drew them together as each summer passed, and soon they were in love, making the best they could with what they had. As Carlson wrote, “…they were in love and poor and so fine, but then they wore out poor and they did some damage to love.” This leads Mack to engage in some questionable business arrangements to keep money flowing—only pushing Vonnie away, as he was no longer the honorable, hard-working cowboy his father raised long ago. His life becomes a series of bad decisions from there on, revealed throughout their tale on the last of their yearly camping trips out to Cold Creek, Wyoming.

And with the premise set, there are two aspects of The Signal that fully engages the reader: the level of complexity in the story, and the lingering role of Mack’s father. The Signal could have easily worked as a short (love) story between Mack and Vonnie, complete with the back story of how they met and the present narrative of their final trip together, but Carlson creates a brilliant piece by interlacing layers of trouble that burrows its way from his failing past into the now dangerous present. And those layers linking their naïve past with the complicated present is exactly where Mack’s father is woven in. After his death, Mack failed to realize just how akin he and his father were, a failure that in turn drove him to the troublesome life he subsequently led. Throughout the present part of the story, Mack remembers quotes from his father when he was growing up on the ranch—all of which were words of warning to steer him clear of the impending danger he was certainly aware of. Carlson wrote, “His father taught him not to make two troubles into three by hurrying,” and so whenever Mack’s plans go awry in the story, he reminds himself to slow down—the only advice from his father he decides to heed to.

My favorite aspect of The Signal is easily the dialogue, specifically between Mack and Vonnie. The book lends itself to be a real “man’s” book, complete with majestic imagery of Mack’s rugged lifestyle in the good ol’ outdoors, and the dialogue doesn’t fall short of that relatable manly touch. During “Day Two” of the book, Vonnie inquires about another woman Mack was seeing after they split, and went about it in all the stereotypical (and believable) ways. She begins the conversation at the most inappropriate moment, while he was peacefully cooking for her, and repeatedly calls the other woman “Trixie,” as if to jab at the phantom woman, whose name she knew was actually Trisha. She later takes verbal stabs at Mack by saying “Oh, what happened, big boy? Did you lie to her? …Liar. A lying liaristic lie-maker…Oh, when ten minutes ago? How does a liar stop lying? …Do they remove something?” Mack only musters out “Don’t” and “Vonnie” during her whole rant, but the temperament of the scene, along with the sarcasm, tension, cautiousness, and concern in their words to each other throughout the rest of the story are all too real. Carlson develops a genuine love, and just as authentically uses conflict to tear it apart, but without the pertinent dialogue, the story wouldn’t have felt as real as it did.

Carlson seemed to do everything right with The Signal, but the one point of contention I have with this story is the length—not quite a short story, but barely a novel. His phenomenal layering surely wouldn’t work with the length of a short story, but if he intended to get this involved with the story, I feel it should have, at the very least, surpassed 200 pages. Carlson seems to be a minimalist, but with a narrative so dense, more back story about his troublesome past could have been very useful in appreciating the present predicaments that also felt very rushed. Oh, the irony of rushing a story that very deliberately embedded the “slow, but steady” notion…(less)

