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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 slight population of roughly three-quarters of a million souls. Yet it has spawned the work of some noteworthy western authors, includ­ ing Dan O’Brien, Linda Hasselstrom, and David Seals. Kent Meyers, now a resident of the area for over two decades, is the latest addition. Meyers’s impressive first three books, each set in his native farming region of southwestern Minnesota, move across three genres: The Witness of Combines (1998), a collection of essays; Light in the Crossing (1999), a compilation of short stories; The River Warren (1999), a novel. His new novel, The Work of Wolves, recently awarded the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award for Adult Fiction, moves to his adopted home region in particular and the New West in general for setting and subjects. The wolves in this narrative are its principal main characters and lupine as metaphor only: Carson Fielding, a highly traditional and principled twentysix -year-old working and planning to inherit his father’s ranch; Willi Schubert, a German foreign exchange student who, like many fellow Germans, is both knowledgeable of and intrigued by the American West in general and the Lakota Sioux in particular; Earl Walks Alone, a Lakota late-teen tracking toward success and envisioning himself to be “the careful Indian”; and Earl’s Lakota schoolmate, the more-troubled Ted Kills Many. Thrown together by numerous plausible circumstances, these four young men undertake a quest to overcome the cold-hearted designs of another area rancher, wealthy Magnus Yarborough. Meyers’s numerous gifts as an author include his penchant for well-drawn characters, perhaps his greatest strength. Particularly impressive is his fine sketching of the two young Lakota men, as well as Earl’s uncle Norman: all three contest the myth that a white author cannot draw believable, non-caricatured Indian characters. In fact, these three men may be the most compelling characters in the novel, though Willi and his chilling grandmother also stand out. So do two “bit players,” Carson’s mother, Marie, and his grandfather, who 2 2 4 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 remains a real presence despite his death in the novel’s prologue. And Meyers nails many facets of the young South Dakotan rancher-type with Carson, par­ ticularly the speech. Arguably less successful is the main nemesis, Yarborough, whose disturbing actions are for the most part without motive. While Meyers may intend that these acts remain mysterious and reflect the overall illusive nature of evil, most readers may come away feeling Yarborough is a stock villain. His young wife, Rebecca or “Reb” as Carson calls her, is also less successfully developed, though she has moments of appeal and believability. Yet when romantic feelings stir between her and Carson, Meyers avoids cliched plot elements regarding their relationship, as he does numerous other times in the novel. While I primarily highlight the novel’s characters here, Meyers’s gifts of style, description, and plot, among other considerations, round out this New Western. In addition, Wolves seemingly leaves itself wide open to a sequel, one that could move in any number of directions. In the interest of full disclosure, I must note that Meyers...

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