Wanderer Springs by Robert Flynn (review)

172 Western American Literature Wanderer Springs. By Robert Flynn. (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1987. 340 pages, $19.95.) “Beginning to begin again” might well describe the odyssey of Will Callaghan, narrator and central character of Robert Flynn’s fourth novel, Wanderer Springs. Callaghan, former history teacher and now a writer for the Texas Institute for Cultural Research, returns to Wanderer Springs, Texas, his hometown, to attend the funeral of Jessie Tooley. Jessie’s daughter, Roma Dean, drowned years ago at Turtle Hole while in the company of Callaghan. The drowning, Callaghan recalls years later, was “distorted the moment it occurred” (282), and since then has remained a mystery not only to the people of Wanderer Springs but to Callaghan as well. Callaghan’sjourney home isone of obligation and duty—to Roma Dean, Jessie, and to the people of Wanderer Springs—and it provides an occasion to reenter the past and begin anew. While the Roma Dean story is the most significant in the novel, it is only one of the many stories that comprise the work. The stories, a tangled web of humor, tragedy, and pathos, where fact and myth converge in the name of history, are revealed to the reader as Callaghan returns home, visits friends, and, finally, attends the funeral of Jessie Tooley. Attending the funeral is a testament of commitment and responsibility, to the town and its people, and to Callaghan’sown past as well. Callaghan’sidiosyncratic tales dignify the lives of the townspeople, and give shape, meaning, and continuity to their experi­ ence. His own story, too, is told by Robert Flynn with grace, wit, and intelli­ gence. JIM STULL University of Iowa Prose Sketches and Poems Written in the Western Country. By Albert Pike. Edited by David J. Weber. (College Station, Texas: Texas A &M University Press, 1987. 300 pages, $27.50/$14.95.) This book, which first appeared in 1834, was not republished until 1967, after it and its author had been nearly forgotten or ignored by scholars of American literature. The 1967 edition contains an introduction and notes by David J. Weber as well as additions from Pike’s uncollected writings. The present edition is a reprint of the 1967 edition, again edited by Dr. Webber and added to the Southwest Landmark series. The first question that arises in the case of such an obscure piece of early Americana is whether it is worth reprinting. In the case of Albert Pike’s book the answer is emphatically yes. It is the work of a talented and versatile writer who traveled the Santa Fe Trail in its earliest days, when New Mexico was still Mexican territory. ...