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Apr 06, 2011 Craig rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Signal by Ron Carlson, May 28, 2009 Publisher: Viking Adult
A Break for the Landscape
In The Signal Ron Carlson presents the reader with a beautiful façade. The landscape and backgrounds are magnificent even breathtaking yet the broken character that is Mack remains the focal point therefore turning the gorgeous mountainside into one of a crumbling landscape. Barely containing his emotions he struggles through the loss of his father and his marriage. This story can only be described as bitter...more The Signal by Ron Carlson, May 28, 2009 Publisher: Viking Adult
A Break for the Landscape
In The Signal Ron Carlson presents the reader with a beautiful façade. The landscape and backgrounds are magnificent even breathtaking yet the broken character that is Mack remains the focal point therefore turning the gorgeous mountainside into one of a crumbling landscape. Barely containing his emotions he struggles through the loss of his father and his marriage. This story can only be described as bittersweet due to the already fading circumstances of this well chiseled character.
The other point man however is full of life and wonder, Vonnie- on the off chance of a divorcee actually going on a trip with her ex-husband-kicks the novel into gear from the very beginning by jumping on a horse to chase after a bear. Who on seeing a bear would then chase after it the very next day? Vonnie would. She is written to be a put up or shut up kind of girl holding her emotions under a tight grasp with her world view already strapped in place. This is the kind of woman that authors write but readers barely ever get to read due to the lack of communication brought on by such a difficult development. The relationship between Vonnie and Mack, not especially beautiful, held together by an annual fishing trip is believable yet unfortunately it still reeks of misconduct and a forced nature.
Ron Carlson captures the world in a way that would be expected of a painter not a writer. The difficulty in this novel is not reading the landscape but all the elements captured in the writing itself. Landscape pertains to the action very little yet there is so much former but very little latter. Reading this the thought “Okay let us move this along” may pop into the heads of readers outside of their comfort zone. As an avid sci-fi fantasy novel reader my interest was held but not captured, yes I read the novel but if I could have found the television remote I could replace beautifully written landscape with the discovery channel that conveniently places two Billy goats with grudges also on the mountain. The action remains insignificant in the later pages when you would expect this story that has been dragging in development up until now to pick and really take on new challenges. Dialogue stays at the minimum and action takes the backseat while the pages broadcast mountains, fields and valleys.
The writing itself remains effortlessly easy to follow throughout the story which is a nice break from authors and writers who try to mix it up and end up with sentences that would be better on Charmin pages than pages in a novel. Even then the bears would probably prefer their blank sheets. The book is a short read and an easy one. Not a day breaker forcing a missed class or a late dinner the read takes a few hours and is well worth it just for Vonnie and the mountains.
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Apr 06, 2011 Jacqueline rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ron Carlson takes us through a six day camping trip in the beautiful mountains of Wyoming with all kinds of unexpected turns. The hero of the story is a country man named Mack, fresh out of jail and a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, he’s not your typical hero. He embarks on this journey with his ex-wife, Vonnie, who he lost after he started getting involved in drugs and other criminal activities. Vonnie and Mack decided to go on one last camping trip together, it being a tradition of their...more Ron Carlson takes us through a six day camping trip in the beautiful mountains of Wyoming with all kinds of unexpected turns. The hero of the story is a country man named Mack, fresh out of jail and a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, he’s not your typical hero. He embarks on this journey with his ex-wife, Vonnie, who he lost after he started getting involved in drugs and other criminal activities. Vonnie and Mack decided to go on one last camping trip together, it being a tradition of theirs for the past 10 years, despite her already being involved with another man. Mack was in it to get closer to Vonnie again, but he also had some surprising other plans.

The story occasionally flashes back to his childhood where he grew up running a ranch with his father, the ranch that him and Vonnie lived at after getting married, but had trouble sustaining. With time, their marriage deteriorated along with Mack’s well-being and it eventually led to a horrible emotional breakdown for him. This camping trip was a final chance for him to try and clear his mind and have a fresh start, but he was also secretly tracking a lost piece of military equipment that he’s being paid to find by some sketchy criminals who Vonnie warned him to stay away from. You can feel the tension as he secretly checks the BlackBerry GPS given to him by the con artists for the location of the device.

They spend their days hiking through the mountains, Carlson using beautiful vivid descriptions of the rocks, trees and scenery. You can tell that Carlson has some experience in the world of hiking, his characters being masters of the act. Mack and Vonnie are pros, knowing the trails by heart and all of the best places to fish. They have their traditions down packed and it is painful to watch them re-living all of the ghosts of their marriage. You can feel the hurt and nostalgia through all of their inside jokes and can tell that they once lived a happy marriage through how comfortable they still are around each other. Vonnie tries her hardest to maintain her strength thoughout, but Mack is very stuck on the past. “You’re full of ghosts,” Vonnie tells him.

