A Good Man

By Guy Vanderhaeghe

Multi-award-winning author Guy Vanderhaeghe's eagerly awaited new novel is a dazzling follow up to his bestselling The Englishman's Boy and The Last Crossing (a Canada Reads winner!).

A Good Man culminates what could be thought of as a trilogy of books set in the late nineteenth-century Canadian and American West, and it is a masterpiece. Vanderhaeghe skilfully weaves a rich tapestry of history with the turns of fortune of his most vividly and compellingly drawn cast of characters yet. Vanderhaeghe entwines breathtaking, intriguing, and richly described narratives that contain a compelling love story, a tale of revenge and violence, a spectacular battle scene, the story of an incident in Welsely's past that threatens his relationship with Ada, and much, much more. While raising moral questions, this novel weaves the historical with the personal and stands as Vanderhaeghe's most accomplished and brilliant novel to date.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9780771086120

Reviews for A Good Man

[ldvoorberg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very enjoyable story in the "Wild West". It has intrigue, romance, villainy, politics, history, conflict, and more. The variety helps maintain interest, as does the shifts in point of view and style (from letters to prose). The history and politics of the Canadian and American relationship including the Native component is also really interesting. Not a super challenging read, but delightful.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Guy Vanderhaeghe doesn't write quickly enough for my liking but the results can't be argued with. It was 2002 that The Last Crossing was published and 1996 when The Englishman's Boy came out. In those intervening years I manage to forget what a great writer her is.This book is billed as the conclusion of a trilogy but that's not really true in my mind. Yes, the previous two books are set in the prairies (on both sides of the 49th parallel) as they are just being opened up but that's about all that is in common. So, don't feel you have to read the other two to enjoy this one. This is a great book all on its own.Wesley Case grew up in a privileged family in southern Ontario and went to University. At University he joined the militia, mainly so he and his buddies could ride around in uniforms and carry swords. When the Fenians invade Canada the militia are called into duty with somewhat predictable results. One of the results is that Case is dishonoured. In order to get away from that reputation he joins the North-West Mounted Police and is sent to Cypress Hills. He soon tires of that life and decides he is going to take up ranching near Fort Benton, Montana. Major Walsh of the NWMP has been ordered to share information with his counterpart, Major Ilges, in Fort Benton. The two men are barely on speaking terms so Wesley agrees to act as liaison. In Fort Benton he falls in love with the wife of a local lawyer, Ada Tarr. Lawyer Tarr has been threatened by a disgruntled client and he hires Dunne to protect the family. Ada shows some small kindnesses to Dunne as a result of which he is sure Ada loves him. When Lawyer Tarr dies and leaves Ada with nothing but debts, Dunne and Case each feel sure that soon she will agree to marry. Ada doesn't really want to remarry although she does fall in love with Case. Dunne discovers that Ada and Case are sleeping together and he determines to take Case out of the equation.Meanwhile, Sitting Bull has fled the USA after the Battle of Little Bighorn. Major Walsh comes to admire Sitting Bull and helps him and his people. The Canadian government doesn't want to be responsible for all these Sioux so Walsh is supposed to persuade them to return to the US but he doesn't think Sitting Bull should return. Case goes to the Cypress Hills with a US committee intent on convincing Walsh to get Sitting Bull back to the States.With Fenian raids and Indian uprisings and a psychopathic killer this book certainly has its share of violence. But nothing was gratuitous and I'm sure it is reflective of the times. The question arises as to who is the "Good Man" of the title. Is it Wesley Case who has a skeleton in his closet but who seems to genuinely care about his friends? Is it Major Walsh, the career policeman who doesn't care to be dictated to by politicians? Is it Sitting Bull who wants to care for his people and is willing to undergo personal privations in order to do so? It's certainly not Dunne, the man who cold-bloodedly kills a young boy in order to test his resolve.I loved many of the descriptive passages of the countryside. I looked up information about Fort Benton on the internet and I mean to visit there sometime. Situated on the Missouri river with abundant grassland around it must have been a piece of paradise and maybe you can still see some of that.

[iudita_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the writing and the story very much. My only hesitation is that I found it skipped around a bit more than I would have liked. I lost patience waiting to see how all the different aspects of the story would come together. Otherwise...a good book with a good ending.

[jpsnow · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoy this genre and I enjoyed this book too, but not as much as then reviews of it led me to expect. Vanderhaeghe writes a classic western, and then overlays it with the story of the Sioux as they struggled to find a livable place on either side of the Canada line.

