Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still by Kent Nelson (review)

2 2 2 W e s t e r n A m e r ic a n L it e r a t u r e S u m m e r 2 0 0 5 Because therein lies the novel’s strength. A number of scenes are executed with real skill, all involving Jim, Tenaya, or Jim and Tenaya together. Jim is the most well-rounded character in the book, a creature of his time and place who nevertheless exhibits some moral complexity. Tenaya himself is a puzzle—until the end, when Belanger narrates the conclusion of his story in a scene of genu­ ine power. It is worth waiting for, and worth the effort to reach. Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still. By Kent Nelson. New York: Viking, 2003. 357 pages, $24.95. Reviewed by Diane D. Quantic Wichita State University, Kansas In Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still, Kent Nelson weaves together the lives offour people who, for different reasons, are committed to the land, in particular the Remmels family hay ranch on the edge of the Black Hills. When Haney Remmels dies in an accident on the ranch, his wife, Mattie, struggles to keep their 4,000-acre operation running as she comes to terms with her husband’s double life, evident in his silences in the months before his death and odd inconsistencies and deceptions she discovers. Three people who bring their skills and their own restless, silent pasts help Mattie: her daughter Shelley, who abandons an unfocused college life to become a ranch hand; a placeless Indian boy named Elton; and Dawn, an attractive mechanic running from an abusive relationship. There are other people—neighbors and townspeople—whose lives intersect with these four ranch residents. Lee Coulter, the director of a nearby archeology museum, gradually becomes a part of Mattie’s life. Shelley learns about sex and love with a local teacher. Dawn and Elton learn to call the ranch home. Cruel and violent men such as the Pollard neighbors, father and son, and, at the novel’s climax, Dawn’s vindictive lover, represent the dangers that surround Mattie’s enterprise. Nelson knows the places he writes about: the stresses and strengths of a ranching community, the day-to-day routine and sudden emergencies that are ranch life. The author’s obvious love of this landscape is an integral part of his narrative. In other books that I have read, Nelson’s descriptions of place have not seemed as vivid or as effective a part of the story. Here, the surrounding country, the short-grass sand hills of southwest South Dakota, enhances the novel’s meaning. The ranch is a world within a world in a universe that goes on: the land moves—people’s lives change; the land stands still—the routine, the land itself, remains the same. Nelson’s plot is an intersection of stories of hurt and healing. The widow Mattie’s healing begins as she comes to terms with her husband’s homosexuality, a circumstance that Nelson handles with more finesse than many writers. Just as Mattie, Shelley, Dawn, and Elton have settled into a comfortable routine, destructive and vindictive people threaten the delicate balance. It takes all of them to save each other from those who attempt murder and destruction. B o o k R e v ie w s 2 2 3 Nelson creates a complex but believable story and characters the reader comes to care about. He handles with great skill the multiple “topics” that western writers like to include—the land, environmental issues, ranch management, the place of Indians in contemporary communities, sex, love, and the insis­ tence of one’s place in the present. These issues are woven into the story as it moves steadily forward. If you want a good read by a fine western writer, Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still is an excellent choice. The Work of Wolves. By Kent Meyers. Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt, 2004. 405 pages, $24-00. Reviewed by David Cremean Black Hills State University, Spearfish, South Dakota The West (of the Missouri) River region of South Dakota harbors far less than half of the state’s...