The story telling is very smooth, making you appreciate the beauty for the mountains and understand how it would have brought them so close at some point. In the end, it becomes suspenseful and we see many of Mack’s other ghosts from the past coming back to haunt him. The story begins to come together, many pieces from the beginning reappearing and creating a thriller in the end. Carlson uses such calm eloquence throughout so that once there is tension, the reader is sure to feel it. The story goes from comfortable and calm to action packed and intense. Carlson leaves you wondering what will happen next, making the mountains turn from a beautiful wonderland to a place packed with unsuspected bad guys. It is a story of love and re-birth, yet still a forceful thriller.
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Feb 11, 2011 Mark rated it 1 of 5 stars

The only thing going for this book was the fact that it's short in length. The back cover sells it as a love story, with intrigue, but the only mystery is why this couple -- who are already divorced, with one in a new relationship -- would agree to go camping together in the first place.

Mack, the annoying male lead in this melodrama, is constantly ragging on his ex, because of what her new beau purchased for her. "Oh, nice camera. Did Kent buy that for you?" "Those are expensive binoculars! Did...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Colleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

I listened to this novel as an audio book and was pleasantly surprised. It is more of a "guy" book than what I normally read (with a true modern-day cowboy serving as the main character and an element of CIA-type intrigue woven into the plot). That said, the main character's ex-wife is also central to the story as the former couple goes on one last hike together and she is a skillfully drawn and nuanced character -- not the one-dimensional, helpless bimbo so often featured in these type of "guy"...more

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Dec 12, 2010 Karen rated it 2 of 5 stars

This novel is about a man named Mack and his wife Vonnie who are splitting up but reunite to spend a few days hiking in the mountains of Wyonming which they've done annually for ten years. This is to be their last trip and their way of saying goodbye to each other. Mack owns a ranch and in desperate need of money to keep it going has turned to crime and other bad addictions, which is part of the reason why his marriage fell apart. He accepts a job to find a plane that crashed in the mountains, b...more

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Oct 12, 2010 Sonide added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Ron Carlson presents to us a beautifully written story of love and suspense surrounded by graceful western mountains that Carlson seem to enjoy himself, enveloped with great details to keep the reader enamored with the setting. The signal is about a recently divorced couple, Mack and Vonnie who are reunited for the last time to go on their 10th annual hiking trip together, which was how they fell in love in the first place, a ritual they did every year to celebrate their love. This trip was to b...more Ron Carlson presents to us a beautifully written story of love and suspense surrounded by graceful western mountains that Carlson seem to enjoy himself, enveloped with great details to keep the reader enamored with the setting. The signal is about a recently divorced couple, Mack and Vonnie who are reunited for the last time to go on their 10th annual hiking trip together, which was how they fell in love in the first place, a ritual they did every year to celebrate their love. This trip was to be their last one, as a goodbye; just two friends spending time together to heal deep wounds they accounted over the years. To Vonnie it was a way to say goodbye to their love forever, and to Mack it was his last hope at proving to her that he had changed and was ready to put his life back together. They weren’t expecting to be brought closer by their love for the mountains and the discoveries hidden in there.

Mack and Vonnie met on Mack’s father’s ranch back in Wyoming when they were seventeen when she was visiting with her parents. From then on they started an on and off relationship which led to marriage. They were happily married for a while but fell off when Mack started selling himself short. He started surrounding himself with shady company which brought on shady business deals, and selling drugs. He was never able to come to terms with his father’s death, or the fact that he was no longer a part of this earth. Mack didn’t believe in himself to run the Ranch-cottage business his dad left behind, he didn’t think he deserved to. He let his lack of confidence and poor choices get him thrown into jail, and driving Vonnie away in the process.

