Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Book Review: Wolf Willow

Wolf Willow
Author: Wallace Stegner
Publisher: Penguin Books
306 pages, plus Introduction, Suggestions For Further Reading, Acknowledgments, paperback

Reviewed by Rev. Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson

Wallace Stegner was a 20th century, award-winning, American fiction and non-fiction author, who spent several of his childhood years living in Eastend, Saskatchewan. In the novel, Stegner refers to Eastend as Whitemud.
    This volume is difficult to categorize, since it combines history of the Cypress Hills region, autobiography and fiction.
    In a conversation with Richard Etulain, Stegner confessed that he was ambiguous about his identity: “I wasn’t sure whether I was American or Canadian, so I decided I was Norwegian; I took my grandfather’s Old Country name and signed it in all my schoolbooks, which was quite preposterous except that it probably indicated a desire for a continuity that wasn’t there.” (p. xvi)
    The book is divided into four parts, each containing three or more chapters: I The Question Mark In The Circle, II Preparation For A Civilization, III The Whitemud River Range, IV Town And Country, followed by an Epilogue: False-Front Athens.
    Stegner—in contrast to a geologist who said southern Saskatchewan was “one of the most desolate and forbidding regions on earth” (p. 6)--goes to considerable length to describe the geography, ecology, etc., with awe and wonder. “It is a country to breed mystical people, egocentric people, perhaps poetic people. But not humble ones.” (p. 8) He is astounded by the wide-open prairie, the wind and sky, and birds like the meadowlark.
    The Cypress Hills were visited and sometimes occupied by the Métis, aboriginals including Sitting Bull, the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the North West Mounted Police. Stegner observes how ranchers and farmers struggled to survive in the area. He also describes life in Whitemud (Eastend): Main Street, the theatre, church, hardware stores, school, elevator, hotel, the confectionery store, the people who had ambitious dreams for the town, and those who became disillusioned and left.
    One of the deepest memories of his childhood in Whitemud was the “tantalizing and ambiguous and wholly native smell” of the wolf willow shrub. “It is wolf willow, and not the town or anyone in it, that brings me home.” (p. 19)
    Living in southern Saskatchewan during the homesteading days, Stegner states that his education was much different than growing up in Europe with easy access to art galleries, libraries, bookstores and museums. “Education tried, inadequately and hopelessly, to make a European of me.” (p. 24)
    One of the favourite childhood adventures in Whitemud was a visit to the dump ground. Here Stegner and his friends found a wide array of things that sparked their curiosity—everything from old bottles and smashed wagon wheels to bits of metal, worn-out furniture and field mice.
    Stegner admits that many of his contemporaries inherited prejudices about indigenous people without question or thought. He goes on to provide some history of several of the indigenous tribes including: the Blackfoot, Cree, Piegan, Gros Ventres, Crows, and Sioux. He also describes some of the injustices of the settlers towards the Métis and the heroism of leaders like Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont. According to Stegner, if you wanted to be accepted as one of the ‘in group,’ you had to be a white male, tough, stoic, and prejudiced against all other races, ethnic and minority groups, and all who seemed weak or too aristocratic.
    Reflecting on how Americans and Canadians crossed the 49th parallel, Stegner observes: “Civilization is built on a tripod of geography, history, and law, and it is made up largely of limitations.” (p. 85)
    Stegner greatly admired the cowboy and ranching culture. However, the winter of 1906-07 brought about a major change from mainly ranching to more farming. Stegner describes that unbearably cold winter, which killed lots of cattle, and nearly killed the cowboys in a fierce blizzard. In spite of that Ray Henry convinces his Molly to purchase the T-Down ranch.
    Wallace Stegner was definitely a creative, accomplished storyteller. For this reviewer, who grew up in southern Saskatchewan, it was as if one was transported back in time to re-live one’s life growing up on the prairie.
Those readers who grew up or continue to live in the Palliser Triangle will likely identify with and appreciate this volume.

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