The Way to the Old Sailors Home by Thomas Baird, and: The Badgers of Summercombe by Ewan Clarkson (review)

Reviews 349 The Way to the Old Sailors Home. By Thomas Baird. (New York: Harper and Row, 1977. 259 pages, $8.95.) The Badgers of Summercombe. By Ewan Clarkson. (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1977. 150 pages, $8.95.) Thomas Baird’s suspense novel, The Way to the Old Sailors Home, is set in northern Minnesota, “the border country between Lake Superior and International Falls.” The story, which takes place in 1939 just before World War II begins, deals with the currently fashionable theme of conflict arising when a group of individuals journey into a wilderness, in this case by canoe over the waterways leading up into Canada. Baird has chosen his characters carefully— Frank Cooper, a drifting ex-sailor approaching middle-age; his new girl friend, Mary Louise Lord, sexually adept and only eighteen as the novel reaches its climax: and Emma Magruder, fiftyish, a piano teacher with whom Frank has lived for years as handyman and companion both in Emma’s cabin on Sable Lake and at her studio-home in Chicago. Initially, Frank attempts to escape from Emma by planning a canoe trip with Mary Louise, but the older woman utilizes threats and cleverness, until eventually the three start north together while the two women’s claims on Frank are being resolved. The heart of the novel deals with Emma’s manipulation of the situation as the girl’s relationship with Frank — based mostly on sex — deteriorates. At the climax, in a well-written section, Emma uses her knowledge of Mary Louise’s past and character flaws to precipitate a conflict while the canoe is in dangerous water. In the resulting accident, Frank can save only one of the women, Emma, and they agree to hide from authorities the fact that Mary Louise has drowned. Frank leaves Emma once civilization is reached to return to the navy, while Emma picks up her lonely, predictable life in Chicago. The novel is by turns effective and muddled or forced. The canoe trip itself is well presented, as is the Minnesota lake country. The char­ acterization of Frank, though interesting in outline, lacks depth and convic­ tion. Emma is explored far more deeply and successfully, though ultimately the novel fails to draw enough significance from both the people involved and the tragedy which has taken place. The book remains suspended between being an entertaining suspense story and a penetrating psychological study of varied human relationships and guilt. Despite its unevenness, The Way to the Old Sailors Home at its best does develop interest in its presentation of background, details of action, and especially the conflicting pulls between youth and maturity. Ewan Clarkson’s novel, The Badgers of Summercombe, is a very different sort of book, though both share backgrounds of the natural world and those fringe areas where “civilization” meets wild country. Clarkson’s setting here is rural England (the author lives in Devon), and he dramatizes 350 Western American Literature the intricately connected life of plants, animals, insects, birds — and the land itself — with great skill. Basically a presentation of the life of a badger, Borun, and in this sense a detailed and unusual story, the novel also interweaves its human and animal characters — the aging country dweller, Polly; a one-eyed fox; the cat Vandal; badgers of various ages and stages in their life-cycles; as well as fox-hunters and farmers. A nonsentimental environmental viewpoint pervades the book, along with a sound sense of both natural and human history. Obviously, The Badgers of Summercombe, with its animal characters and simple story line, would be suitable for younger readers (11-12 and up) ready for a more sophisticated view of nature and ecology. The richness of zoological detail (one is reminded at times of Walter Clark’s fine story of a hawk, “Hook”), and our interest in the American Badger found as an intriguing resident throughout the West, broaden the novel’s appeal. ROBERT A. RORIPAUGH, University of Wyoming Hamlin Garland’s Observations on the American Indian, 1895-1905. Edited by Lonnie E. Underhill and Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. (Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona Press, 1976. 182 pages, bibliography, $4.95 paper; $9.95 cloth.) The theme...