Ron Carlson provides a great story of Western romance for the people who loves outdoorsy adventures, it’s a great summer read; and even if one is not an outdoorsy fan, and do not see themselves going through the process of lack of hygiene, and camping in cold temperature just to enjoy the company of someone else, the great details and the plot are enough to keep a reader intrigue, and to keep them turning the pages.

At times the idea of a soon to be ex-wife dating another man, planning a trip with her ex-husband is a bit surreal; adding the idea that the other guy in the picture has nothing to say about his woman going off on a six day trip with her ex-husband, was a bit farfetched. It felt a little unrealistic. But overall it is a great storyline that keeps the attention of the reader throughout the whole novel, grabbing and pulling them in to experience the beautiful mountainous views, to enjoy the camping stories of the cannibal for example and all in all, to experience Mack and Vonnie’s last shot at restoring a friendship that was wounded by poverty, greed, wounded pride and lack of equilibrium.
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Apr 27, 2010 Steph rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction

I hadn't read any Ron Carlson since my graduate days, and then it was mostly short stories. I found this book on someone's book list here on Goodreads. Otherwise, I doubt I would have ever come across it. But now I'm ready for more Carlson. I think I'll try FIVE SKIES next.

THE SIGNAL is about a recently divorced couple on a camping trip in the Wind River range in Wyoming. Mack is an I.T. specialist and former ranch hand who has never stopped grieving the loss of his father.

Growing up on a worki...more

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Feb 10, 2010 Tara rated it 3 of 5 stars

"The Signal:" Ron Carlson Charms a Reluctant Reader

Sometimes a key element in a novel -- the main character, the setting, etc. -- can be so inherently appealing to a particular reader that the book's success is guaranteed before the author earns it page by page. If an author's topic and the reader's interests coalesce, it's not that difficult for the story to capture the reader's approval and simply coast forward on a wave of good will.

This being the case, I must applaud the skill with which Ron...more "The Signal:" Ron Carlson Charms a Reluctant Reader

Sometimes a key element in a novel -- the main character, the setting, etc. -- can be so inherently appealing to a particular reader that the book's success is guaranteed before the author earns it page by page. If an author's topic and the reader's interests coalesce, it's not that difficult for the story to capture the reader's approval and simply coast forward on a wave of good will.

This being the case, I must applaud the skill with which Ron Carlson drew me in to his most recent novel, The Signal, against my natural inclinations. Before proceeding further, I need to list two of my prejudices: 1. I am not a backwoods camper, and I never will be. I enjoy an afternoon hike in the mountains as much as the next person, but I'll never willingly subject myself to freezing overnight temperatures, dismal hygiene, and the icky prospect of pooping in the woods, no matter how many s'mores are offered in the bargain. 2. I generally do not enjoy books with protagonists who would dislike me if they met me. Life is full of enough challenges. Why should I invite imagined disdain from fictional characters?

Carlson's most recent novel is a "man's man of a book" (not my original phrase -- almost every reviewer makes this observation) that captures the raw power and sweeping beauty of one of the last expanses of Western wilderness -- the remote, mountainous backcountry of Wyoming -- and ties that power and beauty directly to the emotional landscape and interpersonal chemistry of the novel's two main characters, Mack and Vonnie. Vonnie, a high school girl from Chapel Hill, meets Mack during a dude ranch trip to Wyoming. Mack, the ranch owner's son, personifies the Western wilderness mystique that Vonnie craves like a drug, and their mutual love of the wilderness and each other leads to an on-again off-again relationship that eventually culminates in marriage.

Things happen. Mack's parents die, bills mount up, poverty begins to nip at the heels of the young couple, and even their yearly romantic forays into the far backcountry can't save them from the effects of Mack's wounded pride, the grind of failure, and the introduction of methamphetamine to the locals. A jail term ensues for Mack, Vonnie leaves town, and Mack's last hope is based on Vonnie's promise to go on one more backpacking trip with him into the Wyoming wilderness upon his release from jail. The bulk of Carlson's novel is the tale of their ill-fated 6-day camping trip, the beauty and the evil they encounter, and the ways in which broken relationships can and can't be mended.

