The Work of Wolves

by Kent Meyers

When fourteen-year-old Carson Fielding bought his first horse from Magnus Yarborough, it became clear that the teenager was a better judge of horses than the rich landowner was of humans. Years later, Carson, now a skilled and respected horse trainer, grudgingly agrees to train Magnus's horses and teach his wife to ride. But as Carson becomes disaffected with the power-hungry Magnus, he also grows more and more attracted to the rancher's wife, and their relationship sets off a violent chain of events that unsettles their quiet reservation border town in South Dakota. Thrown into the drama are Earl Walks Alone, an Indian trying to study his way out of the reservation and into college, and Willi, a German exchange student confronting his family's troubled history.

In this unforgettable story of horses, love, and life, Carson and the entire ensemble of characters learn, in very different ways, about the strong bonds that connect people to each other and to the land on which they live.

Genres: Fiction, Westerns, Book Club, Animals, Adult Fiction, Literature, Novels

407 pages, Paperback

First published June 7, 2004

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book because recently I've read several wonderful books set in the American West. It's not fun to write reviews for books that I don’t like but if I’m leaving a single star rating, I feel that I should explain why. I think I only persevered to finish this book so I could fairly give the rating. Admittedly, I was busy with moving into a new house at the time but, even considering that, it was a very slow read.

First and foremost is the overwhelming sense of exaggeration within the story. The story itself is not complicated but the prose seems overly ambitious. Every thought and action is expounded upon in what came to be a frustrating level of detail. It’s almost as if Meyers was shooting for a mystical and spiritual atmosphere instead it felt completely rambling, at times contradicting. There are also lengthy backgrounds provided on three main characters which felt bulky and separate from one another, further interrupting the flow of the story.

Second, the dialogue. I realize this is a Western setting; there are Native Americans and cowboys, and I’m sure that the author wanted the dialogue to sound natural. I generally don’t have a problem with that but Meyer’s unfortunate choice of words used to create this informal language didn’t work well at all. Here are some examples of what I mean:

“Want a go for a ride?”
“That kind a idea.”
“It could a been.”
“It should a been.”

So, I know these are simple cases of wanna, kinda, coulda, and shoulda, so why couldn’t they have been written this way? Those separated words felt so awkward and were used so frequently! I couldn’t get used to it even after 400 pages. It was like hitting little speed bumps as I read.

The book is about four men from very different backgrounds who, by becoming allies against a mean-spirited landowner, end up as unlikely friends. It was disquieting how this story played out and certain parts were very difficult to stomach. In my eyes, Meyers failed to convey the necessity or the urgency of what they were doing. I wasn’t convinced and I didn’t believe that it was The Work of Wolves.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another one I recommend to anyone who will listen.

The writing is so beautiful in parts of this book that it's almost painful. I had to call my sister on the phone and read a passage aloud to her, in fact. (You'll read that as "Denise likes to inflict pain on her sister," but that's not really the point.)

When I read, I tend to enjoy good characters more than any other aspect of a story. This one's chock-full. I don't mean to diminish the value of the story -- the clash and uneasy alliance of cultural values, questions about ethics and compassion, the use and abuse of several kinds of power -- but the characters are what give this novel its strength and truth.

In my (more-or-less) humble opinion.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best stories I've read in a long time. There are really three protagonists (even if the back of the book describes Carson as the focal point), and the way Meyers develops each of their narratives is amazing. I've seen in some reviews that other people didn't like the subplot involving Nazi Germany, but I thought it connected seamlessly to the South Dakota storyline and provided more depth to the motifs and themes. I remember when Brian finished this book (several years ago now), he sighed and said he would miss the characters. I agree. It also made me want to visit the Badlands again--such a haunting backdrop for this beautiful novel.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The Work of Wolves' is one of those rare books that in reading seems to have written itself. Obviously the author worked very hard to make this so and did a wonderful job of leaving the final draft free of himself to be stalked whole heartily by the surprising characters. I was in awe through most of the reading. It was a privilege to read and humbling. Up there with 'All the Pretty Horses', 'The River Runs Trough It', 'Legends of the Fall', and others that do not come to mind at the moment.

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books where you are still thinking about it a week later. I love well developed 'interesting' characters and this book delivered it! Having grown up and living in South Dakota (setting of the book), it was a lot of fun to read sections describing the people/biases/landscape etc. The descriptions were right on target!

[Emily Wicks Escott · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Jacqueline J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. There were some beautiful lyrical passages. There were thought provoking passages. There were interesting characters that I cared about. Somehow though the book didn't jell quite as much as perhaps it should have. Carson was such a smart, strong man starting from when he was a boy as the book opened that I felt that I expected more from him. That somehow even though he triumphed in some ways, in others he was blowing in the wind a bit. The book had such a strong beginning that I expected more at the end. More of an arcing inevitable bracketing in the end.

