The Big Sky by A.B. Guthrie, Jr. (Mariner. 1947. ISBN 978-0-618-15463-0)
Dark. Foreboding. Tense. Intense. Unapologetic. Testosterone-driven fiction. These are the adjectives I’d use to describe Guthrie’s classic western novel depicting the travels and life of Boone Caudill, a Kentucky boy who, after getting the better of his abusive Pa, steals his father’s long gun and sets out for the American West. There is little light or redemption in this tale. Think Clint Eastwood with no remorse, no slight grin, and a whole lot of anger. That’s, in my mind’s eye, Boone Caudill.
The landscapes painted by Guthrie fairly sing under his pen. The long, disastrous raft trip up the Missouri from St. Louis to Fort Union, Montana, is so well done, you’re wiping your brow free of sweat as you pole along with the ill-fated crew of the Mandan as you read. Teal Eye, the Blackfoot girl Boone meets, falls in love with, and later (as she reaches adulthood) takes as his own, is the only female character other than Boone’s long-suffering Ma who appears in the book. This is a man’s journey, a man’s book. but one that readers of both genders will understand and appreciate.
I have to believe that Larry McMurtry read this book long before he sat down to pen Lonesome Dove, one of my favorite novels of all time. There’s an element of Boone in Captain Call (the character played by Tommy Lee Jones in the miniseries) a strong resemblance between the characters that can’t simply be chalked up to coincidence.
In the end,this book stands, like its protagonist, tall and brutal. It is a “must read” for anyone interested in Montana, the early days of the Mountain Men, and the American West.
5 stars out of 5.