Carlson's spare and beautiful prose, together with his tight control of the novel's mounting suspense, pulled me in to a book that I had no business liking. I would never be attracted to Mack or Vonnie in real life, and I'm sure the feeling would be mutual. One evening of beers and cheese fries at the local tavern with those two and they'd give me up as a lost cause ("What a stiff little snit. Was she actually wearing makeup base?"). Nevertheless, Carlson's clear, spare language drew me into the purity of their mutual attraction with conviction. He made me experience and understand the basis of their love for each other in spite of the fact that I couldn't be more different that either one of them. Similarly, his sensory descriptions of Mack and Vonnie's camping experience -- the toothsome delight of a day-old doughnut when you're ravished with hunger, the throat-warming jolt of boiled coffee on a frosty morning, the feel of a cool breeze on sweat-drenched denim when a backpack is taken off -- had the ability to tempt a non-naturechild like me to speculate that Mack and Vonnie might indeed be on to something.

If you like stories filled with remote wilderness, survivalist suspense, and characters that radiate self-reliance and a love of rugged simplicity, you'll enjoy this book. If you don't, there's a reasonable chance you'll still enjoy this book, and that says a lot about Ron Carlson's skill as a writer.

Note: Carlson's interjection of a subplot involving a lost transponder (thus, "The Signal") felt a bit forced, but I still consider the book to be one of his best. (less)

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Jun 30, 2009 Larry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Good summer reading for those who like outdoorsy, adventure stuff. The novel is set in the rugged Wind River range of WY. The main character, Mack, is a really broken guy. He and Vonnie have backpacked the same trail every September for nine years, but this year, the tenth, is different because they are no longer a couple. Vonnie sees the five day trip as closure and a chance to fish high country lakes. Mack wants a second chance with Vonnie and something else. That something else is the princip...more

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Aug 02, 2009 Marian Deegan rated it 3 of 5 stars

There is a singularly laconic voice that belongs to the American West, and is beautifully captured by authors like Norman Maclean and Mark Spragg. If you are a happy armchair traveler to that world of mountains and big skies and tough resourcefulness, this is a book you might want to pick up. Although it is more adventure story than poetic reflection, Carlson has captured the stamp of the west on his characters in a page-turning tale of one last camping trip that goes sinisterly wrong.

Sadly, No...more

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Apr 11, 2011 Charles Raymond rated it 3 of 5 stars

“The Signal" a novel by Ron Carlson is a wonderful love story about a young couple, Mark, who is the protagonist, and Vonnie his recent ex-wife who reunite for a six day camping trip in the mountains of Wyoming, for one final get together. Every year for the past ten years they would meet on the Ides of September, at nine fifteen, this routine trip was a promise. a yearly rite, and Mark wonders if Vonnie will show up or not, he is hoping for another chance.

The novel is a short book under 200 pag...more “The Signal" a novel by Ron Carlson is a wonderful love story about a young couple, Mark, who is the protagonist, and Vonnie his recent ex-wife who reunite for a six day camping trip in the mountains of Wyoming, for one final get together. Every year for the past ten years they would meet on the Ides of September, at nine fifteen, this routine trip was a promise. a yearly rite, and Mark wonders if Vonnie will show up or not, he is hoping for another chance.

The novel is a short book under 200 pages and is fast paced. It contains six chapters, one for each day of the trip, and the reader can feel the pace of the book by the built in clock that is running. It is written in third person limited and the story is penned through the narrator’s eyes who provides a great deal of back story about the protagonist’s life and allows the reader to climb into his head as well.

Mack lives on a ranch in Wyoming and he has been a rancher all his life and was devastated by his father’s death. He has been messing up his life with liquor and running drugs for a drug dealer, and has just gotten out of jail.