The characterizations were where the book really shone. Besides Carson, Earl Walks Alone was a stand out character. His was a clear shinning note, sort of an anti stereotype of an Indian. Norm, his uncle, and his mother were clearly drawn. Ted and Willi were also interesting characters. I also felt like the setting of western South Dakota was almost a character in itself.

Well it was absorbing and interesting for the most part. But I lacked that feeling of closing the book satisfied that all was wrapped up, every inevitable action had happened and everyone was right where they should be as I turned the last page.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A smart book about horses and how they bring three different cultures together. (Rural white, Native American, and European). A horse whisperer, a German "Lakota Sioux want to be" and a troubled and melancholy Indian are the main characters. The weakest character is the flatly written female protagonist. The author falls back on the "woman in peril" theme and could have done more. The characters are multi faceted and we hear their inner thoughts and are compelled to feel deeply about them. Emotionally intense, the narrative drew me into the multi-generational conflict set on the Rez. in South Dakota. The characters are presented with depth, empathy and charity. The story takes off on unexpected tangents, which mostly work except for the trip to Germany. The ending was disturbing and did not settle for a neatly wrapped up cliché. The book shows how everyone in a small town is linked to one another whether they want to be or even know it. I recommend the book but am not sure I will read the author's other books.

[Andrea Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm so sorry I didn't like this book. I wanted to, because it was written by a Black Hills writer, but I just didn't. The story was threadbare and the dialect was hard to read and a poor reflection of how people talk where I grew up. It should be "You wanna go for a ride?" not, "You want a go for a ride?" That drove me crazy.

There were some good ideas that should have been more fully developed, like the Goat Man legend, and some ideas that probably belonged in another book, like all the Nazi stuff. Really, Meyers, your connection for these ideas is that a lot of Germans are interested in Lakota culture?

Reading this book made me want to read Dan Simmons' new book about the Black Hills, and I stumbled across a blurb somewhere recently that mentioned Ian Frazier's On the Rez, so I think I'll add that to my list.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not the type of book I would ordinarily choose to read, but I selected it due to a recommendation. The subject matter does not interest me, however I was immediately drawn in by the writing, which was absolutely gorgeous. This is a gifted writer telling a beautiful story about friendship, love, power, struggle, and the things that connect us all. I loved it.

[Bailey Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm going to give this book 2.5 stars. Towards the end, I really thought it was coming together at then end but the ending was disappointing.

This book would be great to read as a Novel Study or in college where you can discuss the deep moral themes. However, to read this as a leisurely book, it was challenging.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite quotes:
“White people have a funny way of doing things. They find a forest; they cut it down so they can settle there. They find a prairie; they plant trees so they can settle there. Find a swamp, they drain it, but if they find a desert, they make a lake to irrigate it. Backwards thinking.”
“People do not realize when they have crossed a boundary. This is so. They do not feel special. They do not feel blessed, and they do not feel cursed. Mostly, they just feel confused. They just think their lives have gotten a little strange. They lose their direction. They are not sure which signs point to the right way. They are not sure which stars to follow. People can get so confused that they believe they are not confused at all. That is when they are really in trouble.”
“When his mother spoke he realized that she was hurting for all the reasons he knew. There was sorrow in her voice when she spoke, sorrow without weeping, trees bending to the ground in the rain, long prairie grass before the gray onslaught of storm. She didn’t want loss. Didn’t want grief. Didn’t want needless holes appearing at random in her life. Didn’t want the structure she’d managed to build come crumbling around her. Preventing all that could become her sole purpose in life."

Poignant-I look forward to more books by this author!

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love to read as much as I do, you will understand what I am about to say. This is the best book I have read in a long time. Very well written, with rich language that is engaging and eloquent. For me, it's the type of book that taught me something about myself as I was reading it. Which in this case, I find profound because all the characters in this book undergo quite a bit of self realization and discovery. Their experiences of awareness in this book, to be able to extend to the reader, and become an experience for the reader as well, is in my opinion, quite an accomplishment on the author's part. This book has left me feeling, as best as I can describe, as when you have finished eating something you find divine, and you don't want to eat anything after it, because it washes away the taste that's left in your mouth. I don't want to start reading another book yet, for the aftertaste of this one is too good...I am full of this book, this story, this very experience I have been given by reading it.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting spin on a "western" novel. The story is quite intriguing, how 4 young mens' lives become intertwined because one of them happened to see some horses that weren't meant to be seen. There's a little bit of romance, but the overwhelming theme of the story is more one of self discovery. There's some themes involving the destruction caused by greed and the need for power and control; lessons in human integrity, love, devotion, and how right and wrong are determined. Overall, a very good book. The timelines are quite muddled at first, but once everyone gets into the same time period, the story really gets going. And it took until the last 20ish pages of the book for the title to finally make sense.

