The Novel of the American West by John R. Milton (review)

Reviews 61 tive. To call it Sixshooters and Sagebrush and to lose the thrust of its narrative by sending it off into the amorphous mass that is southwestern story telling is a serious lapse on the part of the publisher. Both Rowland Rider and Deirdre Paulsen deserved better. Nevertheless, beyond the mis­ leading title awaits one of the best cattle country narratives to come out of Arizona or Utah. Like Jacob Hamblin, it makes a fine contribution to the literature of the Colorado Plateau. CHARLES S. PETERSON Utah State University The Novel of the American West. By John R. Milton. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980. 341 pages, $17.95.) John R. Milton’s The Novel of the American West consists of three chapters of literary theoiy and history, five chapters on the six novelists Milton thinks representative of the best (Vardis Fisher, A. B. Guthrie, Jr., Frederick Manfred, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Harvey Fergusson, and Frank Waters), and a concluding chapter on western realism. Substantial portions of The Novel of the American West are reprinted from previously published essays; but, because of Milton’s importance as a scholar of western American literature, this is not objectionable. The Nebraska Press, in fact, has performed a valuable service by making Milton’s thinking readily available in a single volume, especially so since there are revisions and extensive sections of new writing. The job of the reviewer, however, is different from the usual one. A description of content seems less relevant than an assessment of Milton’s accumulated and up-dated analysis of western American fiction. The shortcomings are easy to identify. There are no footnotes for quotations, and, with an exception or two, critics are not cited. Personally, I am not in awe of scholarly documentation; and I can sympathize with the urge — especially for a scholar of Milton’s stature — to say to hell with it and just write what you think. Nevertheless, the absence of documentation is carried to such an extreme that the reader is often left wondering about content. When critical positions are faulted without being identified, it is difficult to understand what is being said. Readers interested in the contemporary West will be somewhat dis­ appointed. Since Milton says that the “popular western has remained much the same for sixty years,” he is apparently writing as of 1960; and there is little or no attention to quality writers who have come into prominence after the 1950s. Those who object, however, should remember that emphasizing coverage leads to a lack of depth. Milton’s decision to stress six writers, giving detailed attention to each, is a reasonable decision. 62 Western American Literature More objectionable, I think, is the tendency to overgeneralize. Myth is used to mean both illusion and reality. Archetypal is used to mean both a national paradigm and a universal paradigm. Mimesis is said to be the guiding principle of authenticity, although the terms are probably opposite one another. Romantic and pastoral are used as if they were synonyms. There is a recurrence of either/or distinctions: the West is irrational, the East rational; western landscape is masculine, the eastern feminine. And the practical criticism is essentially judgmental, lacking in explicative support. It is a bit awkward to announce in the introduction the intention of defending quality western fiction against the attacks of eastern critics and then to report that three of the six novelists selected to represent the best (Fisher, Guthrie, and Manfred) have only about one good novel each. Basically, Milton seems to believe that good western fiction should be authentic, have a clear theme (favorite words are lesson, learn, statement), use some literary device to keep the meaning from being too obvious, and center on a connection with land which should be, in kind, spiritual, mysti­ cal, or irrational. Since the desire for a clear statement or theme seems to pull against the desire for the mystical and irrational, some clarification would be useful. The strengths of The Novel of the American West are also easy to identify, and they center, I think, on the somewhat unusual nature of this book. John Milton has been, for at least two decades, a leader...