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Our book group read A.B. Guthrie's 1947 novel "The Big Sky" over the summer. Westerns are not the group's usual fare. I felt the novel made little impression with the group. Then, one of the participants mentioned he had been interested enough to follow-up with Guthrie's novel, "These Thousand Hills". I changed my mind about the impact of "The Big Sky" and our discussion. And I read "These Thousand Hills" for myself.
Guthrie (1901 -- 1991) was a Pulitzer-prize winning author who wrote six novels about the settlement of the Montana territory, including "The Big Sky" and "The Way West." "These Thousand Hills (1956), the third novel, is set in the Montana territory of the 1880s. The book follows some of the characters introduced in "The Way West", but knowledge of the earlier book is unnecessary to read this novel. The novel follows the life of Albert Gallatin Evans, known as "Lat" as, age 20, he leaves his Oregon homesteading family to seek independence and a life for himself. Starting out with nothing but ambition, Lat dreams of becoming a successful rancher.
There is a tension in the book between the broad, historical depiction of the Montana territory on the one hand and on the development of individual people in the story, primarily Lat, on the other hand. The various sections of the novel portray various aspects of life in the West -- a cattle drive to Montana, encounters with Indians, a small, raw developing settlement, life on the range during a bitterly cold winter, and more. With the beauty and scope of these depictions, the book's focus is highly introspective, particularly for a Western. Guthrie shows Lat and a variety of other characters as they change and grow through time. At several points, Lat is faced with moral choices about the sort of life he wants and about what he is prepared to do in order to succeed. As with many people, Lat is a basically good, divided, man who sometimes makes questionable decisions.
Lat has his first sexual experience in a brothel in the settlement and he and a young girl, Callie, fall in love. Later, when he is on the verge of success and perhaps has a political career in his future, Lat meets Joyce, an educated, prim, conventionally religious new settler from further East. The book turns on Lat's choice between the two women and its impact on his life.
The writing shows Guthrie's deep love and knowledge of the American West. It is full of cowboy songs and poetry and of stories culled from his own experience as a child with storytellers, from omnivorous reading, and from extensive research in the archives of the Montana State Historical Society. At a pivotal moment, one of the characters quotes from an American western poet, Joaquin Miller (1837 -- 1913) whom I hadn't known before. In 1871, Miller had written:
"In men whom men condemn as ill
I find so much of goodness still.
In men whom men pronounce divine
I find so much of sin and blot
I do not dare to draw a line
Between the two, where God has not. "
Miller's thought mirrors several of the ethical dilemmas presented in Guthrie's book, including Lat's decision about the woman he will marry.
"These Thousand Hills" has not been as well received as Guthrie's first two Montana books. The introspection of the book, the action, and the depictions of Western life do not always mesh well. The book has a large group of characters than need to be followed throughout the story. As I continued to read, I became taken with the book. I learned a good deal about the West but I was more moved by the characters and by Guthrie's ethical and religious perceptions. This is a fine American novel which deserves to be read. I was pleased to have introduced at least one reader to "The Big Sky" and, in return, to have that reader introduce me to this successor novel.