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I kept walking passed this book on the shelf at my local library. I'd take it down, read the back cover, read the first page, put it back. The third time I saw the book still sitting there, I checked it out and haven't been able to put it down yet. Meyers has a gift for creating characters that could easily be cliches, but instead are unique, original beings whose lives immediately interest the reader. I am only about halfway through it and can't wait to find out what happens.

Okay, stayed up way too late last night to finish this excellent novel. One of the best reads in a long time!

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Cages…they’re everywhere. The cages just get bigger until people forget they exist. Our cages make us happy. That’s why we return to them. We want only to be allowed to think they don’t exist.” These words are from Willi’s grandmother, Willi, one of the three young men who push against the boundaries of their own cages as well as that of society. This novel is filled with beautiful descriptions, deep truths, and complicated characters and storylines. A friend gave this book to me and I will be ever grateful to her for introducing me to Kent Myers. I will be reading more of his work.

[Randy A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty decent book. Lots of "down-home" flavor.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It was different back then. We’re doing the work of wolves. They ain’t here to do it. We got to do it for them.”

[Lacey Louwagie · Rating 4 out of 5]

PopSugar 2018 Reading Challenge Item: A book by a local author

This is one of those literary fiction books that you need to devote the time and attention to just sink into. It has complex characterizations, meandering sentences, long paragraphs -- but gorgeous language and a sense of life's inherent beauty and tragedy that makes all the effort worth it.

I probably wouldn't have picked this book up if it wasn't written by the son-in-law of a man I once taught in a writing class -- he was always so proud of his relative the famous author. And when I moved to South Dakota and met Meyers at a writing retreat, it seemed worth finally checking out his work. That's all to say that the plot -- a bit of marital infidelity (more tastefully done than I've ever encountered), some cruelty to animals, the coming together of strangers over a common cause -- wouldn't have pulled me in on its own. It's one of those books that switches between characters, and I definitely found some of them more engaging than others -- there were also times when bit characters were given closer attention in a way that was a little disorienting to me. But I enjoyed reading something set within a world that felt familiar to me up against the bevvy of books set in big cities on the coasts, and this is one of those books that tends to "linger" after the final page has been turned. Overall, definitely a worthwhile investment that reminds me of the importance of reading a bit outside my comfort zone now and then (which is saying something, because I have a very WIDE comfort zone when it comes to books!)

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really surprised myself with this book. As a South Dakotan myself for my entire life, I've tried and failed to read works published by South Dakotans - they just haven't been up to snuff. I know how snobbish that sounds on my part, but I just haven't been all that impressed before. When I started The Work of Wolves, I fully expected that I'd read about 50 pages and then dump it. What I didn't expect and was pleasantly surprised by was that I actually really enjoyed the story and the writing. Although at times the plot dragged, I was captivated by the story Meyers told. I did take issue with the dialect though - it was a bit off for how South Dakotans actually talk. For instance, we would say "wanna go" rather than how he wrote it - "want a go." Also, it took me a while to get that his word "enit" was supposed to be "isn't it" - again, not how we actually talk. I was assuming he was using a Lakota term there until I realized he used it for a white speaker too. But, all in all, it was a great read and a great cast of characters ranging from the cowboy, the Native American student striving hard to go to college, the Native American uncle that portrayed the sadly too-often true alcoholic on the reservation, and the German exchange student whose family had a tramatic past. I hope more people pick up this novel and see that SD does have some great writers!

[Tony Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

When fourteen-year-old Carson Fielding bought his first horse from Magnus Yarborough, it became clear that the teenager was a better judge of horses than the rich landowner was of humans. Years later, Carson, now a skilled and respected horse trainer, grudgingly agrees to train Magnus's horses and teach his wife to ride. But as Carson becomes disaffected with the power-hungry Magnus, he also grows more and more attracted to the rancher's wife, and their relationship sets off a violent chain of events that unsettles their quiet reservation border town in South Dakota. Thrown into the drama are Earl Walks Alone, an Indian trying to study his way out of the reservation and into college, and Willi, a German exchange student confronting his family's troubled history.