Mack also has another reason for wanting to go on the camping trip. He is in trouble financially and could lose the ranch. He meets a shady character that is supposed to have connections in the CIA and
he is given a BlackBerry with a GPA tracking device that will pick up a signal to locate an experimental single engine airplane that has crashed somewhere in the wilderness of the mountains. If he follows the beacon and recovers the source of the signal he will be rewarded with a lot of money which will be enough to save the ranch.

Yet Mack and Vonnie are not the only ones in the mountains. As Mark closes in on his prize they hear a gunshot and find trash along the trail until they stumble upon a camp with a gray tent and some bad guys appear that Mark knew when he ran drugs to earn extra money. At this point the tension is ratcheted up in the novel and the story races forward to its conclusion.

The narrator also paints compelling vistas of the Wind River Range in Wyoming and describes the smells of campfire cooking which colors vivid pictures in the minds of the reader. This is definitely a man book written for a male audience.
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Jan 02, 2010 Jennifer added it

Ron Carlson writes about the natural world and makes it a suspenseful place to observe and be in. He's also a master of the opening sentence: "He drove the smooth winding two-track up through the high aspen grove and crossed the open meadow to the edge of the pines at the Cold Creed trailhead and parked his father's old blue Chevrolet pickup by the ruined sign in the September twilight." Unpack this, and the whole novel tumbles out. But my favorite sentence came at the height of the action, when...more

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Sep 23, 2009 Jeremy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-mystery-thriller

To mark their tenth annually hike into the Wind River Mountains, Mack and Vonnie work on a final goodbye to their relationship. While Mack tries proving to Vonnie he is getting his life on track, Vonnie sees it will never change. Mack still has some pieces of his life out of order and has every intention of making the changes. The struggles of love for Vonnie and the projects that keep her away have Mack contemplating his next move. The hike takes place mid-September every year since they became...more To mark their tenth annually hike into the Wind River Mountains, Mack and Vonnie work on a final goodbye to their relationship. While Mack tries proving to Vonnie he is getting his life on track, Vonnie sees it will never change. Mack still has some pieces of his life out of order and has every intention of making the changes. The struggles of love for Vonnie and the projects that keep her away have Mack contemplating his next move. The hike takes place mid-September every year since they became an item. The annually event has played a vital role in their lives from the marker of their first date to this final farewell. This final year’s event takes place over a six day period and becomes taxing on both of them.

A great Western adventure story with a splash of romance, Ron Carlson provides a great, yet rather short read, The Signal. Full of simple characters that many can relate with and just the right amount of mystery to keep the pages turning. The shifting between Mack’s past and present kept the story moving along nicely. Like Carlson’s other short stories, this book builds Mack and Vonnie’s entire six day trip through a review of the Mack’s lifetime of events.

The prose is majestic and awe inspiring, yet simple. With the beautiful descriptions of the expansive mountainous scenery, Carlson paints a great picture for the reader. Some of the events are reminiscence of a typical outdoor trip, placing the reader into the adventurous outdoors. The plot twists of the main story flow alongside small fragments of events in their relationship. Vonnie planned this hike as a final goodbye of their relationship, Mack held onto hope of full restoration.

At times the sub-plot of the Mack’s search for the drone tends to weaken the storyline and offsets the real conflict between Mack and Vonnie’s relationship. In addition, the fact they are taking the trip together is a little unrealistic. In the real world, a soon-to-be ex-wife would never agree to an arrangement that Mack and Vonnie made. Certainly, the new man in Vonnie’s life should have an issue with the arrangement, most normal men in a relationship would find this hard to swallow.