[schatje_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This literary western, longlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize, is set in the late 1870s, primarily between Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills of southwestern Saskatchewan and Fort Benton in Montana.The protagonist is Wesley Case, a privileged intellectual who seeks to escape the political manipulations of his lumber baron father. After stints as a soldier in Ontario and as a member of the NWMP at Fort Walsh, he decides to take up ranching, purchasing property near Fort Benton. He also becomes a diplomat, serving as an informal ambassador between Major James Walsh, the commander of Fort Walsh, and Major Guido Ilges, the commander of Fort Benton, the nearest American military detachment. Exchange of information between Walsh and Ilges is crucial. Chief Sitting Bull recently decimated General Custer's troops at Little Bighorn, but no one knows what the Sioux will do next. Will they make another attack on Americans? Will they migrate to Canada and, if so, how will the Canadians react?The book is not just about politics; there is also romance and mystery. A love triangle develops between Case; Ada Tarr, an independent-minded widow; and Michael Dunne, a thug-for-hire whom Case encountered in the past during a mysterious event which has left him burdened with guilt.The characters are fully developed. Through flashbacks one learns about the past of most of the characters. As a result, the "bad guys" are humanized, and the "good guys" are not faultless. There is interplay between personal stories and historical events, the latter explained in terms of how they affect the characters. Both personal and historical dramas are fraught with uncertainty, so suspense is abundant.Canada - U.S. relations are examined from a historical perspective. Tensions exist between the newly formed country of Canada and a post-Civil War U.S. Questions of security taint relationships between the neighbours: the Canadians have experienced Fenian raids originating in the U.S., and the Americans fear further attacks by Indians after regrouping in Canada. Canadian and American attitudes to native people are differentiated, attitudes that are somewhat exemplified by Majors Walsh and Ilges. The Americans favour a genocidal approach while Canadians emphasize peaceful resolution of problems. That is not to say that Canada's treatment is exemplary since tribes are starved into submission!In terms of narrative structure, this novel is strictly conventional, but it possesses a depth and complexity that makes it a very satisfying read. It may lack the experimentation some readers crave, but "The Good Man" is definitely a good read - this opinion from a reader who prefaced her earlier review of "The Sisters Brothers" by admitting her dislike of the western genre.

[loosha_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great characters and engaging voice made this book an excellent reading experience for me. My mind only wandered slightly with some of the historical content which I am not so familiar with. I wished I knew more about Sitting Bull and the Sioux. But the book is more about the characters in a historical time than about the history itself. Case, the 'good man'; the well-intentioned Sioux sympathizer, Major Walsh; the villainous Michael Dunne; Ada, the free-thinking lawyer's wife and schoolmarm; Joe, the intrepid true friend...all of these weave their way into this very realistic tale of the way life was in the late 1800's.

[karieh_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“A Good Man” is a book I would not normally choose. My husband got it, read it for a bit, and then I picked it up when I had nothing else to read.Not a big fan of western/post-Civil War novels – I ended up liking most of this book. It was similar in some ways to Mary Doria Russell’s “Doc” – a story about a man who exhibits great outer strength, but whose inner demons threaten to consume him.Wesley Case, the main character, fights many battles in this book – proving himself to not necessarily be a good man – but not the bad one he fears he is. He cannot forget what he has done in his life, and is completely unable to forgive himself.“…it gives Ada a fright to catch Wesley staring into the barber’s mirror as if it were a window, as if he cannot see himself there, as if his gaze was boring clear through the blindly staring man in the glass to some point hidden from her sight.”It is Ada Tarr, a woman he meets after he leaves his former life, that gives him hope that someone might see the good in him that he does not. She has a clear vision of the world, of the frailty of human beings and how actions are rarely all good or all bad – how honesty can help heal past wounds and prevent future ones. He also encounters other people who are so much more than they seem – so very different than he supposes them to be upon first meeting. He has a very complex and complicated relationship with a Major Walsh that has him reexamining his initial impressions of people. Walsh, seemingly an easy to read blowhard, turns out to be far more emotional and multi-faceted than Case first believed him to be, which provides yet another window into Case’s own soul.“Walsh’s jaw clenches as if he is afraid to continue, fears he will surrender to an unmanly display of emotion. Case suddenly senses the large soul of the man, something easily obscured when the Major has an outbreak of petulance or vanity.”Given my low level of interest in the history of this period, the book was a bit too long and detailed for me, but when I finished it, I found myself turning back to the beginning, to advice Case was given by his mother, and found that much of the path of the story was encapsulated in her wise words.“…each year on my birthday, I draw up a summation of my character. Where I have failed, where I have succeeded. I recommend the practice to you. It need be no more than a few lines, but they must be unsparingly honest, which means you must bear witness to all your qualities – both good and bad. The mind has a way of making a detour around uncomfortable truths unless it is forced to focus on them. And putting something down in ink – well, I think it concentrates the mind wonderfully – like the prospect of hanging,” she said. “And ink has another advantage. It is permanent. It does not permit you to escape it or yourself…”Many of the most significant aspects of this book come in the form of the written word – permanent and concentrated – both good and bad.