In this unforgettable story of horses, love, and life, Carson and the entire ensemble of characters learn, in very different ways, about the strong bonds that connect people to each other and to the land on which they live.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent....A well-written and evocative novel set in modern-day South Dakota. Horse trainer and rancher Carson Fielding reluctantly takes a job working with the horses of a local land baron, a deal that includes teaching his employer's much-younger wife Rebecca to ride, and it is a business arrangement that will have far-reaching consequences.
Author Kent Meyers creates an exemplary sense of place in this book -- a few sentences about discarded plastic grocery bags convey the evolution and erosion of a rural town and its residents. Weaving together the harsh realities of ranch life, life on a Lakota reservation, Hitler's Germany, and the way life's choices are often not freely made, 'The Work of Wolves' resonates with powerful and complicated relationships. The choices made by Carson and his friends will stay with the reader for a long time. I was reminded of both Larry McMurtry and 'Brokeback Mountain' while reading. Highly recommended.

[Paul McBride · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is sort of billed as a modern day western, but it's not. It the story of a boy who has a way with horses and a love of the ranch land he lives on. These are not traits that his father shares, nor many others he is in contact with. Carson, the main character buys his first horse from the richest landowner named Magnus, a man who is never happy unless he is getting the better of someone. He doesn't get the better of Carson with the sale of the horse, nor during any of their future interactions, and this angers Magnus, to the point of seeking cruel revenge. Carson is helped by an usual cast of characters, including Willi, a foreign exchange student. It is the side side of Willi, that prevented me from loving the book as I saw it as an unneeded distraction. Otherwise this book, is outstanding. The writing is beautiful, and places the reader among the characters and setting of the book perfectly.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED THIS BOOK! Not the type of book I would usually be attracted to but it was GREAT! It is now on my husband's stack-of-books-to-read but I've moved it to the TOP of the stack. We visited The Badlands recently so I could visualize the area; the writing was POETIC at times! I'm always in awe of authors who can find the words that make me say "how did he come up with those words? To express THAT feeling, thought, emotion." The story has such a mix of characters, a thread of compassion and love, ethnic beliefs... so much to this story but it moved smoothly. I usually donate my books after reading them but this one is a keeper to be read again. I hope Kent Meyers has another book ready for ME

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story of 4 young men drawn together through chance circumstance and their willingness to confront a terrible wrong is well told and engaging.

I love Meyers' description of and feeling for the land. Having spent a decade at the edge of the area he's describing, I particularly appreciate his characters' psychological and spiritual ties to the land. It's fun, too, to recognize things like the music store where someone bought a piano.

I wouldn't call it a perfect novel, but I think it's very good. I really liked reading a story that took place on the Pineridge Reservation and near it. I'm sure there are other books out there that do; I just haven't run accross them yet.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Red Road, the Black Road, the Green Road - which will Earl Walks Alone follow? What exactly are they? Willi Schubert has come to South Dakota from Germany to pursue the older knowledge of the Lakota, the Ancient Way. Will he find that "cages are everywhere" as his grandmother has predicted or will he be able to come to terms with his troubled heritage? Carson Fielding has an uncanny rapport with horses, but can he bridge the chasm dividing him from his father? Can the Goat Man really make horses fly? Work for Wolves can be rather wordy, but it holds the answers to most of these questions.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautifully written.

An example, "They felt they would never leave what they'd just done. it would always be close. Always proximate. None of them knew a word in any language for what they were feeling: regret that is not regret, regret that points not to futility and uselessness but to necessity and so demarcates the stark but not barren outlines of the world. None of them had a word for this. They had to let their silence speak it."

The author might just have easily said, "they returned in silence." That would not been enough to capture the raw emotion of the moment. This book, this story, is told through eloquent and rich writing.

[Margery · Rating 4 out of 5]

That's really two stars for the plot and four stars for the writing. I will definitely look for Meyers other books. He describes each locale so well, whether a broken down trailer on the Lakota "res" or a faded and forgotten apartment in Germany. I fell in love with him when I read the description of migrating sandhill cranes stitching two continents together with their long beaks (can't find it to quote now :( There was too much violence and hatred in the "enemy" for me to feel comfortable reading this book straight through. Had to stop and get away from the intense evil.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Western set in a small Montana town involving the evil big rancher buying up all the land and mistreating everyone and everything he comes in contact with. Carson is the main character, a quiet young man with heart and soul. He evolves from being a loner to getting 3 others to take action to deal with some mistreated horses. There are many subplots dealing with boundaries, family ties, father-son relationships, past historical events effecting current behavior. It is a manly story, but I enjoyed it. The writing and plot development are wonderful.

[Staff Favorites · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carson Fielding is hired to train horses for the rich landowner Magnus Yarborough. As Carson becomes disaffected with the power-hungry Magnus, he grows more and more attracted to Rebecca, Magnus' young wife. It is their growing involvement that sets off a cruel act of revenge and counter acts of rebellion.

This is a vividly described novel about relationships, the meaning of love, cruelty, family and history as reflected through the lives of an assortment of unique and strong characters. A though provoking novel and a great book discussion read.