The Signal is a timeline of life events told over a six day period marking past struggles with present day events. If you are looking for a good story of a couple struggling to hold onto their past, take a trip through the mountains with Mack and Vonnie with all the perils.
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Jul 23, 2012 Holly rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Spoiler Alert…

If you like a book full of back stories, mysteries to unravel and complications, this just may be the book for you. The caveat to that is if you need the story to ultimately reveal everything, and/or end neatly and tidily. If you fall into the latter category, don’t even bother to pick it up this book. Typically, I don’t mind books in either category -- as long as they’re well written. That said, while this book was well written in terms of descriptions, character building, and pro...more

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Apr 21, 2010 Brett Starr added it

As a big fan of Ron Carlson's short stories, I was eager to read "The Signal".

The book is a great tale, one that could easily be true.

One of Ron Carlson's greatest gifts is that he can fit so much into so little, the book is 184 pages.

Mack & his estranged wife decide to take one last trip in the mountains of Wyoming. To fish, breathe fresh air and enjoy the natural beauty. Along the way they run into ruthless poachers and a rich madman hell bent on getting what he wants.

The story is exce...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Larry Hoffer added it

A beautifully written, slightly odd and at times frustrating book. Ron Carlson is another writer with an amazing talent for creating beautiful landscapes from words and he has the ability to create amazing tension out of nowhere. (See his last book, Five Skies, for proof.)

This book tells the story of Mack, a rancher struggling to make ends meet, both financially and emotionally, and his now-estranged wife, Vonnie. Despite their estrangement, they meet to hike some trails, fish and spend some tim...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Published by Viking Adult, May 28 2009.
"The Signal" by Ron Carlson is a constant escapade of one man’s personal issues in relation to his life and the people revolved around him. The book consistently represents different problems, whether past or present, which build upon each other to create a conclusive and suspenseful ending. Carlson’s descriptive writing brings out the setting and provides fruitful explanations of nature and the freedom from civilization while camping in the forests.
The...more Published by Viking Adult, May 28 2009.
"The Signal" by Ron Carlson is a constant escapade of one man’s personal issues in relation to his life and the people revolved around him. The book consistently represents different problems, whether past or present, which build upon each other to create a conclusive and suspenseful ending. Carlson’s descriptive writing brings out the setting and provides fruitful explanations of nature and the freedom from civilization while camping in the forests.
The story is written as alternating sequences between the main character, Mack, and his various amount of problems in his past, starting with the death of his father. Mack and his ex-wife are camping in the forest for the last time to conclude a decade of once-a-year camping trips. This last camping trip brings out past events and reasons behind why they are divorced and how Mack is slowly but surely regrouping himself. Throughout the story the reader is constantly guessing whether there is still a spark between the former lovers, but Mack’s ex-wife, Vonnie, has a new man and just wants closure with Mack with a last camping trip. Mack’s past problems described in the book aren’t only with Vonnie, but with his failing ranch, drinking problems, complications with the law, and schemes with devious, unlawful human beings. The issues associated with Mack, all come together at the end of the story to create a thrilling result of issues between multitudes of people and resolve his constant problems.
"The Signal" can be confusing at times because the stories associated with Mack’s past are unfamiliar to the reader and they get explained after they’re told further down the novel. The past stories are also unexpected and have no designation as to whether time or setting changed as the novel continues. The author also fails to specify which character is speaking most of the time, which can mix up the reader as to who’s talking. This constant switch and failure to specification sometimes makes the book choppy and it doesn’t help the writing flow continuously.
Although the conversations between characters can be a weak point, The Signal has its strong points related to setting and story. The setting is the most emphasized aspect of Ron Carlson’s writing and it is strongly enforced throughout the whole book. His metaphors used to describe nature bring out a clear picture in the reader’s mind. The Signal is so full of imagery and description that the reader can feel the freedom and space associated with forests and woodlands. This strong sense of description and picture completely separates the reader from Mack’s problems and helps focus entirely on setting alone. It forces the reader to divulge into the thought of nature and freedom from problems or rules associated with life. The story itself is very interesting because it starts with one problem and builds into many problems as Mack gets older. The reader wants to learn how Mack got intertwined with certain people and how he was able to escape the tangles of bad choices.
"The Signal" was an interesting book with excellent factors associated with setting and plot. However, the flow of the story can be misinterpreted at times and can mix up the reader with the constant change and no inclination as to when or why.
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Apr 13, 2010 Armand rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: genre-mod-lit-fic, read-me-again, read-2010, source-was-a-gift

great book- some notes:

A simple plot: a divorced couple (one a ranch hand the other a music teacher) go on one last hike together. In the woods, they find truth and big, bad trouble.

