Return to Independence Basin
()
About this ebook
KIRKUS REVIEW Recommended Book Award!
A man returns to the small Western town where he grew up and finds that his family history won’t stay buried in this debut novel.
In 1979, Joe Meeks is a construction worker with a penchant for getting thrown off jobs for second-guessing the engineering. He’s on a building site in New York City when his cousin Evan Gallantine shows up with both bad and good news: on the one hand, Joe’s long-estranged father has died; on the other, his passing clears the way to sell the Meeks’ hardscrabble ranch for a handsome sum to dam developers. Joe goes to the town of Meagher, Montana, and then up to the Meeks ranch, to try to convince his ornery 90-year-old grandmother Frances, the last holdout among the local ranchers, to sell the spread. Joe brings along Wade, a 12-year-old boy who looks like him but whom he’s reluctant to call his son, as he reconnects with Meagher’s colorful denizens. As Wade falls in love with the ranch, Joe has misgivings about selling out and running from a guilty past. The novel effectively explores the conflict between yearning for the wider world and staying rooted in place, no matter how wretched the land and searing the memories. Feeling a bit like a mashup of Larry McMurtry and the 1990s TV series Northern Exposure, Ellison’s tale features wonderfully evocative descriptions of Montana’s majestic landscapes and richly atmospheric cow-town settings. Amid well-paced scenes and punchy, pitch-perfect dialogue, it also includes vivid, sharply individuated characters, including Joe’s rapscallion ex-con uncle Harlo; Father Sterling, whose Sunday services are popular for their copiously alcoholic Communion libations; feisty redhead Marly Croft, an old flame of Joe’s who wants to turn her decrepit Grand Hotel into a swanky inn to cater to Evan’s visions of Meagher as an Aspen-style resort; and Marly’s even feistier daughter Anne, whose native truculence (“What’re you lookin at?”) subsides into an infatuation with Joe. There’s also the elderly Frances, an ex-deputy who once shot a robber and then fielded a marriage proposal from the crook’s partner. The final result is first-rate storytelling with a powerful emotional undercurrent.
A haunting but hopeful story of the new West and the unlikely passions it stirs.
Matthew Ellison
Matthew's love of writing drew him to acquire an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. He took a long time away to raise a family, paying the way by designing software for financial services at Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan, and Citigroup, and now as a digital workplace designer, professional developer, data architect, project manager and senior analyst. Matt is also a published author of fiction and essays, enjoys playing standup bass in multiple musical groups, and takes great joy in being the father of a college-aged son and daughter.
Related to Return to Independence Basin
Related ebooks
Hangtown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Judgment Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last of the Plainsmen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killer Country Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Case of the Cattle Rustlers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Travelin' Money Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder on the Mesa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tanglefoot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jailbreak Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Land Grab: Jim Hatfield takes a hand in a range war! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Copperhead Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder in the Old West, Book Five Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gun Runners Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rogue Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tanglewood Desperadoes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Valley of Bones Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gunsmoke over Texas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rancho Bravo 2: The Big Drive Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOnce Upon Again Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ride the Panther Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hard Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the Trail Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fools Gold: The Chronicles of Lawmaker August Flynn Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tosahwi Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Puma Son of Mountain Lion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trailin'! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overlanders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Danny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rage for Vengeance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Western Fiction For You
Lone Star Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Home in the Valley: A Western Sextet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Man's Walk: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rider of Lost Creek: A Western Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unwanted: Dead or Alive Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Giant: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Knotted: Trails of Sin, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killer Joe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strongheart: The Lost Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Thief of Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So Brave, Young, and Handsome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTexasville: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Riding for the Brand: A Western Trio Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Searchers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Folly and Glory: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Raylan Goes to Detroit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Caroline: Little House, Revisited Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ridgeline: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bannon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Ringer: A Western Trio Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way Station Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Simon the Fiddler: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bold Frontier: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Buffalo Girls: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dancing at Midnight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Orchardist: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anything for Billy: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Return to Independence Basin
0 ratings0 reviews