"So Brave, Young, and Handsome" by Leif Enger

Four Stars

This is not the story of Monte Becket.

Monte Becket is still riding high on the success of his debut and best-selling novel, Martin Bligh. It is the story of a young cowboy and his adventures in the Wild West. Problem is, Monte is a postal worker in the Midwest and has never had a proper adventure in his life. He is now in the middle of writing his seventh novel, unfortunately numbers two through six were never finished. He has run out of ideas and is beginning to worry that he will never finish a book again.

But this is not the story of Monte Becket.

This is when Glendon Hale enters his life. Glendon is a mysterious elderly man who lives alone upriver, building boats. Monte and Glendon form an odd friendship that leads to an invitation for Monte to join Glendon on a cross-country adventure to right past wrongs and make amends for things in his past.

As they travel, Monte becomes an observer and semi-willing participant in a story of lost loves, robbery, bandits, pursuing lawmen, fruit trees, and a lone elephant wandering the plains of Oklahoma. As they travel Monte learns that the lines between good and bad, right and wrong aren’t always as clear as one would think, and that men often walk both sides of the line no matter which side they claim to belong to.

I liked this book, it was very ‘real’. As I said, this isn’t Monte’s story really, it’s Glendon’s. And Monte is just observing the second half of a story that he doesn’t really know the beginning of. Monte pieces the entire story and its characters together along the way, learning more about human character and ultimately himself.

No one has super powers or anything beyond ordinary human abilities, although one character believes that he does, and everyone acts and reacts just as any person would to their circumstances. The story is about ‘real’ people and moves along at an according pace. Sometimes things get a little exciting and speed up, other times it’s just a long drive in the car. It sets a nice pace early on and keeps you reading.

This is one of those books that I liked as I read, but I like it even more after finishing and thinking back on it. It truly is a great American Novel and an enjoyable read.