I've been a fan of Richard Ford since reading "Independence Day" back in the 90's. Unlike the crime novels in which I'm indulging, this book was a lot more thoughtful and required more of my brain. However, it was worth reading even though I wasn't sure, at first, where exactly it was heading. I actually stopped to read a few book reviews which helped a lot. This is not the slightly snarky and funny writing style that I remembered.



It is much more straight forward - a real and interesting, sad, yet also surprisingly positive story as told by a boy whose world is turned upside down. It opens with him telling us that his parents robbed a bank and what the consequences were. They were far reaching. He was spirited away from Great Falls, Montana where he was living to the plains of western Canada. He loses contact with his twin sister for years. He works for a strange man who runs a hotel and hunting businesses for (mostly) American hunters.



The year is 1960. It might be hard for a younger person to picture this particular time. It wasn't for me. In 1960, Dell, the narrator, is 15 and ready to go to high school. (At the time, "junior high" was often from grades 7-9.) Dell's parents are mismatched - having met toward the end of WWII and conceiving the twins in a one night stand. Dell and his sister, Berner, are two ordinary kids really. Their mismatched parents aren't a lot different from a lot of the mismatched parents that I remember as a kid.



WWII seems to have engendered a lot of that. Dell's father is always looking for the next rainbow, a way to make some "big" money it seems. He is allowed to retire from the Air Force at the age of 37 after being involved with an illegal meat selling scam involving the Officers' Club. Then he proceeds to do the same thing with a train employee. He tries selling cars without a lot of success. His wife, a quiet intellectual woman, is a 5th grade teacher who does it strictly for the money. Both are distant from their kids, but then again, our postwar parents weren't interested in making sure that our self-esteem was always paramount!



After the robbery, Dell and Berner are supposed to be taken to Canada by a friend of their mother's. They spend several days alone in the house. The neighbors ignore them other than to leave a copy of the newspaper with their parents' pictures on the front. The friend is inexplicably late, but finally arrives. Berner doesn't wait but leaves for places unknown. Dell waits and goes along with her, throwing a few possessions in a pillowcase. He stays in the hunting area until his boss involves him in a horrific murder. Then his girlfriend gets him away to her brother's home in Winnipeg.