The narrative voice of this book is simply amazing, almost poetic, and Ron Carlson does justice to the beauty of North American wilderness. The mountain country of Wyoming is really the third main character here.

If you find yourself getting a little bored at the get-go, hang on. Thing really pick up after page 70.

The...more

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Jul 19, 2010 Barner rated it 5 of 5 stars

I think this is the best Ron Carlson I have read. Bonnie gave me this book, and I decided I needed to read it before Rocky comes so that I can pass it on to him if he has not already read it. So this book was part of my afternoon yesterday. Not only are the descriptions of the Wyoming mountains so fresh and explanatory, but the story is gripping. The plot, a young man who has done some wrong is hoping to make a cone-back, is gripping as he and his ex-wife go on a hiking, camping, fishing trip in...more

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Dec 10, 2011 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

The Signal creates such an evocative, engrossing sense of place that it made me want to stop reading and take a hike. There's great tension between the characters' desire for a pristine, wild place and the realities of needing to work and get by and often needing to leave your preferred landscape to do so, and without getting didactic Carlson raises some powerful questions about how the corruption of a place can corrupt everyone in it (with the exception of the hunting guide Clay, still doing th...more

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Oct 19, 2009 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-dad

Its probably my fault that I didn't like this book more than I did. I was told it was a plane read, which I interpreted to mean that it was an easy read and, as a result, probably didn't pay enough attention. The author was not one to come out and explain everything that was going on. So, as a result, I missed probably important pieces in the plot, especially at the end of the book where I started to rush to finish.

More generally, I thought that the main character was well drawn, but that Ron Ca...more

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May 06, 2012 Ron rated it 4 of 5 stars

In this novel about a young man's last annual fishing trip with his now ex-wife, Carlson's main character, Mack, is both tough and tender - vulnerable after a life that has taken bad turns.

The plot, however, strains credibility. And that may be because "The Signal" wants too much to be a movie. The romance, the building of suspense, the travelogue setting of lakes, mountains, and forest, and the perilous circumstances that have you racing through the last pages make it a candidate for a Hollywoo...more

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Oct 18, 2009 Corey rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was torn between giving this book 3 and 4 stars. It was a quick read (and short-184 pages) that sucked me in right away. Not only did a lot happen in that short time, but he developed the main characters were fairly well. Carlson's writing can be poetic, but at times it was over the top for me-I read a few passages more than once to attain total comprehension of his interesting writing style.

A story about a camping trip, superficially, but I'll agree with the back cover that it was more about...more

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Mar 15, 2011 Sandra rated it 2 of 5 stars

Another good book by the author of "Five Skies" written about the great West and the beauty of the Wyoming mountains. The back packing trip that this couple are on was to be their last, thinking about all the other ones they had taken when they were married. They met on the ranch his dad had owned where he was a cowboy taking the summer visitors out on trail rides and she was a city dude from the east coast. They both loved the mountains though and this was their bond. This trip proves to be a l...more

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Feb 11, 2011 Adam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Carlson has at least three stories, in competition, here: that of a failed relationship, of a man wrestling both with his father’s ghost and with his weakness for “bad company,” and, finally, of a Hollywood thrill ride. It’s a common problem with good short story authors turning their hands to novel-writing. One of these stories could have been excellent, and maybe two together would have worked. But with three, things get incredible and muddled. The novel isn’t sure if it wants to be Cormac McC...more

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